U.S. Forest Service · Sequoia National Park · CA

Chamise Flat Dispersed Campground

2Heads up2 fires, nearest 20 mi
Wildfire
Land fire · 20 mi away · 20 acres · updated Oct 11, 2026
Wildfire
Wildfire Training fire · 49 mi away · 0 acres · updated 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
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
Drawn from the record · 3,940 ft · 0% tree cover · East Fork Kaweah River within reach · Bortle 3 sky
3,940 ftElevation
689 ftWater · East Fork Kaweah River
5.2 miE of Three Rivers, CA
0%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 784th darkest of 1,201 in CA

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

About 12 miles north of Kernville, this is a dispersed camping site along the North Fork of the Kern River. No water is available. Portable toilets and trash bins available in the summer months.

Facilities

Toilets
Portable Toilets
“…the Kern River. No water is available. Portable toilets and trash bins available in the summer months.”
Drinking water
None, bring your own
“…along the North Fork of the Kern River. No water is available. Portable toilets and trash bins…”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
River
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 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 agency’s record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 3

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.
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

rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight58°Clear
Saturday73°Sunny
Saturday Night57°Clear
Sunday71°Sunny

NWS forecast for Three Rivers, CA

Typical weather

Typical October night 48°F, day 81°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical December night 29°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

110°32°20°

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.

Measured at: INDEPENDENCE, CA (USC00044232), 40 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
Dennison Peak6,293 acres · 10 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Vince Fong, official portrait

Chamise Flat Dispersed Campground is in California’s 20th congressional district. Its representative, Vince Fong (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
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.