U.S. Forest Service · Wenatchee National Forest · WA
Handy Springs Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 20 mi
Wildfire
Little Giant fire · 20 mi away · 172,912 acres · 95% contained · updated Oct 14, 2026
Wildfire
Sisi fire · 32 mi away · 4,615 acres · 34% contained · updated Oct 14, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 14, 2026
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- FreeNo camping fee
6,430 ftElevation
1,705 ftWater · North Fork Thirtyfive Mile Creek
12.4 miNW of Manson, WA
47%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 127th darkest of 400 in WA
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
This campground offers one tent-only site. Lake Chelan Boat-in and Drive-to Campground Guide and Map
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 30 km away
- Peak color
Source: Stated in the agency description
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (30 km) · Oct 3, 2026
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and it costs nothing at all. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
A nightFreeNo camping feethe agency’s fee record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
Camping feeFree
No fee.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
A night, and a whole weekendDerivedNothing
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
Sign price: Derived by CAMPANAC from the U.S. Forest Service fee record: a stated per-night amount only · Sep 7, 2026
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near hereJunior Point CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 1.2 miGrouse Mountain CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 4.7 miCorral Creek CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 4.8 miSafety Harbor Campground [CLOSED]Wenatchee National Forest · 5.1 mi
Lake Creek Campground - Entiat RiverWenatchee National Forest · 5.6 miDeer Point CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 5.7 mi
Lake Creek Campground - Entiat RiverWenatchee National Forest · 5.6 miDeer Point CampgroundWenatchee National Forest · 5.7 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Tonight40°Partly Cloudy then Chance Light Rain26% rain
Saturday45°Chance Light Rain then Partly Sunny26% rain
Saturday Night32°Mostly Clear
Sunday41°Mostly Sunny
NWS forecast for Manson, WA
Source: National Weather Service, OTX forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
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.
Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026
Who answers for this land
Handy Springs Campground is in Washington’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Kim Schrier (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (30 km) · Oct 3, 2026
Reported by: iNaturalist fall color observations, reported peak color · Oct 3, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.