Government Mineral Springs Campground
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 17 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 41 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
This location is available on a first-come, first-served basis only. Campsites may not be reserved in advance. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Visitors can pay by cash on site, or by using Scan and Pay. Download the Recreation.gov mobile app before you arrive at the campground, and pay through your phone using the Scan and Pay QR code which is located on site. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground is located near Trapper Creek Wilderness. Nearby trails, such as the Trapper Creek Trailhead, provide access to this Wilderness. There is a $5 day use at Trapper Creek Trailhead. The annual Northwest Forest Pass or an Interagency Pass is also applicable.
Natural Features
This is a historic site in an attractive old-growth forest setting. The campground was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937. Camp sites for tent camping are located under trees around the edge of the foundation of the old resort hotel that was built in 1910 and burned in 1935, in an unusual configuration for a campground. The Iron Mike Bubbling Spring (closed) once provided mineral water that was thought to have medicinal properties. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (509) 395-3402.
What the agency tells you
There is no electricity at the campground and cell phone reception is poor.
There are no hookups.
Maximum vehicle length is 18 feet.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Don't Move Firewood: Please protect Pacific Northwest forests by preventing the spread of invasive species. Firewood can carry insects and diseases that can threaten the health of our western forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 4
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Fall color · reported 8 days ago, 29 km away
- Patchy color
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:40 UTC
recreation.gov lists 1 of the 4 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 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 15:40 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
4 sites
All 4 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 4 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
Forlorn Lakes CG (WA) Gifford Pinchot NFGifford Pinchot National Forest · 0.0 mi
Goose Lake CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 0.0 mi
Horseshoe Lake CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 0.0 miKeenes HorsecampGifford Pinchot National Forest · 0.0 miFrom Carson, Washington travel north on Wind River Highway/Forest Road to the Fish Hatchery. Just past the Fish Hatchery, after about 13.5 miles, Forest Road 30 forms a V with Forest Road 3065. At this V take the left fork on to 3065 and continue for about a mile to the campground.
The agency publishes this point for 13 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Trout Lake, WA
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 26°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Government Mineral Springs Campground is in Washington’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: C. See every public-lands vote →