U.S. Forest Service · Colville National Forest · WA
Big Meadow Lake Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 22 mi
Wildfire
Hill Loop fire · 22 mi away · 127 acres · 100% contained · updated Oct 9, 2026
Wildfire
Silver fire · 42 mi away · 2,593 acres · 30% contained · updated Sep 8, 2026
Wildfire
Parker Lake fire · 44 mi away · 1,531 acres · 1% contained · updated Oct 2, 2026
Wildfire
Upper Smith fire · 46 mi away · 4,848 acres · 41% contained · updated Sep 5, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 9, 2026
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- Season
- – October 27Closes October 27. No opening date published.
Photos · U.S. Forest Service
3,430 ftElevation
136 ftWater · Big Meadow Lake
18.6 miNE of Colville, WA
47%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 107th darkest of 400 in WA
Closes October 27. No opening date published.Today
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
This campground is equipped with tent/trailer sites, interpretive trails, boat launch, and a nice fishing dock. Some campsites are private and some with a lake view. This campground is good for wildlife viewing especially around the lake. A short paved walk out to a lookout viewing platform affords great views of the lake. Nearby is the Hess Homestead Cabin which is day use only, first come first serve.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Source: Stated in the agency description
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
Source: Stated in the agency description
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 3
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near hereLake Leo CampgroundColville National Forest · 6.3 mi
Edgewater CampgroundColville National Forest · 7.4 mi
Lake Thomas CampgroundColville National Forest · 7.4 mi
Lake Gillette CampgroundColville National Forest · 8.2 mi
Gillette CampgroundColville National Forest · 8.2 miLittle Twin Lakes CampgroundColville National Forest · 11 mi
Edgewater CampgroundColville National Forest · 7.4 miLake Thomas CampgroundColville National Forest · 7.4 miLake Gillette CampgroundColville National Forest · 8.2 miGillette CampgroundColville National Forest · 8.2 miLittle Twin Lakes CampgroundColville National Forest · 11 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Today61°Mostly Sunny
Tonight39°Mostly Cloudy
Saturday55°Partly Sunny then Slight Chance Rain Showers5% rain
Saturday Night30°Partly Cloudy1% rain
NWS forecast for Ione, WA
Source: National Weather Service, OTX forecast office · Oct 16, 2026
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Big Meadow Lake Campground is in Washington’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Michael Baumgartner (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: Today falls inside the season the agency publishes, and it has posted nothing else. That reading is ours. The U.S. Forest Service’s own database, though, flags it not open with no reason or date; the flag is named under How we know all this.
Listed not open: USFS EDW Recreation Opportunities, openstatus field: a not-open flag in a database, with no reason and no date published; read there since Sep 9, 2026. A flag, not a notice, so this page doesn’t call it a closure. · Oct 16, 2026
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Ione, WA, 6 mi W. Straight line.