Fern Basin
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 9 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 23 of the next 23 nights read 15:50 UTC
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 2215 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
The picturesque Fern Basin Campground is a perfect escape from a busy lifestyle. It provides peace and quiet in the mountains of southern California as well as access to countless recreational opportunities. The San Bernardino National Forest is submitting a proposal to increase fees at various sites across the Forest and is seeking public input. Please visit the https://www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf for more information and to submit comments regarding this proposal. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors to the area enjoy hiking on the Marion Mountain Trail, which leads to San Jacinto Peak. Views from the peak extend to the ocean and across the Palm Desert, as well as the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains on a clear day. The 11.8-mile Marion Mountain Trail is the shortest route up the mountain, but is also quite strenuous in areas.
Facilities
Please be aware that potable (safe for drinking) water may or may not be available at this campground. Please bring ample water for drinking, cooking etc. Fern Basin campground offers about two dozen campsites for both tent and small RV / van camping. All campsites are equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Vault toilets are available within the campground.
Natural Features
The campground is located in a grove of mixed oaks and shrubs. A surrounding mixed conifer forest provides spotty shade for the campground. It is situated at an elevation of about 6,300 feet, in the mountains overlooking California's desert.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is located approximately 50 miles southeast of San Bernardino, California, and about seven miles north of the small town of Idyllwild, which is known for its shops and restaurants.
What the agency tells you
Fire Restrictions may be in effect, check in with the San Jacinto Ranger District by calling (909) 382-2921 to confirm. Wood and charcoal fires are permitted. Cooking stoves or fireplaces using gas, jellied petroleum, or pressurized liquid fuel are still allowed.
Please be aware that potable (safe for drinking) water may or may not be available at this campground. Please plan accordingly.
Basic camping fee ($20.00) covers the first vehicle. Extra vehicle fee of $5.00 / night / vehicle should be deposited into the fee tube located at the entrance to the campground within 30 minutes of arrival.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Sites may be available on a first-come, first-served basis
Click here for more information on the San Bernardino 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 22
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Not allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tables and campfire rings with grills. Vault toilets are available within the campground. Natural…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Coast
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Lookout Tower
- Mountain biking
- Night sky · 1126th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:50 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 13 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 15 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:50 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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
“Extra vehicle fee of $5.00 / night / vehicle should be deposited into the fee tube located at the entrance to the campground within 30 minutes of arrival.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:50 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
23 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 23 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 21 of the 23 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. 22 of the 23 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA FERN BASIN | 001 | type not stated | 2,985 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 183 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA FERN BASIN | 002 | type not stated | 2,727 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 155 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA FERN BASIN | 003 | type not stated | 2,941 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 208 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA FERN BASIN | 020 | type not stated | 2,759 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 44 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA FERN BASIN | 021 | type not stated | 2,852 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 56 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA FERN BASIN | 022 | type not stated | 2,856 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 123 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA FERN BASIN | XXX | unnamed record | 20 ft | $20–$33.97 | |||
| FERN | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 118 ft | 2,679 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 156 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 005 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 63 ft | 2,682 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 124 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 006 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 53 ft | 2,627 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 184 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 007 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 53 ft | 2,588 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 235 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 65 ft | 2,448 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 234 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 68 ft | 2,413 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 174 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 70 ft | 2,288 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 26 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 012 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 67 ft | 2,207 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 86 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 90 ft | 2,162 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 178 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 014 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 60 ft | 2,093 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 273 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 015 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 60 ft | 2,141 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 282 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 016 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 67 ft | 2,247 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 121 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 70 ft | 2,301 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 79 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 018 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 48 ft | 2,481 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 238 ft | $20 |
| FERN | 019 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 48 ft | 2,520 ftNorth Fork San Jacinto River | 284 ft | $20 |
| S&P | Scan & Pay Standard | type not stated | 20 ft | $20–$33.97 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It types it MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Marion MountainSan Bernardino National Forest · 0.4 miDark Canyon CampgroundSan Bernardino National Forest · 1.1 mi
Boulder BasinSan Bernardino National Forest · 2.8 mi
Black Mountain Group CampgroundSan Bernardino National Forest · 3.1 mi
Black Mountain (San Bernardino)San Bernardino National Forest · 3.1 miWhitewater PreserveSand To Snow National Monument · 15 miFrom Idyllwild, travel north on State Route 243 about 4 miles. Turn right at the campground sign and continue to Forest Service Road 4S02. Turn left and proceed less than a mile to an intersection. Continue straight on the Forest Service Road and turn left into the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Idyllwild-Pine Cove, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 30°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 · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Fern Basin is in California’s 41st congressional district. Its representative, Ken Calvert (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyKen CalvertU.S. Representative · California’s 41st district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAdam B. SchiffU.S. Senator · California
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlex PadillaU.S. Senator · California
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Fern Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Ken Calvert, I’m a constituent in California’s 41st district. I tried to camp at Fern Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 15 of the 22 campsites the agency files at Fern Basin, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 13 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Fern Basin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fern Basin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Fern Basin (San Bernardino National Forest, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Fern Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Fern Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 15 of the 22 campsites the agency files at Fern Basin, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 13 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Fern Basin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fern Basin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Fern Basin (San Bernardino National Forest, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Fern Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Fern Basin, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 15 of the 22 campsites the agency files at Fern Basin, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 13 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Fern Basin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fern Basin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Fern Basin (San Bernardino National Forest, California) via campanac.com