CAMPANAC.Powered by public lands intelligenceMore Than Just Parks
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U.S. Forest Service · San Bernardino National Forest · CA

Black Mountain Group Campground

5Heads up5 fires, nearest 7 mi
Wildfire
2026 Training fire · 6.6 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 14, 2026
Wildfire
Orange 2 fire · 31 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 15, 2026
Wildfire
Tenaja #001 fire · 43 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 15, 2026
Wildfire
Mtz/Bdc/83A fire · 44 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 15, 2026
Wildfire
Powerline fire · 46 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 14, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 15, 2026
The agency doesn’t say how you get a siteIts record carries no access type, so treat it as a place to phone before you drive.
Get directionsWhat it costs, and the rules
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
7,360 ftElevation
1.2 miWater · Fuller Mill Creek
3.7 miW of Palm Springs, CA
26%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 1131st darkest of 1,201 in CA

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

Black Mountain Road is a high clearance and four-wheel drive is recommended. The San Bernardino National Forest is submitting a proposal to increase fees at various sites across the Forest, and is seeking public input. Please visit San Bernardino National Forest - News & Events (usda.gov) for more information and to submit comments regarding this proposal. This campground is designated as a group campground for a group of up to 100 people and 25 vehicles. Amenities include fire rings, vault toilets and picnic tables. Keep reading

Located approximately fifty miles southeast of San Bernardino and 16 miles north of Idyllwild, this campground is up high in elevation in the forest so be sure to bring warmer clothes during the cooler months. Campfires are only allowed within the fire rings provided if current fire restrictions allow. Firewood is not sold at the campgrounds, and trailers are not recommended. The road is rough, so high clearance vehicles are recommended. Dogs are allowed but must be on a leash at all times. Holders of Golden Age, Golden Access, America the Beautiful Senior or Access Passports are entitled to 50% campsite fee reduction. Holder of the passport must be present. Reservations must be made at least 3 days in advance at www.recreation.gov .

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Vault Toilets
“…vehicles. Amenities include fire rings, vault toilets and picnic tables. Located approximately fifty…”
Firewood
Sold here
Source: Stated in the agency description
Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Phone before you drive

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.

Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Directions
Every line of the receipt · 4

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.
To $120$60
The booking feerecreation.gov
We hold no recreation.gov booking record for this campground, so we can’t say whether a booking fee applies.
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

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate
Coordinate33.83306, -116.74028

Where it is

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight46°Partly Cloudy1% rain
Saturday58°Partly Sunny4% rain
Saturday Night43°Partly Cloudy2% rain
Sunday60°Sunny2% rain

NWS forecast for Palm Springs, CA

Source: National Weather Service, SGX forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 35°F, day 63°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical December night 24°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

90°32°10°

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 Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.

Measured at: BIG BEAR LAKE, CA (USC00040741), 30 miles away and 607 ft lower
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

What threatens this place

Watch
Sand to Snow National Monumentdevelopment · 20 mi
Roadless
Horse Creek Ridge8,969 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Oct 3, 2026

Who answers for this land

Ken Calvert, official portrait

Black Mountain Group Campground is in California’s 41st congressional district. Its representative, Ken Calvert (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 1.9 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 1,201 rated federal campgrounds in California · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
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 town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026