Fishermans Group
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 11 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 29 of the next 30 nights read 16:31 UTC
- Sites
- 54 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
This campground is Hike In only. Fisherman's Group Campground is a semi-primitive campground reached by a 2.5-mile hike into the mountains of southern California. The dirt road and walk to the sites are well worth the effort once you reach the campground, which is nestled in a scenic forest on the banks of Deep Creek. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors enjoy access to some great birding and wildlife viewing. Other activities include hiking, horseback riding, hunting and mountain stream fishing. A variety of trailheads can be accessed near the campground.
Facilities
The campground provides four walk-in sites that can accommodate up to eight people per site for tent camping. There are no hookups of any kind at the campground. Drinking water and trash collection are also not provided. Stream water must be boiled or filtered prior to drinking. A bear-proof trash container is provided at the facility, but campers must pack out what they pack in. The campsites are equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. A vault toilet is provided. Horses are permitted at the campground, however, there are no corrals or watering stations available.
Natural Features
The campground is situated along Deep Creek, 2.5 miles into an area forested by tall pine, oak and cedar trees at an elevation of about 7,000 feet. It is nestled in the mountains of southern California, in the San Bernardino National Forest.
Nearby Attractions
Big Bear Lake and the Big Bear Discovery Center are located about 21 miles from the campground. The center provides information on the area, a nature-themed gift shop, educational programs and restroom facilities. Trailheads are available at and near both the lake and the visitor center.
What the agency tells you
Bears frequent the area; use appropriate containers for food and garbage
Drinking water is not provided at the campground
Reservation confirmation must be displayed on vehicle windshield during stay
Everything else this campground posts · 2
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
- 5 · 4 walk-in, 4 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tables and campfire rings with grills. A vault toilet is provided. Horses are permitted at the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…hookups of any kind at the campground. Drinking water and trash collection are also not provided. Stream…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:31 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Every one of the 4 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 4 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:31 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 · 12
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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:31 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 4 mapped sitesAll 5 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. 5 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA FISHERMANS GROUP | 001 | group walk to | 168 ft | 54 ft | $10 |
| AREA FISHERMANS GROUP | 002 | group walk to | 109 ft | 183 ft | $10 |
| AREA FISHERMANS GROUP | 003 | group walk to | 109 ft | 137 ft | $10 |
| AREA FISHERMANS GROUP | 004 | group walk to | 140 ft | 31 ft | $10 |
| S&P | Scan & Pay Group | type not stated | $10 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Tent Peg GroupSan Bernardino National Forest · 1.2 mi
Crab FlatsSan Bernardino National Forest · 1.8 mi
Green ValleySan Bernardino National Forest · 2.7 mi
North Shore (CA)San Bernardino National Forest · 3.6 mi
Shady Cove Group CampgroundSan Bernardino National Forest · 4.7 miDogwood Family CampgroundSan Bernardino National Forest · 5.9 miFrom Highway 18, turn north on Green Valley Lake Road and travel 3 miles. Turn left on Forest Route 3N16 (a dirt road) and continue for about 5 miles. Park in the designated parking area just beyond the turn to Tent Peg Group Campground and walk 2.5 miles to Fisherman's Group Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Running Springs, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January 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 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
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
Fishermans Group is in California’s 23rd congressional district. Its representative, Jay Obernolte (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 moneyJay ObernolteU.S. Representative · California’s 23rd 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 Fishermans Group, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Jay Obernolte, I’m a constituent in California’s 23rd district. I tried to camp at Fishermans Group, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 4 of the 5 campsites the agency files at Fishermans Group, 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 4 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. Fishermans Group keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fishermans Group. 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 Fishermans Group (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 Fishermans Group, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Fishermans Group, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 4 of the 5 campsites the agency files at Fishermans Group, 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 4 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. Fishermans Group keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fishermans Group. 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 Fishermans Group (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 Fishermans Group, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Fishermans Group, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 4 of the 5 campsites the agency files at Fishermans Group, 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 4 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. Fishermans Group keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Fishermans Group. 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 Fishermans Group (San Bernardino National Forest, California) via campanac.com