U.S. Forest Service · Sierra National Forest · CA
Bowler Group Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 16 mi
Wildfire
Dome fire · 16 mi away · 6,788 acres · 95% contained · updated Oct 14, 2026
Wildfire
Wildfire Training fire · 32 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 15, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 15, 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
- June 1Opens June 1. No closing date published.
7,030 ftElevation
412 ftWater · Jackass Creek
16.1 miNE of Oakhurst, CA
0%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 414th darkest of 1,201 in CA
Opens June 1. No closing date published.Today
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Located along Jackass Creek, Bowler Group Campground offers 12 campsites and a primitive amphitheater. The campground provides one vault toilet and each campsite has a table and fire ring. Horses are permitted; however, facilities are not available.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…The campground provides one vault toilet and each campsite has a table and fire ring. Horses…”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 25 km away
- Peak color
Source: Stated in the agency description
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (25 km) · Oct 4, 2026
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 · 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.
None
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 hereGranite Creek CampgroundSierra National Forest · 4.0 miUpper Chiquito CampgroundSierra National Forest · 4.5 miLower Chiquito CampgroundSierra National Forest · 7.3 miLittle Jackass CampgroundSierra National Forest · 7.5 miSoda Springs CampgroundSierra National Forest · 9.4 miPlacer CampgroundSierra National Forest · 9.7 mi
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
This Afternoon66°Sunny
Tonight47°Clear
Saturday63°Sunny
Saturday Night45°Mostly Clear
NWS forecast for Oakhurst, CA
Source: National Weather Service, HNX forecast office · Oct 16, 2026
Typical weather
Typical June night 43°F, day 66°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical June night 43°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
80°32°10°
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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.
Measured at: HUNTINGTON LAKE, CA (USC00044176), 20 miles away and at about the same elevation
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
Roadless
Roadless
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026
Who answers for this land
Bowler Group Campground is in California’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Tom McClintock (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
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (25 km) · Oct 4, 2026
Reported by: iNaturalist fall color observations, reported peak color · Oct 4, 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.