Gatewood Group
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- – November 30Closes November 30. No opening date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Gatewood Group Campground is ideally located just two miles from Spruce Knob Lake in the Monongahela Forest, creating an ideal base camp for hikes and wildlife watching. Gatewood contains 1 reservable site that can accommodate up to approximately 30 people. The campground contains fire rings, picnic tables, and two single-toilet vault restrooms. There is no electric or drinking water at the group campground. The group campground is not ABA accessible. Keep reading
Recreation
With over 500 miles of hiking trails, visitors are have many options in the forest, including the Gatewood Nature Trail. With some of the most beautiful overlooks in the area, Spruce Knob Lake offers fishing and boating opportunities (fish are stocked). No swimming is allowed. Unobstructed views of the night sky bring stargazer clubs to this spot all summer long.
Facilities
Three group sites are available that can accommodate up to 20 people each. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided, as are accessible pit toilets. Drinking water is NOT available in the campground.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on a ridge in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. The Monongahela Forest extends over the north central highlands of the state, encompassing many of the region's highest peaks. Elevations range from 1,000-4,863 feet, and Gatewood sits at 4,300 feet. Variations in terrain and precipitation have created one of the most ecologically diverse national forests in the country.
Nearby Attractions
Spruce Knob, West Virginia's highest peak, lies just 9 miles from the campground. It overlooks forested ridges and grassy open pastures. Visitors can drive or hike to the top. Rock climbing is also a popular activity.
What the agency tells you
Check in at Spruce Knob.
If Gates are locked; Check with Spruce Knob Host
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
Everything else this campground posts · 4
No electric hookups at this facility
Bring your own water
Click here for more information on Monongahela National Forest
Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Some states have quarantines and may confiscate your firewood. Please help protect our forests from invasive species by obtaining your firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org for more information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets · Pit Toilets
- “…picnic tables, and two single-toilet vault restrooms. There is no electric or drinking water at the… / …rings are provided, as are accessible pit toilets. Drinking water is NOT available in the campground.…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…provided, as are accessible pit toilets. Drinking water is NOT available in the campground. Natural Features The campground…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Stargazing
- Night sky · 17th darkest of 69 in WV
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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.
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| GATEWOOD GROUP | GATEWOOD GROUP | group tent only area nonelectric | 30 ft | 3,731 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Spruce Knob LakeSpruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area · 5.0 miLaurel Fork CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 6.1 mi
Middle Mountain CabinsMonongahela National Forest · 10 miIsland CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 12 mi
Seneca ShadowsSpruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area · 13 miFrom Riverton, WV, take US Route 33 south 2 miles to Briery Gap Road, County Route 33/4. Turn right and go 3 miles to Forest Road 112. Continue 13.5 miles to Forest Road 131. Turn right and open gate. Campground is at the end of Forest Road 131.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Whitmer, WV
Typical weather
Typical November night 30°F, day 47°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical November 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 moreOutside the published season
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
Gatewood Group is in West Virginia’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Riley Moore (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →