CAMPANAC.Powered by public lands intelligenceMore Than Just Parks
The map
U.S. Forest Service · White Mountain National Forest · NH

Jigger Johnson Campground

First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Get directionsWhat it costs, and the rules
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
A night
$30From, per site
Drawn from the record · 1,220 ft · 83% tree cover · Swift River within reach · Bortle 3 sky
1,220 ftElevation
598 ftWater · Swift River
9.2 miW of Conway, NH
83%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 13th darkest of 28 in NH

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

Named after Jigger Johnson, an almost legendary north country woods boss during the regions colorful logging era, this campground is located along the Kancamagus Scenic Byway. The Swift River flows behind the campground and a short trail connects to the Russell-Colbath Historic Site. Its central location makes it ideal for hiking, biking, and other recreational activities in the National Forest.

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
River
Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 8.2 km away
Past peak
Source: Stated in the agency description
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (8.2 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 a night costs $30 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.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
A night$30Per site, fromthe agency’s fee record
A weekend$60DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
Runs itVista RecreationA private concessionaire under permit from U.S. Forest Servicethe operator link
Directions
Every line of the receipt · 5

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night, from$30
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

“Single Family Site Per site / per night $30.00 Extra Vehicle (Space Permitting) Per vehicle / per night $6.00” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record

What a stay costs
One night, fromDerived$30
A weekend, Friday and Saturday, fromDerived$60

Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($30), 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 · 6
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
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

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate
Coordinate43.99788, -71.33393

Where it is

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Today39°Slight Chance Rain Showers then Slight Chance Rain And Snow Showers15% rain
Tonight22°Mostly Clear14% rain
Sunday50°Sunny
Sunday Night31°Clear

NWS forecast for Bartlett, NH

Source: National Weather Service, GYX forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 34°F, day 57°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.

90°32°0°

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.

Measured at: TAMWORTH 4, NH (USC00278614), 10 miles away and 679 ft lower
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

What threatens this place

developing
Roadless
Sandwich Range16,797 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Pemigewasset Ext15,840 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Sep 30, 2026

Who answers for this land

Maggie Goodlander, official portrait

Jigger Johnson Campground is in New Hampshire’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Maggie Goodlander (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

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
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.18 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 28 rated federal campgrounds in New Hampshire · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (8.2 km) · Oct 3, 2026
Reported by: PhenoCam Network (GCC), reported past peak · 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.
Nearest place of any size: Bartlett, NH, 5.1 mi SSW (a census designated place). Straight line.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026