Lewis
1Heads up1 fire 29 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 4038 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lewis Campground is located on French Meadows Reservoir in the Tahoe National Forest, 40 miles east Foresthill. Visitors enjoy the area for its fishing, boating and trail opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
Popular activities on the reservoir include boating, canoeing, fishing and swimming. McGuire boat ramp is located within a mile of the campground. The Middle Fork American River can be accessed nearby and provides fishing and swimming. A variety of hiking and biking trails are found in the surrounding area, including the Western States Trail, Tevis Cup Trail, and some that provide access to the nearby Granite Chief Wilderness.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family campsites, a few of which are accessible. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and a grill. Flush and vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking spurs are paved.
Natural Features
The campground sits on the north shore of French Meadows Reservoir in a coniferous forest. The reservoir is on the Middle Fork of the American River and is the western gateway to the Granite Chief Wilderness.
Nearby Attractions
Lewis Campground is a recreation site within the French Meadows Recreation Area which includes many other recreation facilities. The Granite Chief Wilderness can be accessed nearby at Talbot Trailhead and access to the Western States Trail and Tevis Cup Trail also can be accessed nearby. Other recreation opportunities include many hiking, equestrian, mountain biking, and motorcycle singletrack trails, Duncan Canyon, Duncan Peak Lookout, Robinson Flat historic ranger station, Placer County Big Tree Grove Botanical Area, and Grouse Falls Scenic Area.
What the agency tells you
Water systems are on and water is potable. Water Systems at remote recreation sites can be unreliable, it is highly recommended to bring additional drinking water for your stay. If water system fails the closest services are in Foresthill, 40 miles away. Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed. For current fire conditions or weather closures contact the American River Ranger District (530) 367-2224 (voice), (530) 367-2226 (TDD).
Campground is 40 miles from Foresthill and not on Lake Tahoe
This is bear country; food must be stored in provided food storage lockers
Everything else this campground posts · 6
First-come, first-served sites may be available
Last minute gas, ice and supplies should be purchased at Foresthill
Click here for more information on the Tahoe National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Protect California's forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally in Foresthill or by using down wood debris from the area that fit within the fire ring. For more information visit firewood.ca.gov.
Large single unit RVs are not suitable for the campground roads. Even though a site might have a 40 foot parking space, a 40 foot long RV can’t navigate through the campground. Also please remember that site parking length includes trailer and vehicle.
There is no cell phone service in this area!
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 40
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…a picnic table and a grill. Flush and vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and a grill. Flush and vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking spurs are paved.…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Meadow
- Biking
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Scenic drives
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 768th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 11 days ago, 20 km away
- Patchy color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 38 of the 40 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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, $20 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
40 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 38 mapped sitesAll 40 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. 38 of the 40 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| EAST | 001 | type not stated | 40 ft | 364 ft | |||
| EAST | 002 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 120 ft | 484 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 003 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 78 ft | 478 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 004 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | yes | 78 ft | 405 ft | $20 |
| EAST | 005 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 80 ft | 408 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 006 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 466 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 007 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 58 ft | 556 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 607 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 009 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 55 ft | 557 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 010 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 55 ft | 563 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 011 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 97 ft | 660 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 012 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 90 ft | 699 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 013 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 90 ft | 734 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 014 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 87 ft | 629 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 015 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 87 ft | 698 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 016 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 70 ft | 659 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 017 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 96 ft | 578 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 018 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 70 ft | 624 ft | $20 | |
| EAST | 019 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | yes | 103 ft | 532 ft | $20 |
| EAST | 020 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 99 ft | 503 ft | $20 |
| EAST | 021 | type not stated | 45 ft | yes | 405 ft | ||
| WEST | 022 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 60 ft | 515 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 023 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 66 ft | 499 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 024 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 66 ft | 565 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 025 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 60 ft | 575 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 026 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 85 ft | 642 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 027 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 49 ft | 682 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 028 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 81 ft | 594 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 029 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 49 ft | 675 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 030 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 85 ft | 665 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 031 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 85 ft | 612 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 032 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 89 ft | 599 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 033 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 95 ft | 575 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 034 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 76 ft | 490 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 035 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 76 ft | 480 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 036 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 97 ft | 401 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 037 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 92 ft | 434 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 038 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 92 ft | 345 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 039 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 117 ft | 293 ft | $20 | |
| WEST | 040 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 117 ft | 315 ft | $20 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 40 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Coyote GroupTahoe National Forest · 0.4 miMumford Bar CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 0.5 mi
Gates GroupTahoe National Forest · 0.8 mi
Ahart CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 1.1 mi
French MeadowsTahoe National Forest · 1.3 miPoppy CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 1.3 miHigh clearance vehicles may take Foresthill Rd to the 43 Rd (Robinson Flat Rd) to Mosquito Ridge Rd, snow permitting. Access from Soda Springs and the 43 Rd is not recommended for trucks with trailers, motorhomes/RV's or passenger vehicles that are not high clearance vehicles with four wheel drive. It is 6 miles around the lake to the north shore, Lewis Campground will be on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sunnyside-Tahoe City, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 21°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
Lewis 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 →