Forbes Creek
1Heads up1 fire 9.2 mi away
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 13 of the next 30 nights read 15:47 UTC
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Forbes Creek Group Campground is located near the southeast shore of Sugar Pine Reservoir in the Tahoe National Forest. Visitors enjoy the area for its fishing, canoeing and hiking opportunities. This facility is operated and maintained by the Tahoe National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing, canoeing, swimming and boating are popular activities on the reservoir. A trail system for walking and non-motorized biking connects the two group sites at the campground, to the lake and nearby boat ramp. The North Fork of the American River is nearby, offering opportunities for additional fishing and swimming. Many miles of hiking, biking and off-road vehicle trails are in the surrounding area.
Facilities
The campground offers two group campsites, Madrone and Rocky Ridge. Each site can accommodate up to 50 people and 18 vehicles. Both sites are equipped with a central cooking and picnic area, with a large campfire circle and multiple tables. RVs, trailers and tents are allowed within the campground. An unloading area and accessible parking are available within the campground.
Natural Features
The 160-acre Sugar Pine Reservoir sits at an elevation of 3,600 feet. Stands of cedar and ponderosa pine provides ample shade in the campground, which overlooks the reservoir. Summertime temperatures are warm during the day and cool at night.
What the agency tells you
Water Faucets: • While safe to drink, the potable water in the campground has a high iron content and visitors may wish to bring their own drinking water. • Visitors may not connect hoses to faucets for sanitation concerns. • Faucets are meant for drinking water only. For sanitation reasons there can be no bathing or cleaning at faucets. • All grey water must be properly disposed of at the dump station. Trash: • Trash should be placed in dumpsters. If the dumpsters are full then trash must be properly stored in a bear box until the dumpster is emptied, or can be taken to the nearest dumpster. This is to avoid wildlife getting in the trash and dispersing it through the forest. • Make sure to properly close/lock dumpsters to avoid wildlife getting in the trash. Campsite: • Camp only in designated camping areas. Areas beyond the campground could have hazard trees. • Only park in designated parking spaces. Parking off of pavement in camping areas is prohibited. • No parking in or blocking road ways. • Keep food in bear boxes at all times. • If visitors need to hang things they can use rachets straps or bungees. Using screws, nails, and staples is prohibited. • Stapling into the preparation tables and/or picnic tables is prohibited due to the damage it causes. • Cutting or damaging standing trees is prohibited. • Collecting dead wood is highly encouraged. Visitors must have a wood cutting permit to cut wood on the ground. • DAY USE: • NO Swimming on or around the boat dock/ ramp. Swimmers must stay 100 feet away at all times to keep a safe distance from boat traffic. • Park in designated parking spots. No parking along painted curbs or by boat ramp. • All vehicles must pay for day use parking at the Sugar Pine Day Use Area. The $5.00 Day use parking is not included in the camping fee. 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 American River Ranger District (530) 367-2224 (voice), (530) 367-2226 (TDD).
Don't Move Firewood: Protect California's forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally in Foresthill or by using down wood debris from the area that fit within the fire ring. For more information visit firewood.ca.gov.
Off-road vehicle use is prohibited within the Sugar Pine Complex, except for in the staging areas at the turnoff to Big Reservoir, such as Sugarpine OHV and Parker Flat.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Click here for more information on the Tahoe National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 2 of 2 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 2 of 2 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 15 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 906th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:47 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 2 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:47 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 15:47 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites · the site map
All 2 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 2 of the 2 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. 2 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Giant GapTahoe National Forest · 0.8 mi
Shirttail CreekTahoe National Forest · 0.8 mi
Big Reservoir CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 1.7 mi
Tunnel Mills IITahoe National Forest · 11 miOnion Valley CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 11 miTake Interstate 80 to the Foresthill/Auburn exit, near Auburn. Continue east for 17 miles to Foresthill. Travel through town, about 9 miles, to Forest Road 10/Sugar Pine Road. Turn left and continue about 9 miles. Look for the Sugar Pine Recreation Area sign and turn right on the first road after the sign. Continue about a half-mile to the Rocky Ridge Group Campground, on the right, and to the Madrone Group Campground, at the end of the circle.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Alta, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 35°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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 · 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
Forbes Creek 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 →
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 moneyKevin KileyU.S. Representative · California’s 3rd district
No contact form we could verify, so that link is their own site. Contact is inside it. Washington office: 202-225-2523.
- 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 Forbes Creek, Tahoe National Forest, California
Dear Kevin Kiley, I’m a constituent in California’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Forbes Creek, Tahoe National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Forbes Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Forbes Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Forbes Creek. 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 Forbes Creek (Tahoe 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 Forbes Creek, Tahoe National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Forbes Creek, Tahoe National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Forbes Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Forbes Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Forbes Creek. 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 Forbes Creek (Tahoe 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 Forbes Creek, Tahoe National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Forbes Creek, Tahoe National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Forbes Creek are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Forbes Creek keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Forbes Creek. 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 Forbes Creek (Tahoe National Forest, California) via campanac.com