Boulder Basin
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 7 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 9 of the next 10 nights read Oct 15
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 2416 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Black Mountain Road is is poor condition at this time. A four-wheel drive (4WD) vehicle is recommended with a minimum ground clearance of 6 inches. Drive at your own risk. 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 the https://www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf for more information and to submit comments regarding this proposal. Boulder Basin Campground offers solitude and primitive camping in a scenic mountain landscape. The area provides ample recreational opportunities, including hiking, mountain biking, boulder climbing and more. Black Mountain Road, which accesses Boulder Basin Campground, is a narrow rough dirt road which may not be suitable for all vehicles. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground provides access to a number of trailheads, including the Black Mountain Trail, a 3.6-mile, moderately strenuous hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding trail that travels through the forested slopes of Black Mountain. The trail provides excellent views of the Banning Pass and Mt. San Gorgonio. The trail provides access to the famed Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, which begins at the Mexico border in Southern California and leads to Washington border of Canada.
Facilities
The campground offers multiple single-family campsites, available for tent and small RV / van camping. Each site is equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Vault toilets are also provided.
Natural Features
The campground is located in a mixed conifer forest, which provides ample shade throughout the day. It is situated at an elevation of about 7,300 feet. Roads to the campground are not paved but the campground does have paved roads.
Nearby Attractions
This group site is located approximately 50 miles southeast of San Bernardino, California, and 14 miles north of Idyllwild, where fuel and a variety of small town shops and restaurants are available.
What the agency tells you
Fire Restrictions may be in effect, check in with the San Jacinto Ranger District by calling (909) 382-2921 to confirm. Wood and charcoal fires are permitted. Cooking stoves or fireplaces using gas, jellied petroleum, or pressurized liquid fuel are still allowed.
Water is not provided at this campground. Potable (tested monthly) water may be available from a natural spring along Black Mountain road. Bring your own containers.
Sites may be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Camping fees of $20.00 / night and $5.00 / night / extra vehicle is due within 30 minutes of arrival at the campground.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Basic camping fee ($20.00) covers the first vehicle. Extra vehicle fee of $5.00 / night / vehicle should be deposited into the fee tube located at the entrance to the campground within 30 minutes of arrival.
Click here for more information on the San Bernardino National Forest
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 24 · 9 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Not allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tables and campfire rings with grills. Vault toilets are also provided. Natural Features The campground…”
Around the campground
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Mountain biking
- Picnicking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 1132nd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 5
Full this Saturdayread Oct 15
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Every one of the 15 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 16 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read Oct 15 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 · 14
What you actually pay
“Camping fees of $20.00 / night and $5.00 / night / extra vehicle is due within 30 minutes of arrival at the campground.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read Oct 15 · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
37 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sites2 sites share one published coordinate and are left out of the rankings.
All 37 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 16 of the 37 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. 24 of the 37 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | 020 | type not stated | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | 021 | type not stated | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | 024 | type not stated | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | 031 | type not stated | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | 033 | type not stated | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | 034 | type not stated | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX1 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX10 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX11 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX12 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX14 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX15 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX16 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX18 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX19 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX2 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX4 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX6 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| AREA BOULDER BASIN | XXX7 | unnamed record | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| BOUL | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 3,743 ft | under 10 ft | $20 | ||
| BOUL | 005 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 6 ft | 3,749 ft | under 10 ft | $20 |
| BOUL | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 11 ft | 3,716 ft | 31 ft | $20 | |
| BOUL | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 9 ft | 3,735 ft | 14 ft | $20 |
| BOUL | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 11 ft | 3,745 ft | 10 ft | $20 |
| BOUL | 015 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 15 ft | 3,723 ft | 26 ft | $20 |
| BOUL | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 9 ft | 3,726 ft | 21 ft | $20 | |
| BOUL | 022 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 3,743 ft | under 10 ft | $20 | |
| BOUL | 023 | tent only nonelectric | 19 ft | 3,746 ft | 29 ft | $20 | |
| BOUL | 025 | tent only nonelectric | 5 ft | 3,761 ft | 17 ft | $20 | |
| BOUL | 026 | tent only nonelectric | 4 ft | 3,741 ft | 10 ft | $20 | |
| BOUL | 027 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 7 ft | 3,761 ft | 22 ft | $20 |
| BOUL | 028 | tent only nonelectric | 5 ft | 3,757 ft | 15 ft | $20 | |
| BOUL | 029 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 8 ft | 3,767 ft | 21 ft | $20 |
| BOUL | 030 | tent only nonelectric | 8 ft | 3,772 ft | 27 ft | $20 | |
| BOUL | 032 | tent only nonelectric | 14 ft | 3,761 ft | 18 ft | $20 | |
| S&P | Scan & Pay Standard | type not stated | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| S&P | Scan & Pay Tent | type not stated | $20–$33.97 |
The agency files 13 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It types every one of them MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 37 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Black Mountain Group CampgroundSan Bernardino National Forest · 0.9 mi
Black Mountain (San Bernardino)San Bernardino National Forest · 1.0 miDark Canyon CampgroundSan Bernardino National Forest · 2.0 mi
Marion MountainSan Bernardino National Forest · 2.7 mi
Fern BasinSan Bernardino National Forest · 2.8 miWhitewater PreserveSand To Snow National Monument · 13 miFrom Idyllwild, travel north for about 8 miles on State Route 243. Turn right onto Black Mountain Road/Forest Route 4S01 and continue about 5 miles to the campground. Black Mountain Road is an unpaved forest road, not recommended for low clearance vehicles or trailers.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Idyllwild-Pine Cove, CA
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.
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.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Boulder Basin is in California’s 25th congressional district. Its representative, Raul Ruiz (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. 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 moneyRaul RuizU.S. Representative · California’s 25th district
- 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 Boulder Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Raul Ruiz, I’m a constituent in California’s 25th district. I tried to camp at Boulder Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 16 of the 24 campsites the agency files at Boulder Basin, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 15 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Boulder Basin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Boulder Basin. 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 Boulder Basin (San Bernardino 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 Boulder Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Boulder Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 16 of the 24 campsites the agency files at Boulder Basin, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 15 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Boulder Basin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Boulder Basin. 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 Boulder Basin (San Bernardino 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 Boulder Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Boulder Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 16 of the 24 campsites the agency files at Boulder Basin, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 15 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Boulder Basin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Boulder Basin. 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 Boulder Basin (San Bernardino National Forest, California) via campanac.com