(Lake Alpine) Backpackers
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $32From, per site
- Sites
- 8All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Backpackers' Campground is located on the East end of Lake Alpine, CA. All sites are walk-in tent sites. Cars cannot be parked in camp, parking is available on the adjacent street. Backpackers' Campground is located in the Calveras Ranger District, in a timbered setting near several trailheads. Campground may open earlier and close later as weather (snow level) allows. This information will be posted on this page as soon as it becomes available. The current dates for reservations have historically allowed for comfortable camping, but please take into consideration the high alpine location when making a reservation. It is possible to have snow, rain, mud, and overall cold/wet conditions any time of year. Keep reading
Recreation
Lake Alpine provides a wide variety of recreational opportunities: fishing, hiking, biking, kayaking, paddle-boarding, boating, OHV trails, swimming, rock climbing, and wildlife watching. Interpretive programs are offered by Forest Service rangers during the summer months.
Facilities
Campsites with room for up to 6 people, 2 tents, and 2 vehicles per campsite. Picnic tables, campfire rings, vault toilets are available. Hot showers and laundromat available at nearby Lake Alpine Resort. No electricity or hook-ups. Pets are welcome. Firewood, camping and fishing supplies, food, and apparel is available in the general store at Lake Alpine Lodge.
Natural Features
SIlver Valley Campground sits at an elevation of 7,400 feet on the east end of Lake Alpine within the Stanislaus National Forest. The forest lies between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite and boasts gorgeous views.
Nearby Attractions
A restaurant, bar, general store, and boat rentals can be found at nearby Lake Alpine Lodge. The immediate area is suited for forest and wilderness recreation. A short car ride away is Big Trees State Park, Grover Hot Springs, Mercer Caverns, Mountain Adventure Seminars, and the wine country of Calaveras County.
What the agency tells you
This is bear country-Be bear aware! Keep all food out of sight in containers or inside a locked vehicle. Remove all food from the area after eating.
All campsites at this campground are tent sites, they do not have a parking space within the campsite. There is parking along the adjacent street.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 8 · 8 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS (SEASONAL) on 8 of 8 campsite records
- Showers
- Seasonal Showers
- SHOWERS (SEASONAL) on 8 of 8 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 8 of 8 campsite records
- Store
- Nearby
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Lake
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Climbing
- Disc Golf
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Kayaking
- Motor Boat
- Mountain biking
- Mountain Climbing
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Swimming
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 31 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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $32 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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
8 sites
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
(Lake Alpine) West ShoreStanislaus National Forest · 0.3 mi
(Lake Alpine) Silver Tip CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 0.8 mi
(Lake Alpine) Pine MartenStanislaus National Forest · 0.8 miBackpacker's Walk-In CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 0.8 mi
(Lake Alpine) Silver Valley CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 1.0 mi
(Lake Alpine) Lodgepole CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 1.1 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bear Valley, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 23°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
(Lake Alpine) Backpackers 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 →