Saddlebag Lake Trailhead Group Camp
- 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
Trailhead Group Campground is located in the eastern high Sierra Nevada Mountains of California at just over 10,000 feet in elevation. Also known as Saddlebag Lake Group Campground, the facility is adjacent to the scenic lake and provides a quiet mountain getaway for groups of up to 25 people. It is within a two-hour drive of Yosemite National Park and Mono Lake, and lies next to the Hoover Wilderness. Keep reading
Recreation
Campers might like to relax and unwind by picnicking in the forested camping area or around the lake. The eastern Sierras are well-known for trout fishing, and Saddlebag Lake is no exception. Anglers can access a boat ramp nearby or try their luck for rainbow, brook and brown trout from shore. The lake has a 15 mph speed limit. The majestic scenery and challenging trails are a big draw for hikers. Close by, campers can access the Twenty Lakes Basin Trail, which leads into the Hoover Wilderness.
Facilities
One group area is available for tents only. Flush toilets and picnic tables are provided. The group campground is next to the main Saddlebag Lake Campground, which is a small facility with individual sites available on a first-come, first-served basis. Drinking water is available at the main campground, but not directly in the group camping area. The lake's resort offers a restaurant, camping and fishing supplies and boat rentals.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a high elevation pine forest next to scenic 600-acre Saddlebag Lake, though not directly on the lake shore. Many species of wildlife call the mountains home, such as black bear, mountain lions, mule deer, pine marten, pika and numerous fish and birds.
Nearby Attractions
The Mono Lake area and Yosemite National Park are great day trips, and hikers can access the spectacular scenery of the Hoover Wilderness via nearby trails. Hoover Wilderness Yosemite National Park Charges & Cancellations Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
What the agency tells you
Reserved Sites will be held until checkout time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of the second day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Please call the office at 760-934-5795 if you need to inform the campground of an arrival time greater than 24 hours after your arrival date, or if you will not use your reservation whatsoever.
This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
The campground opening and closing dates vary; call Inyo National Forest for status
Everything else this campground posts · 7
The road to this facility is single-lane and partially paved
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
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
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. For current fire conditions or weather closures contact the Mammoth Lakes Visitor Center, (760) 924-5500, or the Mono Lakes Visitor Center, (760) 647-3044.
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
Only 2 pets per site allowed.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…group area is available for tents only. Flush toilets and picnic tables are provided. The group…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…on a first-come, first-served basis. Drinking water is available at the main campground, but not…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 130th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 22 km away
- Patchy 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
“Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.” · this campground’s own 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
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.
| TRAI | 001 | group tent only area nonelectric | 25 ft | 228 ft | 264 ft | $125 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Take U.S. Highway 395 in California to its junction with State Highway 120 west. Take 120 west 10 miles toward Tioga Pass. Turn right on Forest Road 1N04 to Saddlebag Lake. Proceed up 1N04 for 2.4 miles. Take the first right just past the open gate on the road. The campground is on the right, just past the restroom.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Virginia Lakes, CA
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Saddlebag Lake Trailhead Group Camp 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 →