Cle Elum River Group Site
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 9 mi
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cle Elum River Group Campground is located within the Cle Elum River Campground situated just off its namesake river in Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Set in a mixed-conifer forest at an elevation of 2,300 feet and surrounded by high mountains, this campground offers a large site suitable for large family and group camping excursions. Keep reading
Recreation
In addition to being a prime location for hiking, fishing, swimming and birding in summer and early fall, the Cle Elum River area offers excellent skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling in the winter months. The campground is closed during the winter months. The adjacent French Cabin Creek Sno-Park accomodates skiers, snowshoers and snowmobilers. Anglers will find the waters teeming with rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and kokanee salmon in the river as well as the nearby reservoir.
Facilities
The large reservable group site is equipped with picnic tables, campfire rings with grills, drinking water and vault toilets.
Natural Features
The Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest offers stunning scenic views, with high, glaciated alpine peaks, valleys of old growth forest and rugged shrub-steppe country making up the diverse landscape. Elevations range from below 1,000 feet to more than 9,000 feet. Precipitation varies greatly throughout the area, ranging from approximately 140 inches along the Cascade Crest to only 10 inches along the eastern edge. Visitors can expect many days of warm, sunny weather in the summer, and winters with clear skies and plenty of snow. The surrounding undeveloped wilderness, clean streams and diverse forests support an abundance of wildlife, including deer, porcupine, native fish and migratory birds. Contact Info This location has limited staffing. Please call (661) 702-1420 for general information.
Nearby Attractions
Speelyi Beach is a great place to spend the day. Featuring a wide sandy beach surrounded by conifer forest on Cle Elum Lake, visitors will have plenty of space to wade, swim and splash around. Those searching for deeper water will enjoy a kayak outing along the shore at sunset. The spectacular Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is accessible near the campground. It is one of the world's premier National Scenic Trails and showcases some of North America's most fantastic scenery as it winds its way from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington.
Charges & Cancellations
Group Sites Group Facility (including Cabins and Lookouts): A visitor who cancels 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. No-Shows A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite. Refunds Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Refunds will not be issued after the 7 days has ended. Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive. In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.
What the agency tells you
Check in: 2 pm, Check out: 12 pm (noon)
Electric hookups are not available
Click here for more information about Okanogan National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Don't Move Firewood: Please protect Pacific Northwest forests by preventing the spread of invasive species. Firewood can carry insects and diseases that can threaten the health of our western forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Water is available in this location via a handpump and/or water spigot. Please DO NOT attach your RV hoses to the water systems we provide. These are made available to you to fill your water jugs/buckets and take back to your site to use. If you need to fill your RV water tanks, please fill your tank before you come to the campground. Thank you!
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…rings with grills, drinking water and vault toilets. Natural Features The Okanogan-Wenatchee National…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…tables, campfire rings with grills, drinking water and vault toilets. Natural Features The…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Birding
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Water access
- Night sky · 307th darkest of 400 in WA
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 18 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
“Group Sites Group Facility (including Cabins and Lookouts): A visitor who cancels 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. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes an…” · this campground’s own no-show 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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.
| AREA CLE ELUM RIVER GROUP SITE | 1 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 344 ft | 303 ft | $158 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cayuse Horse CampWenatchee National Forest · 3.4 mi
Salmon La SacWenatchee National Forest · 3.6 mi
Wish Poosh CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 5.0 miOwhi CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 5.9 miFrom Cle Elum, Washington, take State Highway 903 north for 15 miles. Turn left at the campground sign. At the T in the road turn right into the group site.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Roslyn, WA
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 54°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 Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
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
Cle Elum River Group Site is in Washington’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Kim Schrier (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →