Rocky Rest
1Heads up1 fire 27 mi away
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:37 UTC
- A night
- $24When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 10In the agency’s record
- Season
- April 17 – October 15Open April 17 through October 15
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rocky Rest Campground is located off of Highway 49, in the North Yuba River area near Downieville. Visitors enjoy a wide variety of recreational activities in the area, including hiking, biking, hunting, fishing, white water boating, and gold panning. This facility is operated and maintained by the Tahoe National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
A trailhead for the North Yuba Trail is located within the campground. This 7.5-mile trail is open to hiking and biking. The North Yuba River offers swimming, floating, and rainbow trout fishing. A small rocky beach and swimming hole are situated at the water's edge. The river is a popular destination for seasonal rafting, kayaking and tubing.
Facilities
The campground offers several single-family sites. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the north bank of the North Yuba River, where a forest of Douglas fir, pine, and oak provides ample shade, but limited privacy between sites. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (530) 265-4531.
Nearby Attractions
Rocky Rest Campground is located along the Yuba Donner Scenic Byway (Highway 49) near many gold rush era historical sites and old mining towns such as Camptonville, Goodyears Bar, and Downieville. Many points of interest lie along Highway 49 and are part of the 49 miles of Highway 49 driving tour; look for interpretive signs and other historical sites along this tour route. Other attractions include the North Yuba River, Indian Valley Outpost, New Bullards Bar Reservoir, Downieville, and a network of miles of multi use hiking, biking, and motorcycle singletrack.
Charges & Cancellations
No Show Policy A no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date (or for day-use facilities, by check-in time the day of arrival). * No-show customers are only recorded at staffed facilities. At most remote facilities, all customers are noted as automatically checked-in on the date of arrival. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold group day-use facilities until check-in time on the arrival date. There is no change fee if a customer extends or shortens a reservation if the change includes dates from the original reservation. If they choose to depart early, they may forfeit some or all of the recreation fees. There is no change fee if the customer changes campsites that are the same price and on the same reservation dates in the same campground. If the campsite the customer is changing to has a price difference, the customer will be responsible for any additional fees or be provided with a refund, based on the price difference. Where recorded, no-show customers are assessed a $20.00 no-show fee and forfeit the first night's recreation fee for a campsite or forfeit the entire day-use recreation fee for a day-use facility. We recommend customers contact the facility if they are en route to their reservation but cannot make it by the check-in date. In these cases, no refund will be issued, but the facility can ensure that a "no-show" fee is not assessed.
What the agency tells you
In accordance with standard industry practices, we will be assessing a $5 additional vehicle fee 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 to be one vehicle and the third and fourth are also considered to be one vehicle. No additional vehicle fees are collected for bicycles.
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers
Utility hookups and showers are not available
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Click here for more information on the Tahoe 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 Yuba River Ranger District (530) 288-3231(voice), (530) 288-3656 (TDD).
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.
No Show Policy A no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date (or for day-use facilities, by check-in time the day of arrival). * No-show customers are only recorded at staffed facilities. At most remote facilities, all customers are noted as automatically checked-in on the date of arrival. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold group day-use facilities until check-in time on the arrival date. There is no change fee if a customer extends or shortens a reservation if the change includes dates from the original reservation. If they choose to depart early, they may forfeit some or all of the recreation fees. There is no change fee if the customer changes campsites that are the same price and on the same reservation dates in the same campground. If the campsite the customer is changing to has a price difference, the customer will be responsible for any additional fees or be provided with a refund, based on the price difference. Where recorded, no-show customers are assessed a $20.00 no-show fee and forfeit the first night's recreation fee for a campsite or forfeit the entire day-use recreation fee for a day-use facility. We recommend customers contact the facility if they are en route to their reservation but cannot make it by the check-in date. In these cases, no refund will be issued, but the facility can ensure that a "no-show" fee is not assessed.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 10
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features The campground is…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Beach
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Picnicking
- Rafting
- Scenic drives
- Swimming
- Water access
- Whitewater rafting
- Night sky · 584th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:37 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 11
What you actually pay
“In accordance with standard industry practices, we will be assessing a $5 additional vehicle fee on the 'second vehicle' in each single family campsite, and on the 'third and fourth vehicle' in any double family camps…” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
“Where recorded, no-show customers are assessed a $20.00 no-show fee and forfeit the first night's recreation fee for a campsite or forfeit the entire day-use recreation fee for a day-use facility.” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 6
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Rocky Rest closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Salmon CreekTahoe National Forest · 21 mi · 32 sites
- Chapman Creek CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 25 mi · walk-up
- Shirttail CreekTahoe National Forest · 28 mi · 39 sites
- Giant GapTahoe National Forest · 28 mi · 30 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:37 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
10 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 10 mapped sitesAll 10 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. 10 of the 10 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA ROCKY REST | 001 | standard nonelectric | 12 ft | 56 ft | 370 ft | $24 |
| AREA ROCKY REST | 002 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 68 ft | 448 ft | $24 |
| AREA ROCKY REST | 003 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 68 ft | 488 ft | $24 |
| AREA ROCKY REST | 004 | standard nonelectric | 9 ft | 56 ft | 330 ft | $24 |
| AREA ROCKY REST | 005 | standard nonelectric | 10 ft | 55 ft | 250 ft | $24 |
| AREA ROCKY REST | 006 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 55 ft | 200 ft | $24 |
| AREA ROCKY REST | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 99 ft | 138 ft | $24 |
| AREA ROCKY REST | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 76 ft | 168 ft | $24 |
| AREA ROCKY REST | 009 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 76 ft | 234 ft | $24 |
| AREA ROCKY REST | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 80 ft | 255 ft | $24 |
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
Indian ValleyTahoe National Forest · 0.3 mi
Fiddle CreekTahoe National Forest · 0.9 mi
CAL-IDATahoe National Forest · 1.1 mi
CarltonTahoe National Forest · 1.2 mi
RamshornTahoe National Forest · 4.0 miStrawberry CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 7.5 miFrom Downieville, take Highway 49 south for about 11 miles. The campground is on the left side of the highway.
From Nevada City, take Highway 49 north for 31 miles. The campground is on the right side of the highway.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Goodyears Bar, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 72°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical April night 36°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Rocky Rest 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 →