Onion Valley
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 35 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 8 of the next 8 nights; a database flag says not open read 15:51 UTC
- A night
- $31From, per site
- Sites
- 3029 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
This quiet campground is set amidst breathtaking scenery of rugged mountain peaks, thick forests and waterfalls in the Onion Valley area of the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. Its location on the creek and proximity to the John Muir Wilderness make it a popular hub for hikers, anglers, photographers and those who want to relax in a peaceful, natural setting. Keep reading
Recreation
Majestic scenery and challenging trails draw campers to the Onion Valley area for hiking and horseback riding. The campground is near Kearsarge Pass, Robinson Lake and Golden Trout Lakes Trailheads, which access several alpine lakes and mountain peaks within the John Muir Wilderness, as well as Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. The eastern Sierras are also known for exceptional trout fishing. From the campground, anglers can try for rainbow, brown, brook and Alpers trout in Robinson Lake and a nearby creek.
Facilities
The campground is tucked away near the end of Onion Valley Road. Campsites are private and primitive, and every site has a scenic view. Amenities include vault toilets, and bear-proof food storage lockers, which campers are required to use. Firewood is for sale on-site.
Natural Features
Situated at an elevation of 9,200 feet, the campground is surrounded by the towering peaks of the John Muir Wilderness and immersed in shrubs, lodgepole pine and aspens. Lovely wildflowers color the landscape in late spring and early summer. The campground is adjacent to a creek and lake. The area is home to abundant wildlife, including black bear,which frequent the campground, mountain lions, mule deer, pine martin, pika and many species of fish and birds.
Nearby Attractions
Campers can enter the John Muir Wilderness, a land of lofty snow-capped mountains, deep canyons and vast expanses of glacially carved terrain, via nearby trails. Some trails lead into Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park to the west. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (602) 726-1102.
What the agency tells you
Trailers are not recommended; tent trailers are permissible
This campground has no water.
Be bear aware; keep all food out of site in approved containers and remove all food from area after eating; do not leave food in car; always keep a clean camp and do not feed any wild animals; campground is patrolled at night by security teams during periods of high bear activity
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Two pets per site and must be leashed at all times.
Please Note: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per tent site. One vehicle per single site is included with your reservation. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground if you did not pay for an Extra Vehicle Add On. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at the site.
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.
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.
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.
Click here for more information about Inyo National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 30 · 10 tent-only, 7 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…has a scenic view. Amenities include vault toilets, and bear-proof food storage lockers, which campers…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 189th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 15:51 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 26 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 27 are free on Thu, Oct 22. read 15:51 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $31 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:51 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
30 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 29 mapped sitesAll 30 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 30 of the 30 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. 29 of the 30 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.
| DRV | 002 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | 55 ft | 172 ft | 100 ft | $31 |
| DRV | 003 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 32 ft | 209 ft | 67 ft | $31 |
| DRV | 004 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | 69 ft | 188 ft | 167 ft | $31 |
| DRV | 011 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 50 ft | 286 ftIndependence Creek | 52 ft | $31 |
| DRV | 012 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 33 ft | 313 ft | 47 ft | $31 |
| DRV | 015 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | 26 ft | 227 ft | 154 ft | $31 |
| DRV | 020 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 22 ft | 180 ft | 151 ft | $31 |
| DRV | 027 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 53 ft | 172 ft | 101 ft | $31 |
| ONIO | 016 | walk to | 46 ft | 319 ftIndependence Creek | 101 ft | $31 | |
| ONIO | 018 | walk to | 26 ft | 251 ft | 144 ft | $31 | |
| ONIO | 019 | walk to | 22 ft | 173 ft | 173 ft | $31 | |
| ONIO | 021 | walk to | 21 ft | 95 ft | 182 ft | $31 | |
| ONIO | 022 | walk to | 21 ft | 103 ft | 195 ft | $31 | |
| ONIO | 024 | walk to | 34 ft | 63 ft | 196 ft | $31 | |
| ONIO | 025 | walk to | 24 ft | 119 ft | 202 ft | $31 | |
| ONIO | 029 | tent only nonelectric | 31 ft | 144 ft | 60 ft | $31 | |
| ONION | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 32 ft | 238 ft | 73 ft | $31 |
| ONION | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 62 ft | 241 ft | 98 ft | $31 |
| ONION | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 76 ft | 195 ftIndependence Creek | 217 ft | $31 |
| ONION | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 26 ft | 131 ftIndependence Creek | 230 ft | $31 |
| ONION | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 26 ft | 121 ftIndependence Creek | 227 ft | $31 | |
| ONION | 009 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 66 ft | 223 ftIndependence Creek | 101 ft | $31 |
| ONION | 010 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 62 ft | 284 ftIndependence Creek | 51 ft | $31 |
| ONION | 013 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 33 ft | 327 ft | 67 ft | $31 |
| ONION | 014 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 57 ft | 258 ft | 98 ft | $31 |
| ONION | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 50 ft | 264 ftIndependence Creek | 101 ft | $31 |
| ONION | 023 | tent only nonelectric | 23 ft | 91 ft | 144 ft | $31 | |
| ONION | 024 | type not stated | 25 ft | 60 ft | 174 ft | ||
| ONION | 026 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 23 ft | 98 ft | 125 ft | $31 |
| ONION | 028 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 31 ft | 115 ft | 91 ft | $31 |
25 of 30 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Grays MeadowsInyo National Forest · 2.8 miUpper Grays Meadow CampgroundInyo National Forest · 3.2 miLower Grays Meadow CampgroundInyo National Forest · 3.4 miMt. Whitney Trailhead CampgroundInyo National Forest · 14 mi
Whitney PortalInyo National Forest · 14 mi
Goodale Creek CampgroundBishop Field Office · 15 miThe campground is 13 miles west of the town of Independence, California. Take U.S. Highway 395 to Independence. Turn west on Market Street, which turns into Onion Valley Road. Follow Onion Valley Road for 13 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Independence, CA
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
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
Onion Valley 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 →
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 moneyKevin KileyU.S. Representative · California’s 3rd district
No contact form we could verify, so that link is their own site. Contact is inside it. Washington office: 202-225-2523.
- 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 Onion Valley, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Kevin Kiley, I’m a constituent in California’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Onion Valley, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 29 of the 30 campsites the agency files at Onion Valley, 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 26 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Onion Valley keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Onion Valley. 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 Onion Valley (Inyo 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 Onion Valley, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Onion Valley, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 29 of the 30 campsites the agency files at Onion Valley, 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 26 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Onion Valley keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Onion Valley. 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 Onion Valley (Inyo 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 Onion Valley, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Onion Valley, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 29 of the 30 campsites the agency files at Onion Valley, 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 26 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Onion Valley keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Onion Valley. 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 Onion Valley (Inyo National Forest, California) via campanac.com