Big Pine Creek Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 40 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 8 of the next 8 nights; a database flag says not open read 15:57 UTC
- A night
- $26From, per site
- Sites
- 30All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Big Pine Creek Campground, surrounded by sprawling meadows and towering trees, is perfectly situated in the scenic Big Pine Canyon. Campsites are perched along the cool, fish-filled waters of Big Pine Creek. Big Pine Canyon is heralded for having both the largest and southern most glaciers in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The campground sits at 7,700 feet elevation among vegetation like Jeffrey pine, sagebrush, aspen and cottonwood trees. Keep reading
Recreation
The creek and nearby Big Pine Lakes are great for fishing. Both water spots have rainbow, brown and brook trout. The North Fork Trail gives hikers access to Big Pine Lakes and the Palisade Glacier. The trail climbs past waterfalls and zigzags through Jeffrey pine, manzanita and sage before it reaches Big Pine Lakes.
Facilities
This is a family-friendly and pet-friendly campground. Some campsites boast creek-front access, and each site accommodates a maximum of six campers. Vault toilets are provided for basic conveniences. Firewood is sold on-site.
Natural Features
Big Pine Canyon is heralded for having both the largest and southern most glaciers in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Palisade Glacier, the largest, sits above Big Pine Lakes. These impressive glacial lakes at around 10,000 feet elevation are the source of the North Fork of Big Pine Creek. The South Fork is bordered by the Palisade Crest with peaks over 14,000 feet and Middle Palisade Glacier, the southernmost glacier.
Nearby Attractions
Glaciers in the nearby John Muir Wilderness make an exciting hiking destination. A commercial pack station is within close proximity for horse enthusiasts looking for an outdoor adventure. A general store, pay showers and pond fishing can be found at a nearby resort. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (760) 872-4552.
What the agency tells you
Electric hookups are not available
Two pets per site and leashed at all times.
This is a dry campground, no water.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Please Note: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per tent site. One vehicle per single site is included with your reservation. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground if you did not pay for an Extra Vehicle Add On. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at the site.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect California's forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. For more information visit firewood.ca.gov.
Click here for more information about the Inyo National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 30 · 4 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…accommodates a maximum of six campers. Vault toilets are provided for basic conveniences. Firewood is…”
- Store
- Nearby
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Night sky · 193rd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 39 km away
- Peak color
Full this Saturdayread 15:57 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 25 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 16 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:57 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $26 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:57 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
30 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 25 mapped sitesAll 30 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 25 of the 30 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 30 of the 30 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| BIG | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $26 | |||
| BIG | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $26 | |||
| BIG | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $26 | |||
| BIG | 004 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $26 | |||
| BIG | 005 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $26 | |||
| BIG | 006 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 95 ft | 355 ft | 337 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 007 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 104 ft | 477 ft | 475 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 008 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 104 ft | 476 ft | 399 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 80 ft | 440 ft | 313 ft | $26 | |
| BIG | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 80 ft | 366 ft | 269 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 011 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 129 ft | 338 ft | 176 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 56 ft | 207 ft | 90 ft | $26 | |
| BIG | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 86 ft | 232 ft | 52 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 153 ft | 76 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 015 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 56 ft | 107 ft | 83 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 59 ft | 128 ft | 194 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 105 ft | 123 ft | 337 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 018 | tent only nonelectric | 59 ft | 158 ft | 233 ft | $26 | |
| BIG | 019 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 74 ft | 62 ft | 120 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 159 ft | 78 ft | 269 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 021 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 47 ft | 77 ft | 428 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 022 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 47 ft | 83 ft | 472 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 023 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 83 ft | 156 ft | 386 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 62 ft | 83 ft | 436 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 94 ft | 185 ft | 230 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 026 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 137 ft | 293 ft | 421 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | 156 ft | 453 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 028 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 94 ft | 133 ft | 317 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 029 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 51 ft | 274 ft | $26 |
| BIG | 030 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 91 ft | 206 ft | $26 |
25 of 30 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Upper Sage FlatInyo National Forest · 0.1 mi
Big Pine CanyonInyo National Forest · 0.6 miUpper Sage CampgroundInyo National Forest · 0.6 miWillow CampgroundInyo National Forest · 8.6 mi
Table Mountain (Inyo)Inyo National Forest · 9.4 mi
Mountain Glen CampgroundInyo National Forest · 10 miFrom Highway 395, turn west on Crocker Street in Big Pine, the continue west up Big Pine Canyon Road for 10 miles to end of road. Turn left crossing Big Pine Creek and left again past Glacier Lodge for 100 yards.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Big Pine, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 23°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Big Pine Creek Campground is in California’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Kevin Kiley (I), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyKevin KileyU.S. Representative · California’s 3rd district
No contact form we could verify, so that link is their own site. Contact is inside it. Washington office: 202-225-2523.
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAdam B. SchiffU.S. Senator · California
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlex PadillaU.S. Senator · California
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Big Pine Creek Campground, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Kevin Kiley, I’m a constituent in California’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Big Pine Creek Campground, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 30 sites at Big Pine Creek Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 25 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Big Pine Creek Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Big Pine Creek Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Big Pine Creek Campground (Inyo National Forest, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Big Pine Creek Campground, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Big Pine Creek Campground, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 30 sites at Big Pine Creek Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 25 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Big Pine Creek Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Big Pine Creek Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Big Pine Creek Campground (Inyo National Forest, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Big Pine Creek Campground, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Big Pine Creek Campground, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 30 sites at Big Pine Creek Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 25 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Big Pine Creek Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Big Pine Creek Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Big Pine Creek Campground (Inyo National Forest, California) via campanac.com