North Shore (CA)
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 9 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $29–$56Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2726 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
North Shore Campground is a quiet place to camp, away from the hustle and bustle of nearby cities. The campground is nestled among Southern California's pine-covered mountains, providing ample opportunity for outdoor relaxation and recreation. Keep reading
Recreation
The North Shore National Recreation Trail connects the campground with Papoose Lake (trail is not accessible). The 1.7-mile trail descends through a mixed conifer forest and settles along Little Bear Creek, providing scenic views of the surrounding area . Please note, nearby Lake Arrowhead is a private lake.
Facilities
The campground offers multiple single-family campsites, available mostly for tent camping. Some sites can accommodate RVs, but hookups are not available. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided.
Natural Features
The campground is located 23 miles northeast of San Bernardino in the San Bernardino National Forest. It is about 3 miles from the community of Lake Arrowhead. Settled in an oak woodland environment, the campground is close to many outdoor amenities. Lake Arowhead is a private lake, no access available.
Nearby Attractions
Lake Gregory is located 40 minute away and offers fishing, boat rentals and a waterslide park. Lake Arrowhead is a private lake, no public access.
Charges & Cancellations
Rules & Reservation Policies As you make travel plans that include reservations on Recreation.gov, there are standard policies that apply to most locations of which you should be aware. Do keep in mind, however, that there are many exceptions, so it is best to review reservation information listed on individual facility pages for those policies and procedures that pertain to your specific locations. Any location or activity requiring a permit or lottery will have unique requirements and policies. Please check individual facility pages for pertinent information for those sites. Booking Window For most locations, you can reserve six months in advance of your stay for individual sites and 12 months in advance for group sites. There are some exceptions, so it is best to check with each facility. Change and Cancellation Policies and Fees Overnight and Day Use Facilities: To ensure fairness, reservation arrival or departure dates may not be changed beyond the booking window until 18 days after booking the reservation. Camping / Day Use: A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation (including campsites, cabins, lookouts, group facilities, etc.). The $10.00 service fee will be deducted from the refund amount. You can cancel or change reservations through Recreation.gov or by calling 1-877-444-6777. Tours & Tickets: You may request changes to tour dates at no cost before the arrival date. If you cancel before your tour date, you may be eligible for a refund. Cancellation fees apply. Please check the tour facility description details page for cancellation policies. Permits: Varies by location. Please check the permit details for the permit location. Late Cancellations Overnight and Day Use Facilities: Late cancellations are those cancelled between 12:01 a.m. (Eastern) on the day before arrival and check out time on the day after arrival. Individual Campsites: If a customer cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival they will be charged a $10.00 service fee and will also forfeit the first night's use fee (not to exceed the total paid for the original reservation). Cancellations for a single night's reservation will forfeit the entire use fee but no cancellation fee will apply. Cabins / Lookouts: Customers will be charged a $10.00 cancellation fee and forfeit the first night's use fee if a cabin or lookout reservation is cancelled within 14 days of the scheduled arrival date. Cancellations for a single night's use will not be assessed a service fee. Group Facility: If a customer cancels a group overnight facility reservation within 14 days of the scheduled arrival date they will be charged the $10.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's use fee. Cancellations for a single night's use will not be assessed a service fee. Group Day Use Area: If a customer cancels a group day use facility reservation within 14 days of the scheduled arrival date, they will forfeit the total day use fee with no service fee charge. No-Shows Camping / Day Use: A camping no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Reserved campsites and group overnight facilities will be held until check-out time on the day following your scheduled arrival. Group day-use facilities will be held until check-in time on your scheduled arrival date. If a customer does not arrive at the campground or group facility by check-out time the day after arrival or does not cancel the reservation by the times listed under "Late Cancellations" above, the customer may be assessed a $20.00 service fee and forfeit use fees. Tours: A tour or ticket no-show is one who does not cancel a ticket before arrival and does not arrive for the tour. Tour no-shows are not entitled to a refund. Refunds Customers must request refunds no later than 14 days after the scheduled departure date. Recreation.gov will not grant refund requests after 14 days of departure. Reservation Fee: For some facilities, tours or permits an additional reservation fee is charged. For some overnight and day-use facilities, an additional non-refundable reservation fee may apply. The non-refundable reservation fee for tours and tickets is $1.00. The non-refundable reservation fee for permits varies by location. Refunds for Bankcard Purchases: Refunds for bank card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank card. Refunds for Check or Cash Purchases: Refunds for Recreation.gov payments made by check or money order, and cash payments at selected campgrounds will be issued a check refund. A refund will be processed within 30 days of receipt and approval. Please Note: Refund requests made during or after departure can only be processed when approved by the facility management staff based upon local policy. Refunds for Emergency Closures: In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team will attempt to notify users and offer alternate dates (as appropriate). If this is not possible, reservations will be cancelled and all fees paid will be refunded. Reservation fees for free tickets are non-refundable in the event of an emergency closure. Recreation.gov Billing Information Reservation transaction will appear on customer's credit card statements as "Recreation.gov 877-444-6777." Changes to Policies and Procedures Recreation.gov reserves the right, when necessary, to modify reservation policies. These policies were last updated July
What the agency tells you
Lake Arrowhead is a private lake, no public access.
Click here for more information on the San Bernardino 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.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Lake Gregory is located 40 minute away and offers fishing, boat rentals and a waterslide park.
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
In accordance with standard industry practices, Mountain Top Recreation will be assessing a $8 additional vehicle fee per night on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicles in any double family campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the first vehicle by a hitch and towed onto the site. In the case of motorcycles, the first two are considered to be one vehicle and the third and fourth are also considered to be one vehicle. No additional vehicle fees are collected for bicycles. The fee will be collected at the campground if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at your site.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 27 · 24 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 26 ft
- Paved pads
- 23 of 27
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…a table and campfire ring with grill. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…ring with grill. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features The campground is…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 1169th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 5
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 26 of the 27 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 · 15
What you actually pay
“In accordance with standard industry practices, Mountain Top Recreation will be assessing a $8 additional vehicle fee per night on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle…” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $29–$56 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.
“Camping / Day Use: A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation (including campsites, cabins, lookouts, group facilities, etc.). The $10.00 service fee will be deducted from the refund amount.” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
43 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 22 mapped sitesAll 43 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. 27 of the 43 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 NORTH SHORE | 001 | type not stated | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX | unnamed record | 35 ft | $56 | ||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX10 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX11 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX12 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX13 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX14 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX15 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX16 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX2 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX3 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX4 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX5 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX6 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX7 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX8 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| AREA NORTH SHORE | XXX9 | unnamed record | $56 | |||
| NORT | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | $29 | ||
| NORT | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 50 ft | 1,544 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 47 ft | 1,546 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 47 ft | 1,550 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 52 ft | 1,559 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 54 ft | 1,584 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 65 ft | 1,572 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 66 ft | 1,562 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 66 ft | 1,627 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 011 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 212 ft | 1,705 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | $29 | ||
| NORT | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | $29 | ||
| NORT | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 44 ft | 1,668 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 40 ft | 1,701 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 40 ft | 1,737 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 49 ft | 1,775 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 018 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 70 ft | 1,787 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 019 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 70 ft | 1,841 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 020 | tent only nonelectric | 26 ft | 130 ft | 1,978 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 021 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 85 ft | 1,803 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 022 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 70 ft | 1,805 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 023 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 70 ft | 1,847 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 024 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | $29 | ||
| NORT | 025 | tent only nonelectric | 10 ft | 117 ft | 1,964 ft | $29 |
| NORT | 026 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 130 ft | 1,875 ft | $29–$56 |
| NORT | 027 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 130 ft | 2,018 ft | $29–$56 |
The agency files 16 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It types every one of them MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
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 43 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
DogwoodSan Bernardino National Forest · 3.4 mi
Fishermans GroupSan Bernardino National Forest · 3.6 mi
Tent Peg GroupSan Bernardino National Forest · 3.9 mi
Crab FlatsSan Bernardino National Forest · 4.7 mi
Green ValleySan Bernardino National Forest · 6.2 miFrom San Bernardino, take Highway 18 about 20 miles to the Lake Arrowhead exit. Take Highway 173 for 5 miles to the northeast side of the lake. Turn right on Hospital Road and follow it to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lake Arrowhead, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°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 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
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
North Shore (CA) is in California’s 23rd congressional district. Its representative, Jay Obernolte (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →