Highland Lakes Campground
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $25From, per site
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
var $j = jQuery;$j.noConflict();$j(window).load(function() {$j('#slider3').nivoSlider( {effect: 'fade',startSlide: 0,animSpeed: 750,pauseTime: 8000});}); Highland Lakes Campground is set in conifer forest adjacent to a meadow at the north end of the second (lower) lake. There are two separate camping areas, a large one along Highland Lakes Road and a smaller one on a hill above the lake. See the Highland Lakes page for more information on the lakes and activities there.
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Meadow
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 32 km away
- Peak color
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and a night costs $25 with nothing added. 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.
Every line of the receipt · 9
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($25), 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
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Pacific Valley CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 5.6 miHermit Valley CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 6.0 mi
Sand Flat CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 6.0 miSand Flat Campground (4wd only)Stanislaus National Forest · 6.0 mi
Mosquito Lakes CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 6.1 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bear Valley, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 20°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 8°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 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
Highland Lakes Campground 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 →