Cherry Valley
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $33–$66Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 45All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Situated in the central Sierra Nevada, camping at Cherry Valley campground offers many beautiful sights. It is located in a forest of mixed conifers about 1.5 miles northeast of Cherry Valley Dam, 1 hour east of Tuolumne City, 1 hour northeast of Groveland, and 2.5 hours from the northwestern border of Yosemite National Park. Lake access is available via a hiking trail. The road to the campground is a winding mountain road and must be taken slowly. Keep reading
Recreation
There are unlimited opportunities for fishing on lakes and rivers and for exploring hiking trails in the area. Cherry Lake has a boat ramp near the dam, conveniently located off Cherry Lake Road. Visitors to Cherry Valley can enjoy a quiet lake experience great for water sports, swimming, and fishing.
Facilities
Cherry Valley has 41 single and five double family sites with paved roads and spurs. Each site has a table and campfire pit with a grill. Drinking water and vault toilets are available. The opening and closing dates are somewhat weather dependent, but the campground is generally open for the first day of fishing season, the last Friday in April. Pets are welcome, but must be compliant with Tuolumne County leash laws.
Natural Features
Visitors to Cherry Valley campground can enjoy easy access to nearby Cherry Lake, the largest lake in the Stanislaus National Forest. Anglers flock to Cherry Lake every year, plotting their next catch of eastern brook trout, German brown trout, kokanee salmon, and rainbow trout. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (801) 226-3564.
What the agency tells you
Be Bear aware; keep all food out of site in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating.
Firewood restrictions are in effect to prevent the spread of invasive insects and disease. Click here for more information.
Electric site hook-ups are not available at this facility.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
This campground has first-come, first-served single family campsites. These sites and walk-ins are cash or check only (no credit cards accepted).
A fee will be charged for additional vehicles.
Not advised pulling a trailer or 5th wheel.
Not advised for motor homes over 24' long.
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.
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.Stanislaus.Groveland@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 45 · 14 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 24 ft
- Paved pads
- 39 of 45
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…pit with a grill. Drinking water and vault toilets are available. The opening and closing dates are…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…a table and campfire pit with a grill. Drinking water and vault toilets are available. The opening and…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Scenic drives
- Stargazing
- Visitor center
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 488th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $33–$66 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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
45 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 45 mapped sitesAll 45 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. 45 of the 45 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| CHERRY VALLEY | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 99 ft | 119 ft | $33 | |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 122 ft | 144 ft | $33 | |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 004 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 125 ft | 267 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 005 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 95 ft | 279 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 006 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 95 ft | 187 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 007 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 103 ft | 255 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 008 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 117 ft | 108 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 009 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 117 ft | 219 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 010 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 149 ft | 169 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 011 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 85 ft | 337 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 012 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 90 ft | 438 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 013 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 85 ft | 395 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 014 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 98 ft | 480 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 015 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 98 ft | 574 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 016 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 96 ft | 575 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 96 ft | 600 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 018 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 127 ft | 493 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 019 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 79 ft | 671 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 020 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 74 ft | 611 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 021 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 61 ft | 677 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 022 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 62 ft | 740 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 023 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 176 ft | 647 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 024 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 185 ft | 745 ftCherry Lake | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 025 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 47 ft | 701 ftCherry Lake | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 026 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 41 ft | 719 ftCherry Lake | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 027 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 41 ft | 726 ftCherry Lake | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 028 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 87 ft | 821 ftCherry Lake | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 029 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 87 ft | 858 ftCherry Lake | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 030 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 89 ft | 782 ftCherry Lake | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 031 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 72 ft | 876 ftCherry Lake | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 032 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 79 ft | 803 ftCherry Lake | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 033 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 95 ft | 831 ftCherry Lake | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 034 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 62 ft | 889 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 035 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 62 ft | 877 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 036 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 62 ft | 796 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 037 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 63 ft | 796 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 038 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 63 ft | 753 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 039 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 44 ft | 642 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 040 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 44 ft | 599 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 041 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 57 ft | 551 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 042 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 95 ft | 532 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 043 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 95 ft | 439 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 044 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 132 ft | 366 ft | $33–$66 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 045 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 99 ft | 170 ft | $33 |
| CHERRY VALLEY | 046 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 110 ft | 187 ft | $33–$66 |
25 of 45 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
New Spicer MeadowsStanislaus National Forest · 4.9 miSummit Ranger District CampgroundsStanislaus National Forest · 4.9 mi
Dimond O CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 8.8 miHull Creek CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 10 miCampground can be reached from Hwy 120 using Cherry Lake Road also known as Forest Road (FR) 1N07 or from Cottonwood Road also known as FR 1N04.
-Traveling from Hwy 120, go East from Groveland 13.8 miles turn left on Cherry Lake Road/1N07 for 23.5 miles where it becomes Cottonwood Road. Turn left and travel approximately 0.5 miles North. You will see the Cherry Valley Campground sign turn right North East .75 miles to campground.
-Traveling from Tuolumne, turn onto Buchanan Road this turns into Cottonwood Road/1N04 and travel approximately 30 miles. Turn left at Cherry Valley Campground sign. NOTE: The Tuolumne route is advisable for RV’s and towing.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Long Barn, CA
Typical weather
Typical May night 44°F, day 70°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 44°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Cherry Valley 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 →