Elizabeth Furnace
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10–$20Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 3633 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Vault Toilets are located throughout the family campground and are available year-round. No Firewood available. Hand pump available year-round near entrance of family campground. Showers and Flush Toilets available from May-October. Please visit our website for exact dates. Keep reading
Recreation
Enjoy hiking the Pig Iron and Charcoal Trail to learn how iron was made in the area. Another great hike heads up to Buzzard Rock. Passage Creek is seasonally stocked with trout to keep anglers entertained.
Facilities
Vault Toilets are located throughout the family campground and are available year-round. No Firewood available. Hand pump available year-round near entrance of family campground.
Natural Features
The charming family campground sits in the Shenandoah Valley along Passage Creek, a tributary of the North Fork Shenandoah River. The area is part of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests which spans across Virginia and parts of West Virginia and Kentucky. These forests protect 40 species of trees that are mostly Appalachian hardwood and mixed pine-hardwood forests, 60 species of mammals and 200 species of birds. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (540) 984-4101.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 36
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- 34
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets · Pit Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS (SEASONAL) on 32 of 34 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE FLUSH TOILETS on 32 of 34 campsite records / VAULT TOILETS on 32 of 34 campsite records / PIT TOILETS on 1 of 34 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE PIT TOILETS on 32 of 34 campsite records
- Showers
- Seasonal Showers
- SHOWERS (SEASONAL) on 32 of 34 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 32 of 34 campsite records, DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 32 of 34 campsite records, WATER (SEASONAL) on 1 of 34 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Night sky · 72nd darkest of 88 in VA
- Bortle 4
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:27 UTC
recreation.gov lists 33 of the 36 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $10–$20 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:27 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
36 sites
All 36 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. 33 of the 36 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Elizabeth Furnace | 01 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 02 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 03 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 04 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 05 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 06 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 07 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 08 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 09 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 10 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 11 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 12 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 13 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 14 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 15 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 16 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 17 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 18 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 19 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 20 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 21 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 22 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 23 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 24 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 25 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 26 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 27 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 28 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 29 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 30 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 31 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Elizabeth Furnace | 32 | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Family Campground | Standard Campsite - Non-Peak Season | type not stated | 35 ft | yes | |
| Family Campground Peak Season | Standard | standard nonelectric | yes | $10–$20 | |
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 2 | type not stated | |||
| Scan and Pay | ScanPay 3 | type not stated |
25 of 36 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Elizabeth Furnace Group CampGeorge Washington National Forest · 0.7 mi
Little FortGeorge Washington National Forest · 7.3 mi
Mathews Arm CampgroundShenandoah National Park · 12 mi
Hawk Recreation AreaGeorge Washington National Forest · 16 mi
Camp RooseveltGeorge Washington National Forest · 17 miWolf GapGeorge Washington National Forest · 19 miFrom I-81: Take exit 296 and turn east, on VA 55 for 1.4 miles. In center of Strasburg (traffic light), turn left to remain on VA 55. After 5.0 miles, turn right onto SR 678 in small community of Waterlick. The recreation area will be on your left in about 3.5 miles. There are three entrances, about a half mile apart: Entrance to the group campground appears first, followed by the entrance to the day use area, and finally the entrance to the campground.
From I-66: Take Exit 6 (Front Royal) and proceed south on SR 340/522 for 1.3 miles until you come to a stoplight. Turn right onto VA 55 West for 5 miles to the small community of Waterlick. Turn left onto SR 678 and go approximately 6 miles. Elizabeth Furnace Family Campground will be on your left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Strasburg, VA
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 68°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 21°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
Elizabeth Furnace is in Virginia’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, Ben Cline (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →