U.S. Forest Service · Gifford Pinchot National Forest · WA
Horseshoe Lake Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 33 mi
Wildfire
Mckinley fire · 33 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 14, 2026
Wildfire
Garda Falls fire · 43 mi away · 200 acres · 0% contained · updated Oct 17, 2026
Wildfire
Sluiskin fire · 45 mi away · 0 acres · 0% contained · updated Oct 17, 2026
Wildfire
West Fork fire · 45 mi away · 310 acres · 16% contained · updated Oct 3, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 17, 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
4,150 ftElevation
113 ftWater · an unnamed pond
37.2 miSE of Morton, WA
72%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 122nd darkest of 400 in WA
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
The campground is a rustic site situated on a 24 acre lake, and offers most campers a view of the water. The campground is small with only 11 campsites. Fishing, boating (electric motors only), and hiking are available. Trail access to Mt. Adams Wilderness is nearby at Killen Creek trailhead. Nearby access to Green Mountain Trail #110 , High Lakes Trail #116 , Spring Creek Trail #115 . View a map of Horseshoe Lake Campground (.pdf).
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Fall color · reported 9 days ago, 17 km away
- Patchy color
Source: Stated in the agency description
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (17 km) · Oct 8, 2026
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. 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
Runs itRocky Mountain Recreation CompanyA private concessionaire under permit from U.S. Forest Service (parent: ExplorUS)the operator link
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What this campground addsits own record
Extra vehicleSee the note
“Camping : Single Site/$20 Extra Vehicle :$8” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 5
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
What this campground adds: The U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record and notices for this campground, quoted verbatim. An extra-vehicle charge is set locally and appears on no national schedule, so it’s never assumed. · Aug 24, 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 here
Killen Creek CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 1.4 mi
Takhlakh Lake CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 2.5 mi
Olallie Lake CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 2.9 mi
Adams Fork CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 4.4 miTwin Falls CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 8.1 mi
Walupt Lake CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 9.1 mi
Killen Creek CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 1.4 miTakhlakh Lake CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 2.5 miOlallie Lake CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 2.9 miAdams Fork CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 4.4 miTwin Falls CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 8.1 miWalupt Lake CampgroundGifford Pinchot National Forest · 9.1 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Overnight40°Chance Light Rain29% rain
Saturday47°Light Rain Likely then Partly Sunny55% rain
Saturday Night29°Widespread Frost
Sunday51°Widespread Frost then Partly Sunny
NWS forecast for Trout Lake, WA
Source: National Weather Service, PQR forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
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.
Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Oct 9, 2026
Who answers for this land
Horseshoe Lake 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: F. 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 (17 km) · Oct 8, 2026
Reported by: iNaturalist fall color observations, reported patchy color · Oct 8, 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.
Nearest place of any size: Trout Lake, WA, 19.7 mi N (a census designated place). Straight line.