Caldwell Fields Group Campground
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1 – November 1Open April 1 through November 1
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Caldwell Fields Group Campground is actually two separate fields adjacent to each other. George and Milton, each provide group camping and can be reserved together or separately. They are great for groups who prefer old-fashioned, rustic camping who require few amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Craig Creek meanders along the edge of the fields where visitors can enjoy splashing and relaxing in its cool waters. The creek is also stocked with trout, providing good fishing opportunities for visitors.
Facilities
Caldwell Fields provides two fields that may be rented separately or together. Each field can accommodate a group of 50 or less people with space for up to 20 vehicles. Groups may choose to rent them together accommodating a group of up to 100 people and 40 vehicles total. Each field has an entrance gate, and they share a vault toilet. There is no potable water, no hookups and no trash collection. State Highway 621 to Caldwell Fields is unpaved.
Natural Features
Located in a narrow valley and flanked by National Forest lands, the two large grassy fields are bordered by large shade trees.
Nearby Attractions
Caldwell Fields is located 20 minutes from Blacksburg, VA, home of the Virginia Tech Hokies.
What the agency tells you
Please check your confirmation email for gate code. If not listed, you must call the Eastern Divide Ranger District at (540) 552-4641 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, prior to your arrival date to get the combination code to the gate(s). You will not be able to access Caldwell Fields without the code.
Visitors need to bring their own drinking water.
This is a 'pack-it-in, pack-it-out' facility. The fields, fire rings, grills and restrooms must be left trash-free when visitors leave.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
There are no hookups, no electricity, and cell phones typically will not work here.
A valid Virginia license including a national forest stamp is required for fishing. Visit http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/regulations/licenses.asp for more information.
This camping area is located within a floodplain and the potential for flash floods exists. Rains that can create a flood may occur here or far upstream. Monitor stream conditions and be prepared to act quickly. Your safety is your responsibility.
This campground is not staffed by Forest Service personnel or volunteers. Forest Service staff intermittently visit this campground to clean, mow and check on conditions.
All state laws are to be abided, including those regarding alcohol drinking ages and driving while under the influence.
All fires must be contained inside the established fire ring and must be completely extinguished before departure.
Fireworks are not permitted.
All vehicles must be parked in the field. Vehicles may not park along the road.
Amplified music is prohibited.
Gates to the fields must be left locked when not attended and upon departure.
Pack animals are not allowed.
Now accepting comments on 2023 Recreation Fee Proposals affecting this recreation site until October 31, 2023. For more information and to submit comments visit: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/gwj/home/?cid=FSEPRD1129447
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…has an entrance gate, and they share a vault toilet. There is no potable water, no hookups and no trash…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…gate, and they share a vault toilet. There is no potable water, no hookups and no trash collection. State Highway…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Fishing
- Fall color · reported 5 days ago, 15 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 14:34 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Every one of the 2 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 2 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 14:34 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 · 12
What you actually pay
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 14:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites
All 2 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. 2 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Boley Field Group CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 13 mi
Steel Bridge CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 19 miThe Pines CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 23 mi
Craig Creek Recreation Area27 mi
Walnut Flats CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 32 miFrom Blacksburg (junction of North Main Street and US 460), follow US 460 west for 2.8 miles. Turn right on Craig Creek Road (SR 621), go 8.8 miles. Road turns to gravel after 4 miles. Caldwell Fields are on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Blacksburg, VA
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 66°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical November 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 moreOutside the published season
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
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
Caldwell Fields Group Campground is in Virginia’s 9th congressional district. Its representative, H. Morgan Griffith (R), 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 moneyH. Morgan GriffithU.S. Representative · Virginia’s 9th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMark R. WarnerU.S. Senator · Virginia
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTim KaineU.S. Senator · Virginia
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 Caldwell Fields Group Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia
Dear H. Morgan Griffith, I’m a constituent in Virginia’s 9th district. I tried to camp at Caldwell Fields Group Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Caldwell Fields Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 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. Caldwell Fields Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Caldwell Fields Group 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 Caldwell Fields Group Campground (Jefferson National Forest, Virginia) 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 Caldwell Fields Group Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia
Dear Mark R. Warner, I’m a constituent in Virginia. I tried to camp at Caldwell Fields Group Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Caldwell Fields Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 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. Caldwell Fields Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Caldwell Fields Group 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 Caldwell Fields Group Campground (Jefferson National Forest, Virginia) 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 Caldwell Fields Group Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia
Dear Tim Kaine, I’m a constituent in Virginia. I tried to camp at Caldwell Fields Group Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Caldwell Fields Group Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 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. Caldwell Fields Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Caldwell Fields Group 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 Caldwell Fields Group Campground (Jefferson National Forest, Virginia) via campanac.com