Obsidian
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $18From, per site
- Sites
- 11All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Obsidian campground offers opportunity to get away from crowds amidst shade of aspens and pines. Campground is close to Molybdenite Creek and Little Walker River. The river is stocked with trout. Area trailheads offer several interesting hikes. The trail from Molybdenite Creek trailhead splits, with one branch heading south into the Hoover Wilderness, and one looping north along Wheeler Creek to connect with the trail along the Little Walker River. This can be hiked as a loop from Burt Canyon trailhead (just west of campground). The Emma Lake trailhead leads to a short but steep hike to Emma Lake on the shores of Mount Emma. Keep reading
Recreation
The Obsidian campground is popular with hikers, fishermen, and campers looking for a quiet rustic campground.
Facilities
This campground is best suited for small vehicles and tent camping. Campsites have picnic tables and campfire rings. The campground has vault toilets for public use. There is no garbage service so please pack in/pack out any trash. There is no potable water available.
Natural Features
The Obsidian campground is at an elevation of 7800 feet.
What the agency tells you
* Caution: Black bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers. * Campground has no garbage service- please pack in/pack out any trash. * Campground does not have potable water.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire rings. The campground has vault toilets for public use. There is no garbage service so…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…so please pack in/pack out any trash. There is no potable water available. Natural Features The Obsidian campground…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Fall color · reported 6 days ago, 20 km away
- Patchy color
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.
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, $18 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
11 sites
All 11 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. 11 of the 11 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Obsidian | 1 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
| Obsidian | 10 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
| Obsidian | 11 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
| Obsidian | 2 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
| Obsidian | 3 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
| Obsidian | 4 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
| Obsidian | 5 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
| Obsidian | 6 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
| Obsidian | 7 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
| Obsidian | 8 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
| Obsidian | 9 | standard nonelectric | $18 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
The weather
the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Typical weather
Typical October night 20°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 8°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
Obsidian 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 →