Marion Mountain
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 9 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 23 of the next 23 nights read 15:50 UTC
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 2616 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Marion Mountain Campground offers a beautiful retreat in the San Bernardino National Forest. It provides access to a number of hiking trails that lead to some of the most spectacular views of Southern California. The San Bernardino National Forest is submitting a proposal to increase fees at various sites across the Forest and is seeking public input. Please visit the https://www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf for more information and to submit comments regarding this proposal. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors enjoy sport climbing on rocks within the campground. Hiking on the nearby Marion Mountain Trail, which leads to San Jacinto Peak, is also available. Views from the peak extend to the ocean and across the Palm Desert, as well as the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains on a clear day. The 11.8-mile Marion Mountain Trail is the shortest route up the mountain, but also quite strenuous in areas. Shorter hikes can be enjoyed on other nearby trails.
Facilities
Marion Mountain campground offers about two dozen campsites for both tent and small RV / van camping. All campsites are equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Vault toilets are available within the campground. Please be aware that potable (safe for drinking) water may or may not be available at this campground. Please plan accordingly.
Natural Features
The campground is located in a forested area at an elevation of 6,400 feet. Mature cedar and pine trees provide ample shade and privacy between campsites.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is located approximately 50 miles from San Bernardino, California, and seven miles north of Idyllwild, which is popular for its small-town atmosphere and variety of shops and restaurants.
What the agency tells you
Fire Restrictions may be in effect, check in with the San Jacinto Ranger District by calling (909) 382-2921 to confirm. Wood and charcoal fires are permitted. Cooking stoves or fireplaces using gas, jellied petroleum, or pressurized liquid fuel are still allowed.
Please be aware that potable (safe for drinking) water may or may not be available at this campground. Please plan accordingly.
Basic camping fee ($20.00) covers the first vehicle. Extra vehicle fee of $5.00 / night / vehicle should be deposited into the fee tube located at the entrance to the campground within 30 minutes of arrival.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Sites may be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Camping Fees of $20.00 / night and $5.00 / night / extra vehicle may be paid at the campground.
Click here for more information on the San Bernardino National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 26 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 26
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Not allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tables and campfire rings with grills. Vault toilets are available within the campground. Please be…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Coast
- Biking
- Fire Lookouts/Cabins Overnight
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Night sky · 1127th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 15:50 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 12 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 16 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:50 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 · 14
What you actually pay
“$10 per night (incudes 1 vehicle) + $5 each additional vehicle payable at the campground.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:50 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
27 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 27 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 24 of the 27 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 26 of the 27 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA MARION MOUNTAIN | 003 | type not stated | 2,490 ft | 42 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA MARION MOUNTAIN | 004 | type not stated | 2,484 ft | 41 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA MARION MOUNTAIN | 005 | type not stated | 2,470 ft | 74 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA MARION MOUNTAIN | 009 | type not stated | 2,551 ft | 162 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA MARION MOUNTAIN | 013 | type not stated | 2,617 ft | 102 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA MARION MOUNTAIN | 014 | type not stated | 2,542 ft | 219 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA MARION MOUNTAIN | 016 | type not stated | 2,597 ft | 264 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA MARION MOUNTAIN | 023 | type not stated | 2,455 ft | 312 ft | $20–$33.97 | ||
| AREA MARION MOUNTAIN | XXX | unnamed record | 20 ft | $20–$33.97 | |||
| MARI | 001 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 31 ft | 2,532 ft | 65 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 002 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 31 ft | 2,506 ft | 50 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 006 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 47 ft | 2,467 ft | 107 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 007 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 38 ft | 2,487 ft | 138 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 38 ft | 2,513 ft | 162 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 74 ft | 2,584 ft | 156 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 011 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 2,588 ft | 91 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 012 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 2,617 ft | 93 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 015 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 117 ft | 2,565 ft | 211 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 18 ft | 2,572 ft | 340 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 018 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 18 ft | 2,583 ft | 355 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 019 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 22 ft | 2,534 ft | 389 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 020 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | 2,502 ft | 395 ft | $20 | |
| MARI | 021 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 22 ft | 2,515 ft | 378 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 022 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 66 ft | 2,447 ft | 345 ft | $20 |
| MARI | 024 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 66 ft | 2,469 ft | 280 ft | $20 |
| S&P | Scan & Pay Standard | type not stated | $20–$33.97 | ||||
| S&P | Scan & Pay Tent | type not stated | $20–$33.97 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It types it MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 27 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Fern BasinSan Bernardino National Forest · 0.4 miDark Canyon CampgroundSan Bernardino National Forest · 0.8 mi
Boulder BasinSan Bernardino National Forest · 2.7 mi
Black Mountain Group CampgroundSan Bernardino National Forest · 2.9 mi
Black Mountain (San Bernardino)San Bernardino National Forest · 3.0 miWhitewater PreserveSand To Snow National Monument · 14 miFrom Interstate 10 in Banning, take Highway 243 south for about 20 miles to Alandale. Travel east on Stone Creek Campground Road for about 2 miles to Marion Mountain Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Idyllwild-Pine Cove, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 51°F, day 69°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 36°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Marion Mountain is in California’s 41st congressional district. Its representative, Ken Calvert (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. 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 moneyKen CalvertU.S. Representative · California’s 41st 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 Marion Mountain, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Ken Calvert, I’m a constituent in California’s 41st district. I tried to camp at Marion Mountain, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 16 of the 26 campsites the agency files at Marion Mountain, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Marion Mountain keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Marion Mountain. 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 Marion Mountain (San Bernardino National Forest, 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 Marion Mountain, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Marion Mountain, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 16 of the 26 campsites the agency files at Marion Mountain, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Marion Mountain keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Marion Mountain. 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 Marion Mountain (San Bernardino National Forest, 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 Marion Mountain, San Bernardino National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Marion Mountain, San Bernardino National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 16 of the 26 campsites the agency files at Marion Mountain, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 12 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Marion Mountain keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Marion Mountain. 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 Marion Mountain (San Bernardino National Forest, California) via campanac.com