Lookout Campground
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $20–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 18All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – October 31Open May 1 through October 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lookout Campground is located on the California/Nevada border just west of Reno, Nevada. It sits at an elevation of 6,770 feet in a large aspen grove. It is not a highly developed campground, but it is considered a secret hideaway by those lucky enough to know about this remote gem. Keep reading
Recreation
Adjacent to the campground is 'Crystal Peak', which can be accessed by vehicle or a short hike. This area is also popular for off-highway vehicles, wildlife viewing, and hunting opportunities.
Facilities
This campground has 17 first-come, first-served campsites (including two double sites) and one reservable group picnic area that can accommodate up to 100 people. Each campsite has a picnic table, fire ring, grill, and tent pad. There are four vault toilets and trash service. There are no electric hookups and no dump stations. Trailers and RVs should be limited to 15 feet in length (however, two sites could accommodate up to 30 foot lengths). To ensure that campfires are extinguished completely, there is non-potable water available on site (no drinking water available). Please bring your own firewood as none is available on site.
Natural Features
Visitors to this campground will be surrounded by a lush aspen, pine, and fir forest. Sites are well spaced to afford visitors plenty of privacy.
Nearby Attractions
Crystal Peak is known for its impressive crystal formations. Dog Valley and Peavine Mountain are popular off-highway vehicle and mountain biking areas. The American Discovery Trail also runs through this area.
What the agency tells you
Don't Move Firewood: Help prevent the spread of tree-killing pests in our national forests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 18
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…grill, and tent pad. There are four vault toilets and trash service. There are no electric hookups…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…is non-potable water available on site (no drinking water available). Please bring your own firewood as none…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- Night sky · 1050th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 32 km away
- No change
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
20 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 20 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 18 of the 20 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop A | 01 - Host | host pad | 20 ft | $20–$30 | ||
| Loop A | 02 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 74 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 03 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 74 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 04 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 130 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 05 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 77 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 06 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 77 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 07 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 50 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 08 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 50 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 09 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 81 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 10 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 81 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 11 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 98 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 12 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 87 ft | 1.5 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 13 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 87 ft | 1.6 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 14 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 83 ft | 1.6 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 15 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 83 ft | 1.6 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 16 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 79 ft | 1.6 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 17 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 79 ft | 1.6 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A | 18 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 84 ft | 1.6 mi | $20–$30 |
| Loop A Group | 19 | day use | 20 ft | 1.6 mi | $60 | |
| S&P | Standard S&P | type not stated | 20 ft | $20 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night: 1 it files as day use and 1 it names a host pad. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sardine Peak LookoutTahoe National Forest · 7.0 mi
Emigrant GroupTahoe National Forest · 8.5 miBear Valley CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 8.9 mi
Logger CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 8.9 mi
Boyington MillTahoe National Forest · 11 mi
Lower Little TruckeeTahoe National Forest · 11 miFrom Truckee, CA travel east on I-80. Take Exit 2 toward Verdi, NV. Turn right on 3rd St./US 40. Travel 1 mile then turn left on Bridge St. From Reno, NV travel west on I-80. Take Exit 5 toward Verdi, NV/State Route 425. Stay on Route 425 for 2.5 miles. Turn right on Bridge St. NOTE: Bridge Street has 2 one lane bridges with a maximum allowable height of 13 feet. Travel 0.6 miles on Bridge St, then turn right on Dog Valley Road. This road will turn into a dirt forest road (Road #002). Travel 7.2 miles. This road can be rough and often develops washboards. It can be navigated with 2-wheel drive (although low clearance vehicles are not recommended). Continue to follow signs to campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Verdi, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 65°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 28°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 moreOutside the published season
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
Lookout Campground 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 →