Sheep Pass Group
5Heads up4 park alerts · 1 fire 33 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:01 UTC
- Sites
- 6All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Download the NPS app prior to visiting the park – trail maps and more! Sheep Pass Group Campground is centrally located within Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California and is easily accessible to hiking trails and rock climbing routes. It is one of three group campgrounds in the park. Towering rock formations and uniquely-shaped Joshua trees surround the facility. To get the most out of your visit Plan Like a Park Ranger Travelers who enjoy warm, dry winters flock to Joshua Tree from October through May, when temperatures hover in the 70 to 90-degree range during the day and drop to a 40 to 60-degree range at night. Summer is the park's off-season due to the uncomfortably-high desert heat. Sheep Pass is at an elevation of 4,500 feet and has a mix of both sun and shade. Keep reading
Recreation
Sheep Pass is very close to many hiking trails, popular rock climbing routes and a central location for sightseeing within the park.
Facilities
There are six group sites within the campground. Electrical hookups and drinking water are not provided.
Natural Features
The distinctive shape of Joshua trees and the huge rocks that surround them draw tourists and scientists alike to the national park. Joshua trees are a member of the yucca family that have long evergreen leaves, shaggy bark and bunches of white flowers that bloom in spring. The rocks were formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago and have been exposed and shaped by wind and water over time. They brighten with soft pastel hues in the morning and evening sunlight and glow with campfire light at night. Visitors may want to keep their eyes out for typical desert inhabitants such as lizards, rattlesnakes, scorpions, ravens, squirrels, coyotes and desert tarantulas during the cooler months of the year. Bobcats and mountain lions do live in the park, however they are rarely seen near humans.
Charges & Cancellations
Reservation Cancellations & Changes Cancelling a Reservation: Customers may cancel their reservation prior to arrival both on-line and through the call center. A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refund for a cancellation. Depending on when you cancel in relation to your arrival day, it may be considered a late cancellation (see below). Changing an Existing Reservation: When changes are made prior to the cut-off window: If a customer wants to switch dates that are entirely outside of the original reservation dates, there is a $10 change fee. There is no change fee if a customer extends or shortens a reservation, as long as the change includes dates from the original reservation. If they choose to depart early, they may forfeit the recreation fee for the day of departure. There is no change fee if the customer wants to switch sites that are the same price with the same reservation dates in the same facility. If a reservation is made that includes dates beyond the maximum booking window, that reservation cannot be changed until 18 days have passed from the original booking date. Late Cancellations or Cancellations within the Cut-off Window Group Facility (including Cabins and Lookouts): Customers who cancel a group overnight facility reservation less than 14 days before the arrival date will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee. Changes or Cancellations within the Cut-off Window: Once a reservation date has begun, customers cannot change a reservation using the online system or through the Call Center (see below for early departures). If the location is staffed, on-site personnel may or may not be able to assist with changes or cancellations (check with local staff). No-Shows Overnight Facilities: A no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out (noon) time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time (noon) on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night’s recreation fee for a campsite. *Note: the entire reservation will be cancelled for no-shows.
What the agency tells you
Download the NPS app prior to visiting the park – trail maps and more!
Reservations required and can be made the day of visit on Recreation.gov depending on availability. Please claim a site only if a reservation has been made and be prepared to show your reservation confirmation via screenshot or printout.
No-Shows Overnight Facilities: A no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out (noon) time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time (noon) on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night’s recreation fee for a campsite. *Note: the entire reservation will be cancelled for no-shows.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Each visitor may only reserve 3 group sites for a specific date.
For changes, cancellations or refunds call Recreation.gov at 888-448-1474. For specific campground questions call 760-367-5554. For additional park information visit www.nps.gov/jotr
This campground is limited to tent camping only; recreational vehicles and habitable trailers are prohibited.
There is no overflow parking. You are responsible for reading the details for the campsite you reserve. The number of vehicles allowed in group sites varies depending on the space available.
$30 per vehicle entrance fee is in addition to camping fee. Passes can be purchased ahead of time here.
Potable water is available at the Oasis Visitor Center or West Entrance, 13 miles away.
Pets are not allowed on trails but are welcome in the campground, on any dirt road or within 100 feet of any road. Pets must be on a leash no more than 6 feet long at all times. Pets may not be left unattended or tied to an object; leaving pets in unattended vehicles is strongly discouraged – especially on warm days.
Don’t Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near the park and burning it on-site, and do not use park vegetation, living or dead, for fuel.
All organized events require a special use permit and must be held in designated areas; contact the Special Park Use Coordinator, jeannie_wilson@nps.gov
FIRE BAN fire restriction are currently in effect that prohibit charcoal fires, wood-burning fires, and charcoal grills. NO Fires! Only gas or propane stoves are permitted. Starting June 15, ending October 1st of every year.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 6 · 6 tent-only, 6 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- Stay limit
- 30 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Full this Saturdayread 16:01 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:52 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 4 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 4 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 16:01 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 12
What you actually pay
“A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refund for a cancellation. Changing an Existing Reservation: When changes are made prior to the cut-off window: If a customer wants to switch dates that are entirely outside of the original reservation dates, there is a $10 change fee.” · 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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:52 UTC
- Cottonwood Campground (CA)Joshua Tree National Park · 24 mi · 2 of 116 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:01 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
6 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 6 mapped sitesAll 6 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. 6 of the 6 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Group Area | G01 | group tent only area nonelectric | 260 ft | 6.3 mi | $55 |
| Group Area | G02 | group tent only area nonelectric | 259 ft | 6.3 mi | $55 |
| Group Area | G03 | group tent only area nonelectric | 264 ft | 6.2 mi | $55 |
| Group Area | G04 | group tent only area nonelectric | 133 ft | 6.2 mi | $55 |
| Group Area | G05 | group tent only area nonelectric | 133 ft | 6.3 mi | $55 |
| Group Area | G06 | group tent only area nonelectric | 588 ft | 6.4 mi | $55 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ryan CampgroundJoshua Tree National Park · 2.4 mi
Hidden Valley CampgroundJoshua Tree National Park · 2.8 mi
Jumbo Rocks CampgroundJoshua Tree National Park · 3.2 mi
Belle CampgroundJoshua Tree National Park · 5.6 mi
White Tank CampgroundJoshua Tree National Park · 5.9 mi
Indian Cove GroupJoshua Tree National Park · 6.9 miTake Interstate 10 to Route 62. From the town of Joshua Tree turn south on Park Blvd. and continue through the West Entrance. The campground is 13 miles from the entrance station and the city of Twentynine Palms.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Twentynine Palms, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 30°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 Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Sheep Pass Group is in California’s 25th congressional district. Its representative, Raul Ruiz (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 4
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The office that runs itJoshua Tree National ParkNational Park Service unit
- The member who votes the moneyRaul RuizU.S. Representative · California’s 25th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAdam B. SchiffU.S. Senator · California
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlex PadillaU.S. Senator · California
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks the National Park Service to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up, and to post what that share is.
Subject Hold back a share of sites at Sheep Pass Group for campers who drive up
To the National Park Service, Joshua Tree National Park: I tried to camp at Sheep Pass Group in California and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Sheep Pass Group are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 4 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sheep Pass Group keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m asking for one specific thing: set aside a published share of the sites at Sheep Pass Group as first-come, first-served, and post what that share is so it can be checked. Somebody who drives up has no way in, and no way to find out whether they might have had one. Sent about Sheep Pass Group (Joshua Tree National Park, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Sheep Pass Group, Joshua Tree National Park, California
Dear Raul Ruiz, I’m a constituent in California’s 25th district. I tried to camp at Sheep Pass Group, Joshua Tree National Park, California, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Sheep Pass Group are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 4 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sheep Pass Group keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sheep Pass Group. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Sheep Pass Group (Joshua Tree National Park, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Sheep Pass Group, Joshua Tree National Park, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Sheep Pass Group, Joshua Tree National Park, California, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Sheep Pass Group are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 4 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sheep Pass Group keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sheep Pass Group. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Sheep Pass Group (Joshua Tree National Park, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Sheep Pass Group, Joshua Tree National Park, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Sheep Pass Group, Joshua Tree National Park, California, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Sheep Pass Group are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 4 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sheep Pass Group keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sheep Pass Group. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Sheep Pass Group (Joshua Tree National Park, California) via campanac.com