Hampshire Rocks
1Heads up1 fire 28 mi away
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $24–$48Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 3230 on recreation.gov
- Season
- May 23 – October 15Open May 23 through October 15
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Hampshire Rocks Campground is located in the Tahoe National Forest on the banks of the South Yuba River, near the Rainbow/Big Bend exit along Interstate 80. Visitors enjoy the area for its cool temperatures, access to the South Yuba River, fishing, and nearby trail opportunities, as well as its historic significance along the California Emigrant Trail. This facility is operated and maintained by the Tahoe National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
The South Yuba River offers swimming, and rainbow trout fishing. The surrounding area offers hiking, road biking, mountain biking, and off-road vehicle trails. The historic California Emigrant Trail passes through the campground.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family campsites, a few of which are designated for tent camping only. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the north bank of the upper South Yuba River in a forest of lodgepole pines. Some sites are adjacent to the river, which flows gently through this particular area. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (530) 265-4531.
Nearby Attractions
Donner Lake is located 14 miles east of the campground via Historic Route 40/Lincoln Highway, known as the nation's first transcontinental highway. Many points of interest lie along Route 40, including China Wall, Rainbow Bridge, Sugar Bowl, Lake Van Norden and Ice Lakes. Other attractions include Donner Summit PCT, Loch Leven, and Castle Peak Trailheads, Fordyce 4x4 jeep trail, and Grouse Ridge Non-Motorized Area.
Charges & Cancellations
No Show Policy A no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date (or for day-use facilities, by check-in time the day of arrival). * No-show customers are only recorded at staffed facilities. At most remote facilities, all customers are noted as automatically checked-in on the date of arrival. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold group day-use facilities until check-in time on the arrival date. There is no change fee if a customer extends or shortens a reservation if the change includes dates from the original reservation. If they choose to depart early, they may forfeit some or all of the recreation fees. There is no change fee if the customer changes campsites that are the same price and on the same reservation dates in the same campground. If the campsite the customer is changing to has a price difference, the customer will be responsible for any additional fees or be provided with a refund, based on the price difference. Where recorded, no-show customers are assessed a $20.00 no-show fee and forfeit the first night's recreation fee for a campsite or forfeit the entire day-use recreation fee for a day-use facility. We recommend customers contact the facility if they are en route to their reservation but cannot make it by the check-in date. In these cases, no refund will be issued, but the facility can ensure that a "no-show" fee is not assessed.
What the agency tells you
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 Yuba River Ranger District (530) 288-3231 (voice), (530) 288-3656 (TDD).
In accordance with standard industry practices, Tahoe National Forest will assess an additional $5 vehicle fee per day for the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any double family campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the first vehicle by a hitch and towed onto the site. In the case of motorcycles, the first two are considered one vehicle, and the third and fourth motorcycle are also considered one vehicle. No additional vehicle fees are collected for bicycles.
Freeway noise can be heard from campground
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Click here for more information on the Tahoe 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.
No Show Policy A no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date (or for day-use facilities, by check-in time the day of arrival). * No-show customers are only recorded at staffed facilities. At most remote facilities, all customers are noted as automatically checked-in on the date of arrival. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold group day-use facilities until check-in time on the arrival date. There is no change fee if a customer extends or shortens a reservation if the change includes dates from the original reservation. If they choose to depart early, they may forfeit some or all of the recreation fees. There is no change fee if the customer changes campsites that are the same price and on the same reservation dates in the same campground. If the campsite the customer is changing to has a price difference, the customer will be responsible for any additional fees or be provided with a refund, based on the price difference. Where recorded, no-show customers are assessed a $20.00 no-show fee and forfeit the first night's recreation fee for a campsite or forfeit the entire day-use recreation fee for a day-use facility. We recommend customers contact the facility if they are en route to their reservation but cannot make it by the check-in date. In these cases, no refund will be issued, but the facility can ensure that a "no-show" fee is not assessed.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 32 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features The campground is…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic Sites
- Scenic drives
- Swimming
- Water access
- Night sky · 830th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 10 days ago, 32 km away
- Patchy color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 30 of the 32 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
“In accordance with standard industry practices, Tahoe National Forest will assess an additional $5 vehicle fee per day for the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any…” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $24–$48 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.
“Where recorded, no-show customers are assessed a $20.00 no-show fee and forfeit the first night's recreation fee for a campsite or forfeit the entire day-use recreation fee for a day-use facility.” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
33 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 30 mapped sitesAll 33 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 31 of the 33 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| 1 | 01 Host | host pad | 39 ft | 140 ft | $24–$48 | |
| 1 | 02 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 78 ft | 134 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 03 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 78 ft | 121 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 04 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 71 ft | 141 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 05 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 71 ft | 150 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 06 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 98 ft | 181 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 07 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 70 ft | 209 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 08 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 70 ft | 159 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 09 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 97 ft | 100 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 10 (double) | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 95 ft | 182 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 11 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 70 ft | 90 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 12 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 58 ft | 158 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 13 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 66 ft | 101 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 14 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 58 ft | 170 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 15 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 131 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 16 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 67 ft | 199 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 17 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 100 ft | 196 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 18 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 61 ft | 286 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 19 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 61 ft | 335 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 20 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 100 ft | 382 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 21 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 64 ft | 338 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 22 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 64 ft | 392 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 23 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 69 ft | 311 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 24 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 80 ft | 373 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 25 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 95 ft | 270 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 26 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 92 ft | 351 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 27 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 69 ft | 326 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 28 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 69 ft | 298 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 29 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 101 ft | 265 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 30 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 100 ft | 237 ft | $24–$48 |
| 1 | 31 | tent only nonelectric | 32 ft | 102 ft | 236 ft | |
| S&P | Double S&P | type not stated | 45 ft | $24–$48 | ||
| S&P | Single S&P | type not stated | 39 ft | $24–$48 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 33 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Big Bend Group (Yuba River)Tahoe National Forest · 1.1 miWoodchuck CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 1.8 miSterling Lake CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 3.0 mi
Indian SpringsTahoe National Forest · 3.9 miMeadow Lake CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 6.8 miMeadow Lake Shoreline Campground7.3 miFrom Truckee, Calif., take Highway 80 west 17 miles. Take the Rainbow/Big Bend exit. If westbound, turn left under the freeway to the campground entrance. If eastbound, turn right at the stop sign.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Kingvale, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 48°F, day 63°F.
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
Hampshire Rocks 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 →