Crane Valley
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 16 mi
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- Sites
- 7All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Crane Valley will be closed the entire 2019 - 2028 camping season due to a massive hazard tree removal Crane Valley Group Campground is located adjacent to Bass Lake and can accommodate up to 7 groups with tents and RVs. The facility is shaded by a dense forest of oak, cedar and pine trees, and although none of the sites offer direct views of the lake, the campground offers convenient access to the many recreational activities and attractions in the area. Keep reading
Recreation
Activities on Bass Lake include motorized and non-motorized boating, fishing, swimming, hiking, sailing and water skiing. California Land Management sponsors a variety of interpretive programs throughout the summer at several locations in the Bass Lake area.
Facilities
This group campground has 7 sites that can accommodate between 12 to 30 people each. Each site has grills, fire rings and tables. Portable toilets are provided, but campers must bring drinking water.
Natural Features
The Sierra National Forest, located on the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada, is known for its spectacular mountain scenery and abundant natural resources. The terrain includes rolling, oak-covered foothills, heavily forested middle elevation slopes and the starkly beautiful alpine landscape of the High Sierra.
Nearby Attractions
Yosemite National Park is under an hour away and makes an ideal day trip from Crane Valley Campground.
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; always keep a clean camp and do not feed any wild animals.
A fee for each additional vehicle will be collected at the campground
Maximum vehicle length is 40 feet
Everything else this campground posts · 5
No drinking water is provided at this campground
This facility is operated by Sierra Recreation, A Division of California Land Management, and your comments are appreciated; comment forms are available from campground hosts or on CLM'swebsite
Click here to learn more about the Sierra National Forest
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 Sierra National Forest Headquarters, (559) 297-0706.
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
- 7 · 7 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Portable Toilets
- “…site has grills, fire rings and tables. Portable toilets are provided, but campers must bring drinking…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Portable toilets are provided, but campers must bring drinking water.”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 949th 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 9
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 · 4
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
7 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 7 mapped sitesAll 7 sites
| AREA CRANE VALLEY | A | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 10 ft | 1,359 ft |
| AREA CRANE VALLEY | B | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 111 ft | 1,424 ft |
| AREA CRANE VALLEY | C | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 1,365 ft | |
| AREA CRANE VALLEY | D | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 1,366 ft | |
| AREA CRANE VALLEY | E | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 1,362 ft | |
| AREA CRANE VALLEY | F | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 1,362 ft | |
| AREA CRANE VALLEY | G | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 21 ft | 1,387 ft |
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
Recreation PointSierra National Forest · 0.5 mi
Forks Campground (Sierra)Sierra National Forest · 1.7 mi
LupineSierra National Forest · 2.7 mi
Cedar BluffSierra National Forest · 2.7 mi
Spring Cove3.3 mi
ChilkootSierra National Forest · 3.6 miFrom Fresno, California, take Highway 41 north through Oakhurst. Turn right on Forest Road 222, towards Bass Lake. Keep right for 3.5 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bass Lake, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 28°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 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
Crane 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 →