Crystal Springs
- Right now
- Shut for nowOutside the published season, our reading
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 17All of them booked ahead
- Season
- – September 30Closes September 30. No opening date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Crystal Springs is a peaceful little campground near the West Fork of the Carson River. Keep reading
Recreation
The area is popular for fishing, hiking, ATVing, picknicking and mountain biking. Wildlife viewing is also great in the area.
Facilities
This tent and small RV (less than 24 feet in length) friendly campground offers single family campsites with picnic tables, campfire rings, and food storage lockers. Vault toilets, drinking water and garbage service are provided. Firewood is available for purchase from the host.
Natural Features
Crystal Springs campground is at an elevation of 6010 feet.
What the agency tells you
* Caution: Black bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers. * A fee for extra vehicles will be collected at the campground. * This campground is first come, first serve and is suitable for vehicles less than 24 ft in length.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 17
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…rings, and food storage lockers. Vault toilets, drinking water and garbage service are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and food storage lockers. Vault toilets, drinking water and garbage service are provided. Firewood is…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 8.9 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $24 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
17 sites
All 17 sites
| Inner Loop | 10 | rv nonelectric |
| Inner Loop | 11 | rv nonelectric |
| Inner Loop | 12 | rv nonelectric |
| Inner Loop | 13 | rv nonelectric |
| Inner Loop | 14 | rv nonelectric |
| Main Loop | 3 | rv nonelectric |
| Main Loop | 4 | rv nonelectric |
| Main Loop | 5 | rv nonelectric |
| Main Loop | 6 | rv nonelectric |
| Main Loop | 7 | rv nonelectric |
| Main Loop | 8 | rv nonelectric |
| Main Loop | 9 | rv nonelectric |
| Outer Loop | 15 | rv nonelectric |
| Outer Loop | 16 | rv nonelectric |
| Small Loop | 17 | rv nonelectric |
| Small Loop | 18 | rv nonelectric |
| Small Loop | 19 | rv nonelectric |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Kit Carson CampgroundToiyabe National Forest · 2.8 mi
Indian Creek Campground (CA)Sierra Front Field Office · 3.5 mi
Hope ValleyHope Valley Reservoir Site No. 41 Water Reserve Withdrawal · 5.1 mi
Markleeville5.9 miWoods Lake CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 10 miCenterville Flat CampgroundToiyabe National Forest · 11 mi1. From Highway 395 in Minden, Nevada, take Highway 88 approximately 15 miles.
2. About 1/2 mile past the Highway 4/89 turnoff in Woodfords, California, turn left at the Crystal Springs Campground sign onto Crystal Springs Road.
3. The campground entrance is approximately 1/2 mile on the south side of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Alpine Village, CA
Typical weather
Typical September night 35°F, day 73°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical September night 35°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
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
Crystal Springs 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 →