Cold Creek
1Heads up1 fire 45 mi away
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $16From, per site
- Sites
- 13All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 24 – October 14Open May 24 through October 14
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cold Creek Campground is located on Highway 89, 4.5 miles south of Sierraville, California. The facility location makes Cold Creek a great base camp for a variety of recreational activities, including fishing, hunting, hiking and biking. This is a small campground recommended for tent camping and small campers. Large RVs will not be able to make the turnaround exit at this facility. There are a couple of hike-in sites within this campground that share a small parking area toward the back of this facility. This facility is operated and maintained by Lake Tahoe Hospitality LLC for the Tahoe National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
Cold Creek offers rainbow trout fishing and swimming. Cottonwood Creek Botanical Trail and Overlook Trail both begin at nearby Cottonwood Creek Campground.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family campsites, each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets are provided.
Natural Features
The campground lies in a meadow between Cold Creek and Highway 89. Jeffrey pine and white fir trees cover half the campground, while the other half is situated closer to the creek among cottonwoods, willow and aspen trees. Contact Info This location has limited staffing. Please call (530) 606-3978 for general information.
Nearby Attractions
Lake Tahoe is conveniently close, only 35 minutes away. Tahoe offers excellent boating, kayaking, fishing, hiking and scenic driving opportunities. Sardine Lakes, and the beautiful Lakes Basin is a 35-minute drive northwest via the Golden Chain/Highway 49. Stampede Reservoir is a 45-minute drive southeast.
What the agency tells you
Bears frequent the area; all food should be kept in approved containers.
No water available; bring your own supply or fill up at Cottonwood Creek Campground
No off-road vehicle use in the campground
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed. For current fire conditions or weather closures contact the Sierraville Ranger District (530) 994-3401 (voice), (530) 994-3521 (TDD).
Click here for more information on the Tahoe National Forest
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.
One vehicle included with reservation. Additional vehicle fee cost is $10/each per night for all vehicles. All operable, highway legal vehicles must pay extra vehicle fee, excluding the single vehicle included with the reservation. Please pay extra vehicle fee at the self-serve fee tube located near campground entrance.
Modifications for this campground must be made PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13 · 3 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Paved pads
- 12 of 13
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 10 of 11 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets are provided. Natural Features The campground lies…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 838th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
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 · 13
What you actually pay
“Additional vehicle fee cost is $10/each per night for all vehicles.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $16 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 4 mapped sitesAll 13 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. 13 of the 13 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| COLD CREEK | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $16 | ||
| COLD CREEK | 002 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $16 | ||
| COLD CREEK | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $16 | ||
| COLD CREEK | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $16 | ||
| COLD CREEK | 005 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $16 | ||
| COLD CREEK | 006 | walk to | 20 ft | $16 | ||
| COLD CREEK | 007 | walk to | 20 ft | 75 ft | 220 ft | $16 |
| COLD CREEK | 008 | walk to | 75 ft | 238 ft | $16 | |
| COLD CREEK | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 240 ft | 157 ft | $16 |
| COLD CREEK | 010 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $16 | ||
| COLD CREEK | 011 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $16 | ||
| COLD CREEK | 012 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $16 | ||
| COLD CREEK | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 169 ft | 146 ft | $16 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cottonwood CreekTahoe National Forest · 0.5 miBear Valley CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 4.3 mi
Upper Little TruckeeTahoe National Forest · 5.1 mi
Lower Little TruckeeTahoe National Forest · 5.7 mi
Sardine Peak LookoutTahoe National Forest · 6.8 miSagehen Creek CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 8.1 miFrom Truckee, California, take Highway 80 north to Highway 89 approximately 20 miles. The campground is on the left side of the highway. From Sierraville, head south on Highway 89 approximately 5 miles, the campground will be on the right side of the highway.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sierraville, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 63°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 29°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
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
Cold Creek 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 →