Lake Campground
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 15 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 24 of the next 24 nights; a database flag says not open read 16:24 UTC
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 8All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lake Campground offers an excellent escape from the city, just a short drive northeast of the Los Angeles metro area. It's set on the shores of Jackson Lake, providing a scenic, peaceful setting for fishing, swimming and canoeing in Angeles National Forest. Visitors enjoy exploring the Angeles Crest Scenic Byway, which offers incredible views of oak thickets, high desert landscapes, chaparral and pine forests. Keep reading
Recreation
Wildlife viewing is a popular activity, as visitors may see bobcats, mountain lions, bears and Nelson bighorn sheep. Powerboating is not permitted on Jackson Lake, so the setting is peaceful and quiet for swimming, canoeing and fishing. The lake is stocked with trout and bluegill.
Facilities
Campsites can accommodate eight campers and two vehicles. Food storage lockers, grills, picnic tables, vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood can be purchased at nearby Mountain Oak Campground.
Natural Features
Lake Campground sits at an elevation of 6,100 feet in Angeles National Forest. Campsites are secluded and shaded with scattered oak trees and Jeffrey pines. Daytime temperatures in the summer are usually in the low 80s and evenings are cool. Angeles National Forest spans nearly 695,000 acres over most of the San Gabriel Mountain Range in southern California. Vegetation ranges from chaparral and oak at lower elevations to pine forests at higher altitudes. Elevations range from 1,200 to 10,000 feet. The endangered California condor inhabits the forest. The Least Bells vireo and the Southwestern Willow flycatcher are two migratory birds that visitors enjoy spotting in the area. Other local inhabitants include the Arroyo toad, mountain yellow-legged frog, the mountain lion and the two-striped garter snake. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (760) 316-7828.
Nearby Attractions
The Angeles Crest Highway, part of California State Route 2, is a scenic byway that meanders through oak thickets, chaparral, high desert landscapes and pine tree forests. The ski resort town of Wrightwood is very close by. Restaurants and a disc golf course can be found at the North Resort. Take a hike on the Blue Ridge Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail. The Pacific Crest Trail is an impressive path that starts in Mexico and zigzags its way through Angeles and continues north across California, Oregon and Washington. Visit the Mountain High Downhill Bike Park.
What the agency tells you
It is advised that transportation remain on-site with your group in case of emergency evacuations.
Fire restrictions may be enforced due to dry conditions.
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Canoes and inflatable boats are the only boats permitted on the lake
This facility has first-come, first-served sites
Please only call the office between the hours of 7am-10pm
Click here to learn more about the Angeles National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Protect California's forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. For more information visit firewood.ca.gov.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 8
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 48 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…storage lockers, grills, picnic tables, vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood can be…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…grills, picnic tables, vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood can be purchased at nearby…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Biking
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
- Night sky · 1152nd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 5
Full this Saturdayread 16:24 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 6 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 6 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:24 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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, $30 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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:24 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
8 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 8 mapped sitesAll 8 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 8 of the 8 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA LAKE CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 45 ft | 775 ft | $30 |
| AREA LAKE CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 45 ft | 800 ft | $30 |
| AREA LAKE CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 36 ft | 672 ft | $30 |
| AREA LAKE CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 99 ft | 532 ft | $30 |
| AREA LAKE CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 99 ft | 433 ft | $30 |
| AREA LAKE CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 36 ft | 658 ft | $30 |
| AREA LAKE CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 91 ft | 297 ft | $30 |
| AREA LAKE CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 91 ft | 225 ft | $30 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Peavine CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 0.3 mi
Mountain OakSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 0.5 mi
Appletree CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 0.6 miJackson Flat Group CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 1.0 mi
Table Mountain (Angeles)San Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 2.0 miBlue Ridge CampgroundSan Gabriel Mountains National Monument · 3.0 miFrom Wrightwood, turn left on CA-2 W/Angeles Crest Highway and drive for 3.6 miles. Then turn right onto Big Pines Highway and drive 2.7 miles. Look for signs into the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Piñon Hills, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 25°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 · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Lake Campground is in California’s 28th congressional district. Its representative, Judy Chu (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyJudy ChuU.S. Representative · California’s 28th district
- 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 turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. 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 them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Lake Campground, San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, California
Dear Judy Chu, I’m a constituent in California’s 28th district. I tried to camp at Lake Campground, San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, California, and couldn’t. All 8 sites at Lake Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Lake Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Lake Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. 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 Lake Campground (San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Lake Campground, San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Lake Campground, San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, California, and couldn’t. All 8 sites at Lake Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Lake Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Lake Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. 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 Lake Campground (San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Lake Campground, San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Lake Campground, San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, California, and couldn’t. All 8 sites at Lake Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Lake Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Lake Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. 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 Lake Campground (San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, California) via campanac.com