Cedar Flat Group Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 3All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cedar Flat Group sites are popular with academic institutions for geology field trips. With no nearby light sources, the night sky is brilliant for star gazing and night photography. Keep reading
Recreation
A perfect location for star gazing, geology and hiking.
Facilities
Three large group camp sites can accommodate between 25 and 50 people. Each has a picnic shelter with table, campfire ring and vault toilet. There is no water at this location nor is there a natural water source. The nearest source for water, food, or fuel is 12 miles away in the town of Big Pine, CA.
Natural Features
Cedar Flat is in the Inyo National Forest, east of the Owens Valley in the White Mountains. The campsites are at an elevation of 7,300ft. and located in an arid landscape dotted with pinyon and juniper trees, rabbit brush and sage.
Nearby Attractions
White Mountain Peak is the third highest peak in California at 14,246 feet. Trails in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest lead to the oldest living trees in the world.
What the agency tells you
Bring water! The nearest source for food, water, firewood or fuel is 12 miles away, in Big Pine, CA.
Highway 168 is narrow and steep with a section of single lane road with very limited visibility. Technically, uphill traffic has the right of way, but everyone should be prepared to stop and back up to the last wide spot if necessary.
Click here for more info about the Inyo National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 1
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
- 3 · 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…shelter with table, campfire ring and vault toilet. There is no water at this location nor is there a…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…table, campfire ring and vault toilet. There is no water at this location nor is there a natural water…”
Around the campground
- Night sky · 107th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 16 km away
- Peak color
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
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 sites
All 3 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. 3 of the 3 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| 1 | Camp Ferguson | group standard area nonelectric | 40 ft | $25–$35 |
| 2 | Camp Nelson | group standard area nonelectric | 60 ft | $25–$35 |
| 2 | Camp Noren | group standard area nonelectric | 60 ft | $25–$35 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Big Pine CanyonInyo National Forest · 18 mi
Big Pine Creek CampgroundInyo National Forest · 19 mi
Upper Sage FlatInyo National Forest · 19 mi
Goodale Creek CampgroundBishop Field Office · 21 miFrom Big Pine go east on Highway 168 APPROXIMATELY 11.5 miles and turn left into the campground entrance. The junction of 168 and White Mt Road (to the BRISTLECONE PINES) is about 1/2 mile beyond the campground entrance. Highway 168 is narrow and steep. RV's and large vehicles should note a section of the road is a single lane with very limited visibility. UPHILL traffic has the right of way, BUT BE prepared to stop and back up to the last wide spot if necessary.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Big Pine, CA
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
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
Cedar Flat Group Campground 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 →