Northshore Campground - Loon Lake (CA)
1Heads up1 fire 35 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $36From, per site
- Sites
- 24All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
23 miles east of Placerville on Highway 50 and 31 miles north on Ice House Road (Forest Road 3), take the Loon Lake fork. Keep reading
Recreation
Swimming and Fishing Boat Ramp at Loon Lake Campground Picnic Area (5 sites) at the Loon Lake Boat Ramp Rubicon OHV Trail (summer) Hiking and horseback riding in Desolation Wilderness, permits available in Recreation.gov or the Placerville Ranger Station on Highway 50, Exit 54 in Camino. Day use permits area available at the Loon Lake trailhead in the summer and Placerville Ranger Station year‐round. Loon Lake Chalet rental cabin, reservations required.
Facilities
Nearby Attractions Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (831) 245-6891.
Charges & Cancellations
Change Fee: A service fee may be charged at the time a modification is made depending on the changes. Cancellation Fee: A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refunds for a cancelled reservation. Cut-Off Window: The latest date and/or time that you can make an advanced reservation or a change to an existing reservation. Cut-off windows can vary by location, but are typically 4 days before your arrival date. A customer who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee (see Late Cancellation below). Late Cancellation: If you cancel your reservation too close to the start date, additional service fees may be withheld. Refunds : Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
What the agency tells you
Travel Notice: Starting May 2024 and continuing through September 2024, Ice House Road will be undergoing repairs. There will be traffic delays so plan your camping trip accordingly.
Bears frequent the area. Keep all foods, soaps, and garbage properly stored.
Keep family pets on a leash at all times.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Forest Order No. 19-15-01: Prohibits camping for a combined total of no more than 14 days during a calendar year (January-December), forest-wide. Visitors may book campsites annually but the maximum stay may not exceed a total of 14 days each calendar year (January-December)
Please Note: One (1) vehicle per single site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee.
Fire Restrictions: 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. Call (530) 644-6048 for local information and conditions.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
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.
There is a fee to move from a reserved site to a first come first serve site. Site Transfer Policy
Click here for more information on the Eldorado National Forest.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 24
- Hookups
- None
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 24 of 25 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Off Highway Vehicle Trails
- Picnicking
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 18 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 · 21
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $36 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.
“- Change Fee: A service fee may be charged at the time a modification is made depending on the changes. - Cancellation Fee: A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refunds for a cancelled reservation. - Cut-Off Window: The latest date and/or time that you can make an advanced reservation or a change to an existi…” · this campground’s own 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
25 records
All 25 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. 24 of the 25 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| 1 | Host Site | host pad | ||
| Loop 1 | 10 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 11 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 12 | rv nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 13 | rv nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 2 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 3 | rv nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 4 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 5 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 6 | rv nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 7 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 8 | rv nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 1 | 9 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 14 | rv nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 15 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 16 | rv nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 17 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 18 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 19 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 20 | standard nonelectric | yes | $36 |
| Loop 2 | 21 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 22 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 23 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 24 | rv nonelectric | $36 | |
| Loop 2 | 25 | standard nonelectric | $36 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
RED FIREldorado National Forest · 0.4 miWentworth Springs CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 0.9 mi
Loon LakeEldorado National Forest · 1.3 miLoon Lake Group CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 1.3 mi23 miles east of Placerville on Highway 50 and 31 miles north on Ice House Road (Forest Road 3), take the Loon Lake fork.
The agency publishes this point for 2 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Tahoma, 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
Northshore Campground - Loon Lake (CA) 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 →