Rock Creek Lake Group Camp (Inyo National Forest, CA)
1Heads up1 fire 35 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rock Creek Lake Group Campground is adjacent to the main Rock Creek Lake Campground. This tent-only site is located near Bishop, Tom's Place and Mammoth Lakes, California in Inyo National Forest. The high-elevation campground offers a private setting on the banks of scenic Rock Creek Lake in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains - a perfect location for limitless mountain recreation opportunities. Fishing, camping, hiking, photography, wildlife viewing and horseback riding at the nearby pack station are popular. Keep reading
Recreation
Rock Creek and other waterways in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains are known for exceptional trout fishing. A catch from the lake may including brook, brown, rainbow and stocked Alpers trout, while anglers may be treated to hook golden trout in the backcountry. Power boats are limited to electric motors on the lake. The area's majestic scenery and challenging trails are an obvious draw for hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders. The Tamarack Trail begins in the campground and wanders up to several high-elevation, glacially-carved alpine lakes and ponds.
Facilities
The group camping area is separate from the main campground, offering plenty of privacy. It can accommodate up to 25 people at a time and is tent-only. No RVs are allowed at the campground, as the site requires visitors to walk from the parking area. There is no trash collection.
Natural Features
The group site is nestled in a pine forest, perched on the shore of Rock Creek Lake with a view of the water through the trees. The area is home to abundant wildlife, including black bear, mountain lions, mule deer, pine martin, pika and many species of fish and birds. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (760) 935-4121.
Nearby Attractions
Near the campground, visitors can access the magnificent John Muir Wilderness, which stretches for 100 miles along the crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is a land of lofty snow-capped mountains, deep canyons and vast expanses of glacially-carved terrain, and offers extensive hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding trails.
What the agency tells you
This is a walk-in campground; no vehicles of any type allowed on-site
Customers must clean toilets during their stay and remove trash as they leave
No access for new campers from 10 p.m. - 6 a.m.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Two pets are allowed but must be leashed at all ties.
This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations; campground usually not clear of snow until late in May or early June
Be bear aware; keep all food out of site in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating; always keep a clean camp and do not feed any wild animals
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.
Inyo National Forest website
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 walk-in, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Picnicking
- Wildlife viewing
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 9.9 km away
- Peak 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.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| GWLK | 1 | group walk to | 119 ft | 55 ft | $95 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Rock Creek Lake (Inyo National Forest, CA)Inyo National Forest · 0.0 miPine Grove CampgroundInyo National Forest · 1.4 miMosquito Flat Backpacker CampgroundInyo National Forest · 1.4 mi
East Fork Campground – Inyo National Forest (CA)Inyo National Forest · 2.4 mi
Palisades Group CampgroundInyo National Forest · 2.4 miEast Fork CampgroundInyo National Forest · 2.9 miDirections from Mammoth Lakes, California: Drive south on U.S. Highway 395 for approximately 13 miles. Take the Tom's Place exit and proceed west up the canyon for about 10 miles. At the lake, follow the signs to the boat dock and group camp.
Directions from Bishop, California: Travel north on U.S. Highway 395 for about 30 miles. Turn left at the Tom's Place exit and proceed west up the canyon for about 10 miles. At the Lake, follow the signs to the boat dock and group camp.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Swall Meadows, CA
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
Rock Creek Lake Group Camp (Inyo National Forest, 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 →