Bridal Veil Group Area and Picnic Ground
1Heads up1 fire 35 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bridal Veil Group Campsite and Picnic Area is located on the South Fork of the American River. It offers picnicking sites, a group overnight area, beautiful swimming holes, and close access to fishing. Keep reading
Recreation
This site provides two large swimming holes in the river that are popular with the local residents. Fishing is also a popular activity, mainly rainbow and brown trout.
Facilities
Bridal Veil Group Area is on a hill overlooking the river and day use area. The group area includes lot-style parking with 7 parking stalls, 5 tent pads, 8 picnic tables, 6 serving tables, and a large group fire ring. Group campsite users may use the day use areas with no additional fees. None of the facility is accessible. There is no water available on site. The facility has a host on site from mid-May through mid-October.
Natural Features
Sitting at an elevation of 3,200 feet, Bridal Veil group campsite provides easy access to the American River. A Mediterranean climate extends over most of this forest, creating warm, dry summers, and cold, wet winters. Vegetation is mixed conifers with riparian vegetation along the river.
Nearby Attractions
Visitors enjoy scenic drives along Highway 50 and surrounding forest roads. The site is within a half hour drive of both Jenkinson Lake and Crystal Basin. It is 10 minutes from the stores and restaurants of Pollock Pines and 5 minutes from Bridal Veil Falls. South Lake Tahoe is a 45 minute drive.
Charges & Cancellations
Recreation Fee: Recreation fees are the fees a visitor pays for things like overnight camping, a day-use pavilion, group facilities, a tour or a permit. Recreation fees vary by location and/or activity. Reservation Fee: A fee may be charged at the time a reservation is made to cover the cost of reservation services. This fee is in addition to the Recreation Fee and is non-refundable. Fees for camping, day use, group sites, cabins and lookouts: $8 if made on-line; $9 if made through the call center; $3 if made in-person. Change Fee: A service fee may be charged at the time a modification is made depending on the changes. Cancellation Fee: Customers who cancel a group overnight facility reservation less than 14 days before the arrival date will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee.. Cut-Off Window: The latest date and/or time that you can make an advanced reservation or a change to an existing reservation. Cut-off windows can vary by location, but are typically 14 days before your arrival date. Late Cancellation: If you cancel your reservation too close to the start date, additional service fees may be withheld.
What the agency tells you
Bears frequent the area so be prepared to store food to discourage having unwanted guests.
The gate to Bridal Veil closes at 8 pm and does not open until 10 am. All overnight guests need to arrive onsite before 8 pm.
Bring your own water.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 15 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…None of the facility is accessible. There is no water available on site. The facility has a host on site…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Night sky · 852nd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 11 days ago, 19 km away
- Near peak
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
“Fees for camping, day use, group sites, cabins and lookouts: $8 if made on-line $9 if made through the call center” · this campground’s own terms
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Bridal Veil Picnic Grounds | GA1 | group tent only area nonelectric | 15 ft | 285 ft | $105 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Silver Creek Group Campground6.5 mi
Sly Guard CabinEldorado National Forest · 7.3 mi
West Point CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 7.5 mi
Ice HouseEldorado National Forest · 7.7 mi
Sunset-Union ValleyEldorado National Forest · 8.0 miCamino Cove CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 8.3 miFrom Placerville, take Hwy 50 east for 17 miles. The site is on the South Fork of the American River.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pollock Pines, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 66°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 31°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Bridal Veil Group Area and Picnic Ground 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 →