Forks Campground (Inyo)
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 34 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 8 of the next 8 nights read 14:12 UTC
- A night
- $34From, per site
- Sites
- 2726 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Forks Campground is located near the junction of the South Fork and the Middle Fork of Bishop Creek. Most of the sites are tucked into the aspen and pine trees, some sites are along the banks of Bishop Creek. Keep reading
Recreation
Forks Campground (Inyo) is an ideal setting for camping, wildlife viewing, hiking, and fishing. Camphost on site.
Facilities
The campground offers 27 single-family sites, all with picnic tables, food storage lockers and campfire rings with grills. Amenities include drinking water, one accessible flush toilet and two vault toilets. All food must be secured in bear boxes provided and must be used (typical bear box size 48" Natural Features Campsites are among aspen and pine trees, some sites are along the banks of Bishop Creek.
What the agency tells you
Active bear area
Firewood available
Two pets per siite to be leashed at all times.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Please Note: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per tent site. One vehicle per single site is included with your reservation. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground if you did not pay for an Extra Vehicle Add On. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at the site.
Fire Restrictions: 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.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 27 · 11 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 15 of 27 campsite records, FLUSH TOILETS (SEASONAL) on 11 of 27 campsite records / VAULT TOILETS on 26 of 27 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 26 of 27 campsite records
- Bear boxes
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 39 km away
- Peak color
Full this Saturdayread 14:12 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 24 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 26 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 14:12 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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $34 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 14:12 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
27 sites
All 27 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. 26 of the 27 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Forks | 1 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 10 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 11 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 12 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 13 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 14 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 15 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 16 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 17 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 18 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 19 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 2 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 20 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 21 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 22 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 23 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 24 | tent only nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 25 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 26 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 27 | type not stated | |
| Forks | 3 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 4 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 5 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 6 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 7 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 8 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
| Forks | 9 | standard nonelectric | $34 |
25 of 27 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Four Jeffrey CampgroundInyo National Forest · 0.6 mi
Intake 2 CampgroundInyo National Forest · 0.7 miBig Trees CampgroundInyo National Forest · 0.8 mi
Bishop Park GroupInyo National Forest · 1.1 mi
Bishop Park Campground (CA)Inyo National Forest · 1.1 mi
Four JeffreyInyo National Forest · 1.6 miFrom Bishop, go west on State Route 168 (Line Street) approximately 15 miles. Turn left at the junction of the South Lake Road, the campground will be the first right turn about 1/4 mile.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for West Bishop, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 23°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
Forks Campground (Inyo) 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 Forks Campground (Inyo), Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Kevin Kiley, I’m a constituent in California’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Forks Campground (Inyo), Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 26 of the 27 campsites the agency files at Forks Campground (Inyo), 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 24 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. Forks Campground (Inyo) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Forks Campground (Inyo). 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 Forks Campground (Inyo) (Inyo 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 Forks Campground (Inyo), Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Forks Campground (Inyo), Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 26 of the 27 campsites the agency files at Forks Campground (Inyo), 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 24 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. Forks Campground (Inyo) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Forks Campground (Inyo). 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 Forks Campground (Inyo) (Inyo 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 Forks Campground (Inyo), Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Forks Campground (Inyo), Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 26 of the 27 campsites the agency files at Forks Campground (Inyo), 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 24 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. Forks Campground (Inyo) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Forks Campground (Inyo). 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 Forks Campground (Inyo) (Inyo National Forest, California) via campanac.com