Rock Creek (Sierra National Forest, CA)
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 19 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 246 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rock Creek Campground will be closed until further notice due to a massive hazard tree removal. Rock Creek Campground sits on a large, sandy flat under a grove of oak, pine and cedar trees. The sites are divided into three sections, with Rock Creek running through the middle. One section of the camp sits nearest the access road; the other two sections can be reached via a bridge over Rock Creek. On this side, the largest section is located in closest to the swimming holes and rock water slide in the area. Keep reading
Recreation
Swimming holes can be found along the creek, and the campground's proximity to Mammoth Pool Reservoir provides even more recreational activities, including fishing, boating and hiking.
Facilities
Each campsite has a picnic table and campfire ring with grill. Parking spurs are paved and dirt-surfaced. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Supplies can be purchased at Wagner's Mammoth Pool Resort.
Natural Features
The Sierra National Forest, located on the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada, is known for its spectacular mountain scenery and abundant natural resources. The terrain includes rolling, oak-covered foothills, heavily forested middle elevation slopes and the starkly beautiful alpine landscape of the High Sierra. Rock Creek Campground is located close to Mammoth Pool Reservoir near the Ansel Adams Wilderness. This area is known for its jagged peaks, including 13,157-foot Mt. Ritter, and numerous lakes and streams.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is located off the Sierra Vista Scenic Byway, an 83-mile driving route with views of some of the Sierra National Forest's most striking landmarks.
What the agency tells you
Maximum vehicle size is 30 feet
In accordance with standard industry practices, Sierra Recreation will be assessing a $10 additional vehicle fee per day on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any double family campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the first vehicle by a hitch and towed onto the site. In the case of motorcycles, the first two are considered as one vehicle for determining additional vehicle fees. The third and fourth motorcycle would also be considered as one vehicle. No additional vehicle fees are collected for bicycles.
This facility is operated by Sierra Recreation, A Division of California Land Management, and your comments are appreciated; comment forms are available from campground hosts or on CLM's website
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Click here for more information about Sierra National Forest
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. For current fire conditions or weather closures contact the Sierra National Forest Headquarters, (559) 297-0706.
No more than two pets per site
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.
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
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 24
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…spurs are paved and dirt-surfaced. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Supplies can be…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and dirt-surfaced. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Supplies can be purchased at Wagner's…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 702nd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 6 of the 24 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 10
What you actually pay
“In accordance with standard industry practices, Sierra Recreation will be assessing a $10 additional vehicle fee per day on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any…” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
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 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
24 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 24 sites
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.
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 001 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 229 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 002 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 158 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 003 | standard nonelectric | 106 ft | 206 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 004 | standard nonelectric | 106 ft | 100 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 005 | standard nonelectric | |||
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 006 | standard nonelectric | 124 ft | 66 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 007 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 52 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 008 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 45 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 009 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 46 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 010 | standard nonelectric | |||
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 011 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 87 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 012 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 68 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | 013 | standard nonelectric | 109 ft | 86 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | FS1-20 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | FS1-20N | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | FS1-30 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | ||
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | FS1-30N | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | ||
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | FS2-30 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | ||
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | FS2-30N | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | ||
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | M1 | standard nonelectric | |||
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | M2 | standard nonelectric | 130 ft | 69 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | M3 | standard nonelectric | 130 ft | 134 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | M4 | standard nonelectric | 209 ft | 343 ftRock Creek | |
| AREA ROCK CREEK (SIERRA NATL FORES | M5 | standard nonelectric | 200 ft | 173 ftRock Creek |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Mammoth PoolSierra National Forest · 4.0 miWhisky Falls CampgroundSierra National Forest · 4.5 mi
SweetwaterSierra National Forest · 5.1 miPlacer CampgroundSierra National Forest · 5.5 miFrom Fresno, California, take Highway 41 north. Turn east on Forest Road 200 and pass through North Fork. Take Minarets Road east for 22 miles to Rock Creek Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for North Fork, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 26°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
Rock Creek (Sierra National Forest, CA) is in California’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Tom McClintock (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →