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U.S. Forest Service · Angeles National Forest · CA

Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area

5Heads up5 fires, nearest 7 mi
Wildfire
Lac-374499 fire · 7.1 mi away · updated Oct 17, 2026
Wildfire
Lac-371632 fire · 7.1 mi away · updated Oct 15, 2026
Wildfire
Danny fire · 7.4 mi away · 150 acres · 100% contained · updated Oct 13, 2026
Wildfire
Shore fire · 7.4 mi away · updated Oct 16, 2026
Wildfire
Frey fire · 19 mi away · updated Oct 15, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 17, 2026
Day use, not campingThe agency files 151 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.

This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →

Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
Photos · U.S. Forest Service
2,580 ftElevation
26 ftWater · Pyramid Lake
11 miNW of Hasley Canyon, CA
n/aTree cover · water-masked cell
Bortle 4Night sky · 1076th darkest of 1,201 in CA

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices

In the agency’s own words

This facility does not accept reservations. Emigrant Landing is the largest day use recreation area on beautiful Pyramid Lake. Located just 90 minutes from Los Angeles, it is the perfect getaway without the long drive. Visitors enjoy all the lake has to offer, from boating, water skiing, wakeboarding, and fishing. A large sandy swim beach attracts hours of play. Large trees and shelters provide cooling shade. Water in Pyramid Lake takes a long journey from Plumas National Forest and Oroville Dam in northern California. An aqueduct carries the water down through the Tehachapi Mountains to its southern California resting point at Pyramid Lake. Keep reading

Recreation

Visitors come here to picnic and spend hours fishing, boating, water skiing and jet skiing. Anglers seek striped, large, and smallmouth bass, rainbow trout, crappie and bluegill.

Facilities

An accessible fishing pier, boat ramp, picnic tables and flush toilets are on-site. Drinking water and a soda machine are on hand for refreshment from the hot sun.

Natural Features

The day use area sits on the northern end of Pyramid Lake in the sweeping hills above the Santa Clarita Valley. Pyramid Lake spans 1,300 acres with 21 miles of shoreline. Pyramid Rock, the lake's namesake, is south of the lake's dam in Piru Gorge.

Nearby Attractions

The Vista Del Lago Visitor Center offers views of Pyramid Lake on its wraparound viewing platform. It also provides a giant map room with intriguing facts about California's geology and water supply systems.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

What the agency tells you

Rule

Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers

Rule

Visitors must enter recreation area between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.; no entry after 9 a.m.

Rule

Entry fee is for 1 vehicle plus 1 boat or personal watercraft

Everything else this campground posts · 4
Rule

No mooring allowed; day use only

Rule

Quagga Muscle Inspections at Pyramid Lake: Please be aware that these inspections are taking place at the entrance to Pyramid Lake for all vessels not previously inspected. Be prepared for inspections and always arrive with your vessel CLEAN, DRAINED AND DRY of all water. For more information visit: www.dfg.ca.gov/invasives/quaggamussel .

Rule

For more information on Angeles National Forest, click here

Rule

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.

Read them on the agency’s own page →
Source: recreation.gov facility notices, quoted verbatim · Sep 9, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Flush Toilets
“…pier, boat ramp, picnic tables and flush toilets are on-site. Drinking water and a soda machine are…”
Drinking water
Yes
“…tables and flush toilets are on-site. Drinking water and a soda machine are on hand for refreshment from…”
Boat ramp
Yes
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026
Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Lake, Beach
Boating
Fishing
Water sports
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

Nothing here to sleep in

The agency files 151 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.

No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.

Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 9

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

151 records · the site map

All 151 records

1 of 151 records located
Day use1
Shade Area
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
Sites: recreation.gov (RIDB), coordinates as published · Aug 23, 2026
Imagery: Esri World Imagery

Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 151 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.

Boat AccessB001day use
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Personal WatercraftPW01day use
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PYRAMID LAKE - EMIGRANT LANDING DAY USE AREAShade Areaday use1,053 ft959 ft

The agency files 151 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.

25 of 151 listed

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Coordinate34.65000, -118.76667
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Also near herePyramid Lake - Los Alamos CampgroundAngeles National Forest · 0.0 miOak Flat CampgroundAngeles National Forest · 4.3 miLos Alamos CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 4.4 miBear CampgroundAngeles National Forest · 8.8 miKings CampgroundLos Padres National Forest · 10 miSawmill CampgroundAngeles National Forest · 12 mi
Getting there

From Valencia, California, drive 20 miles north on Interstate 5, then take the Smokey Bear exit west. Make a left on Pyramid Lake Road. Continue on Pyramid Lake Road until you reach the entrance kiosk to Emigrant Landing at Pyramid Lake.

Directions: Driving directions as the agency wrote them · Sep 9, 2026
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight60°Mostly Clear
Saturday81°Sunny
Saturday Night56°Mostly Clear
Sunday81°Sunny

NWS forecast for Hasley Canyon, CA

Source: National Weather Service, LOX forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 53°F, day 77°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical December night 37°F. Bring the bag rated for it.

100°30°

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.

Measured at: FAIRMONT, CA (USC00042941), 20 miles away and 480 ft higher
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

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

Roadless
Salt Creek11,022 acres · 4 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Sespe - Frazier4,254 acres · 5 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Fish Canyon29,886 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026

Who answers for this land

George Whitesides, official portrait

Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area is in California’s 27th congressional district. Its representative, George Whitesides (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score
Who can change it · 3
Ask whether this could be a place to sleep

The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.

Read the draft, or change the wording
To George Whitesides

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them

Dear George Whitesides,

I’m a constituent in California’s 27th district. Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area, Angeles National Forest, California carries 151 records on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area (Angeles National Forest, California) via campanac.com
To Adam B. Schiff

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them

Dear Adam B. Schiff,

I’m a constituent in California. Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area, Angeles National Forest, California carries 151 records on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area (Angeles National Forest, California) via campanac.com
To Alex Padilla

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them

Dear Alex Padilla,

I’m a constituent in California. Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area, Angeles National Forest, California carries 151 records on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Pyramid Lake - Emigrant Landing Day Use Area (Angeles National Forest, California) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
Contacts: Contact forms from @unitedstates/congress-legislators · Sep 9, 2026
The figures in these drafts: Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress (CRS Report RS20643) · Updated December 4, 2025 · “The ship’s final procurement cost was $13,316.5 million (i.e., about $13.3 billion) in then-year dollars.”
The figures in these drafts: Salary Table 2026-GS, Incorporating the 1% General Schedule Increase, Effective January 2026 (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) · Effective January 2026 · “Grade 5, Step 1: $34,799 (annual rate, before locality pay).”
The figures in these drafts: Update to Civilian Position Full Fringe Benefit Cost Factor, Federal Pay Raise Assumptions, and Inflation Factors used in OMB Circular No. A-76 (OMB Memorandum M-08-13) · March 11, 2008 · “the civilian position full fringe benefit cost factor needs to be adjusted downward, from 36.45 percent to 36.25 percent”

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Sites on recreation.gov: recreation.gov’s own month availability payload for this facility, asked for October 2026 and November 2026. It names 151 of the 0 campsites the agency files here, and every one of them carries an answer either way. A campground nobody has read carries no answer at all, never a no. · Oct 14, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 1.1 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 1,201 rated federal campgrounds in California · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026