Indian Creek Campground (CA)
1Heads up1 fire 41 mi away
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 17:00 UTC
- A night
- $20–$32When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 31In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Due to the extensive damage sustained in the 2021 Tamarack Fire, Indian Creek Campground is CLOSED at this time and will remain closed until the area can be made safe for public access and facilities can be rebuilt. Updated Press Release . Indian Creek Campground is nestled in the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada between the California towns of Woodfords and Markleeville. Elevation in the area ranges from 5,600 feet at the reservoir to 6,400 feet in the surrounding foothills. Pine trees and sagebrush dot the landscape. Summers are generally warm and dry with daytime temperatures occasionally reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit, while evenings are cool and comfortable. Sunny and dry days prevail, interspersed with periods of spectacular thunderstorms in the mid-summer months. Keep reading
Recreation
Many recreational opportunities are available at Indian Creek Campground and the surrounding area including fishing, camping, picnicking, hiking, sailing, mountain biking, nature study, rock collecting, sightseeing, wildlife viewing, bicycling, white-water rafting and photography. Fishing is by far the most popular activity. Trout are stocked in the reservoir and the river; the nearby East Fork of the Carson River is managed as a trophy fishery.
Facilities
A campground with 30 sites is situated next to Indian Creek Reservoir. The campground has an RV/tent loop, a tent walk-to loop and group camp area. The RV/tent loop has 19 sites that are suitable for recreational vehicles up to 34 feet in length or tents. The walk-to tent loop has 10 sites with parking nearby. A group campsite (tents only) is available for groups of up to 40 campers. The main restrooms located in the RV/tent loop have flush toilets and hot showers. Drinking water is provided. A day use area has four picnic sites, a boat ramp, large parking lot and restrooms with flush toilets.
Natural Features
Indian Creek Campground is spread over 160 acres in a forest of burnt ponderosa, Jeffrey and pinyon pines. The campground is located on the west bank of Indian Creek Reservoir. Several campsites have reservoir views through the trees.
Nearby Attractions
Opportunities to view beautiful waterfalls, snow-capped peaks and rushing mountain streams abound throughout this landscape. Consider the following: whitewater raft or kayak the East Fork of the Carson River; fish the East or West forks of the Carson River; explore South Lake Tahoe; hike along the Tahoe Rim Trail; explore off-highway vehicle routes around Hope Valley; drive out to Blue Lakes for fishing, hiking, and horseback riding; hike into the Mokelumne Wilderness; follow the Emigrant trail up from Hope Valley over Carson Pass; mountain bike along a network of logging roads; fish and boat on Silver Lake and Caples Lake; enjoy a meal at Kit Carson Lodge or Caples Lake Resort; discover the beauty of Hope Valley and visit famous Sorensen's Resort for lodging, meals and activities.
What the agency tells you
All natural features are protected; do not destroy, deface or collect. Dead and down wood however, may be used for campfires.
Bears are frequent visitors. Do not leave food overnight on tables or in tents. Use 'bear boxes' provided.
Street Legal Vehicles only! Dirt bikes, UTV and ATV use is prohibited within the campground.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
No more than one vehicle for single sites. No more than two vehicles per double sites.
No overnight camping in the day use/group site parking area.
Do not leave personal items or toiletries in the showers or bathrooms.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 31 · 10 walk-in, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- 30 of 31
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…located in the RV/tent loop have flush toilets and hot showers. Drinking water is provided. A day…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “The main restrooms located in the RV/tent loop have flush toilets and hot showers.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…loop have flush toilets and hot showers. Drinking water is provided. A day use area has four picnic sites,…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Amphitheater
- Auto Touring
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Ice Fishing
- Kayaking
- Motor Boat
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Paddling
- Night sky · 665th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 14 km away
- Peak color
Nothing to book until it reopensread 17:00 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Indian Creek Campground (CA) closed this Friday and Saturday night. The Bureau of Land Management has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Nevada Beach CampgroundToiyabe National Forest · 18 mi · 54 sites
- Lovers Leap CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 20 mi · walk-up
- Sand Flat CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 24 mi · walk-up
- Clark Fork CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 24 mi · walk-up
recreation.gov availability, read 17:00 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
32 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 28 mapped sitesAll 32 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. 28 of the 32 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Day Use | 032 | day use | 45 ft | 135 ft | |||
| Group | 031 | group walk to | 45 ft | 914 ft | 300 ft | $50 | |
| RV / Tent | 011 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 133 ft | 343 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 012 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 122 ft | 278 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 013 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 107 ft | 313 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 014 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 107 ft | 383 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 015 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 121 ft | 428 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 016 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 142 ft | 543 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 017 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 87 ft | 682 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 018 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 87 ft | 731 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 019 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 128 ft | 819 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 020 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 100 ft | 926 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 021 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 100 ft | 874 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 022 | type not stated | 1,006 ft | ||||
| RV / Tent | 023 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | yes | 100 ft | 831 ft | $20–$32 |
| RV / Tent | 024 | type not stated | 34 ft | 934 ft | |||
| RV / Tent | 025 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 100 ft | 897 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 026 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 158 ft | 787 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 027 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 127 ft | 693 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 028 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 94 ft | 566 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 029 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 90 ft | 594 ft | $20–$32 | |
| RV / Tent | 030 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 90 ft | 517 ft | $20–$32 | |
| Tent | 001 | walk to | 20 ft | 153 ft | 191 ft | $14–$20 | |
| Tent | 002 | walk to | 20 ft | 107 ft | 88 ft | $14–$20 | |
| Tent | 003 | walk to | 20 ft | 107 ft | 184 ft | $14–$20 | |
| Tent | 004 | walk to | 20 ft | 93 ft | 153 ft | $14–$20 | |
| Tent | 005 | type not stated | 20 ft | 228 ft | |||
| Tent | 006 | walk to | 20 ft | 93 ft | 159 ft | $14–$20 | |
| Tent | 007 | walk to | 20 ft | 68 ft | 107 ft | $14–$20 | |
| Tent | 008 | walk to | 20 ft | 68 ft | 164 ft | $14–$20 | |
| Tent | 009 | walk to | 20 ft | 145 ft | 292 ft | $14–$20 | |
| Tent | 010 | walk to | 28 ft | 146 ft | 384 ft | $14–$20 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 32 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Crystal SpringsToiyabe National Forest · 3.5 mi
Markleeville3.5 mi
Kit Carson CampgroundToiyabe National Forest · 6.3 mi
Hope ValleyHope Valley Reservoir Site No. 41 Water Reserve Withdrawal · 7.9 miCenterville Flat CampgroundToiyabe National Forest · 8.7 mi
Silver CreekToiyabe National Forest · 11 miFrom Woodfords, California, travel Hwy 89 south approximately four (4) miles to Airport Road. Turn left or east on Airport Road and travel another four miles on paved surface to the campground entrance located just south of Indian Creek Reservoir.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Alpine Village, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 19°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
Indian Creek Campground (CA) 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 →