Juniper Lake Group
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A public campground shut with nobody having to say why isn’t good enough.Ask why it’s closed →
- Right now
- ClosedThe agency’s own sentence, quoted below
- Sites
- 2In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Juniper Lake Group Campground (elevation 6,800 feet) is a remote, rustic facility in the southeastern part of Lassen Volcanic National Park. It is on the eastern shore of Juniper Lake, a popular swimming spot, and offers a fantastic view of Lassen Peak, the largest volcano in the park, towering at 10,457 feet. Keep reading
Recreation
The main trailheads for Horseshoe Lake, Snag Lake and the interior of the park are within the facility. The Mount Harkness Trail ascends to a historic fire tower that is still in use. Juniper Lake is popular for canoeing, kayaking and swimming; Motorized boating is not permitted.
Facilities
This is a tent-only facility with two group sites. Drinking water is not available. It is connected to the rest of Juniper Lake Campground, which is all first-come, first-served. Access is via a 13-mile road (seven miles gravel, six miles roughly paved). For more information visit Campgrounds of Lassen Volcanic .
Natural Features
The national park is known for its volcanic history, as well as its diversity of plants and animals. It contains 300 active volcanic domes and many hydrothermal features, such as mud pots and steam vents, some of which are close to the campground. Lassen Peak is the southernmost active volcano in the Cascades, and the second-most recent volcano to erupt in the lower 48 of the United States before Mount Saint Helens in 1980. Lassen National Park boasts over 700 species of flowering plants and 250 species of vertebrates, including birds, mammals, reptiles and fish. The park is at the junction of the Cascade Mountains, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Great Basin, thus providing many unique habitats.
What the agency tells you
No potable water available, please bring your own drinking water
Reservations must be made at least 4 days in advance.
Tents only, Min 10-Max 15 persons and two licensed vehicles per site
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Entrance Fee is $30.00 per vehicle. Campers must have a valid entrance permit/pass before camping.
Pets must be on a 6' leash, not be left unattended and are not allowed on park trails
No motorized boats permitted on the lake
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2 · 2 tent-only, 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Boating
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 24 km away
- Peak color
Nothing to book until it reopens
Juniper Lake Campground is closed.
The closure above is the reading. We hold no availability snapshot for this campground, so there’s no thirty-night strip to draw under it.
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 · 8
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 · 3
What the agency said · 1
Juniper Lake Campground is closed. Work is in progress to re-open. 2026 Campground Closure 2026-01-01 to 2026-12-31
National Park Service · the source publishes no posting date
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Backcountry Camping in Lassen's WildernessLassen Volcanic National Park · 4.3 mi · 99 sites
- Warner Creek CampgroundLassen National Forest · 6.1 mi · walk-up
- Big Pine CampgroundLassen National Forest · 16 mi · walk-up
- Hat CreekLassen National Forest · 17 mi · 78 sites
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites · the site map
All 2 sites
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Juniper Lake Stock CorralLassen Volcanic National Park · 0.0 mi
Backcountry Camping in Lassen's WildernessLassen Volcanic National Park · 4.3 mi
Warner Valley CampgroundLassen Volcanic National Park · 5.3 miWarner Creek CampgroundLassen National Forest · 6.1 miDomingo Springs CampgroundLassen National Forest · 6.8 mi
Summit Lake Stock CorralLassen Volcanic National Park · 7.1 miFrom the Red Bluff (I.5), drive east on state HWY 36 approximately 70 miles to Chester. Turn left at fire station immediately after crossing Feather River Bridge (watch for National Park Service sign on right) continue approximately 13 miles follow signs to Juniper Lake Campground and Group Campsite Area. Campground access is via paved and dirt road, last 6 miles is narrow, rough and dusty dirt road.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Warner Valley, CA
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
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
Juniper Lake Group is in California’s 1st congressional district. Whoever holds it votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. See how its representative votes on public lands →
Our roster still carries Doug LaMalfa for this district and the current federal record doesn’t list them as sitting, so we’re not naming a representative here until the two agree.
Who can change it · 3
We read the agency’s notice and couldn’t get a reason out of it, so it’s filed as no reason we could read. That reading is ours. The draft to the agency asks what closed Juniper Lake Group, what reopening it would cost and what date they’re working towards. The draft to Congress asks them to put the same question in writing and to fund the answer.
- The office that runs itLassen Volcanic National ParkNational Park Service unit
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAdam B. SchiffU.S. Senator · California
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlex PadillaU.S. Senator · California
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who found out at the gate, or a week before the trip. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks what remains to be done at Juniper Lake Group, what it costs, and what date they’re working towards.
Subject Juniper Lake Group: what it would take to reopen
To the National Park Service, Lassen Volcanic National Park: I was planning to camp at Juniper Lake Group in California and found it closed. The notice says: "Juniper Lake Campground is closed. Work is in progress to re-open. 2026 Campground Closure 2026-01-01 to 2026-12-31" (https://www.nps.gov/lavo/planyourvisit/juniper-lake-campground.htm, read Oct 16, 2026) Could you tell me what closed Juniper Lake Group, what has to happen before it reopens, and what date you’re working towards? If the answer is funding or staffing you don’t have, please say so plainly. Sent about Juniper Lake Group (Lassen Volcanic National Park, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to find out what reopening Juniper Lake Group would cost, and to treat the deferred-maintenance line as the thing that decides it.
Subject Juniper Lake Group is closed (Lassen Volcanic National Park, California)
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I went to camp at Juniper Lake Group, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California and found it closed. The notice says: "Juniper Lake Campground is closed. Work is in progress to re-open. 2026 Campground Closure 2026-01-01 to 2026-12-31" (https://www.nps.gov/lavo/planyourvisit/juniper-lake-campground.htm, read Oct 16, 2026) The notice doesn’t say what closed it, which is worth asking about on its own. A campground on public land going dark with no stated reason and no reopening date isn’t something the public should have to guess at. Please ask the National Park Service, in writing, what reopening Juniper Lake Group would cost and where that work sits on their own list. And when their budget comes to a vote, treat the recreation and deferred-maintenance lines as the thing that decides whether these 2 campsites are open next season. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Juniper Lake Group (Lassen Volcanic National Park, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to find out what reopening Juniper Lake Group would cost, and to treat the deferred-maintenance line as the thing that decides it.
Subject Juniper Lake Group is closed (Lassen Volcanic National Park, California)
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I went to camp at Juniper Lake Group, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California and found it closed. The notice says: "Juniper Lake Campground is closed. Work is in progress to re-open. 2026 Campground Closure 2026-01-01 to 2026-12-31" (https://www.nps.gov/lavo/planyourvisit/juniper-lake-campground.htm, read Oct 16, 2026) The notice doesn’t say what closed it, which is worth asking about on its own. A campground on public land going dark with no stated reason and no reopening date isn’t something the public should have to guess at. Please ask the National Park Service, in writing, what reopening Juniper Lake Group would cost and where that work sits on their own list. And when their budget comes to a vote, treat the recreation and deferred-maintenance lines as the thing that decides whether these 2 campsites are open next season. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Juniper Lake Group (Lassen Volcanic National Park, California) via campanac.com