Hope Valley
1Heads up1 fire 38 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $32–$50Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 20All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Hope Valley Campground is located in its beautiful namesake valley at an elevation of 7,300 feet, just 40 minutes south of Lake Tahoe. Visitors enjoy fishing the West Fork Carson River and exploring local trails. Keep reading
Recreation
The West Fork Carson River runs nearby, offering rainbow and cutthroat trout fishing. Numerous trails in the area provide excellent hiking and backpacking opportunities.
Facilities
This tent and RV-friendly campground has been completely reconstructed and offers all new single and double-family campsites with picnic tables, campfire rings, grills, food storage lockers and tent pads. Vault toilets, garbage service and drinking water are provided. Firewood is available for purchase from the host.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a forest of Jeffrey and lodgepole pines on the edge of Hope Valley. The area affords views of the scenic valley and surrounding forested mountains.
Nearby Attractions
Hope Valley is only 40 miles from the beautiful Lake Tahoe. Tahoe offers excellent boating, kayaking, fishing, hiking and scenic driving opportunities.
What the agency tells you
NOTE: This is Hope Valley Campground, located on Blue Lakes Road, not Hope Valley Resort located on Hwy 88. Please make sure this is the campground you want before making your reservation.
Caution: black bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in provided food storage lockers or approved containers
A per-day, per-vehicle fee will be collected on-site for extra vehicles beginning with the second vehicle
Everything else this campground posts · 4
This campground has first-come, first-served sites
Opening and closing dates are subject to change due to existing weather conditions
Click here for more info about the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests
Don't Move Firewood: Help prevent the spread of tree-killing pests in our national forests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 20 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…food storage lockers and tent pads. Vault toilets, garbage service and drinking water are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…pads. Vault toilets, garbage service and drinking water are provided. Firewood is available for purchase…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 622nd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 3.4 km away
- Peak color
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 · 16
What you actually pay
“Per Day: $32 single/$50 double/$6 extra vehicle” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $32–$50 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
21 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 21 mapped sitesAll 21 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. 20 of the 21 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop 1 | 001 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 71 ft | 618 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 002 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 71 ft | 552 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 003 | standard nonelectric | 96 ft | 573 ft | $32–$50 | ||
| Loop 1 | 004 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 69 ft | 478 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 005 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 85 ft | 450 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 107 ft | 337 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 007 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 60 ft | 447 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 008 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 60 ft | 506 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 103 ft | 520 ft | $32–$50 | ||
| Loop 1 | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 95 ft | 572 ft | $32–$50 | ||
| Loop 1 | 011 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 95 ft | 480 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 012 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 76 ft | 298 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 013 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 72 ft | 295 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 354 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 90 ft | 289 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 90 ft | 199 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 1 | 017 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 70 ft | 224 ft | $32–$50 |
| Loop 2 | 018 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 70 ft | 155 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 2 | 019 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 81 ft | 238 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 2 | 020 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 70 ft | 350 ft | $32–$50 | |
| Loop 2 | 021 Host | host pad | 18 ft | 69 ft | 412 ft | $32–$50 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Kit Carson CampgroundToiyabe National Forest · 3.7 mi
Crystal SpringsToiyabe National Forest · 5.1 miWoods Lake CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 5.2 miCaples Lake CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 6.9 mi
Indian Creek Campground (CA)Sierra Front Field Office · 7.9 mi
Markleeville8.6 miFrom South Lake Tahoe, take Highway 89 over Luther Pass. At the junction of Highways 88 and 89, make a right and travel 2 miles west on Highway 88, then turn south and proceed to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Markleeville, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 18°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
Hope Valley 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 →