Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping
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 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:42 UTC
- A night
- $25–$47Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 65All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sherando Lake Recreation Area's Family Campground provides an ideal camping destination. It is situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains and is known locally as the jewel of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where visitors enjoy hiking, picnicking in the shade, fishing in the lakes, or swimming and relaxing on the sandy beach. Keep reading
Recreation
The 25 acre Lower Lake offers opportunities for swimming in a designated area with a sand beach, accessible ramp to the water's edge, and a beach bathhouse with changing and shower facilities. Fishing and boating are also available outside the designated swimming area of the lake. Fishing is in stocked trout waters during the spring and fall seasons. Visitors will need to have the appropriate Virginia fishing license, National Forest stamp, and trout stamp. Boats with gasoline motors are not permitted on the lower lake - electric troll motors, canoes, kayaks, or similar boats only. A hand-carry ramp is available for access to the lake adjacent to the parking area. Fishing only is available at the 7 acre Upper Lake. This lake is also stocked during the spring and fall seasons and the appropriate licenses are required. Boats are allowed, but there is no launch access - hand carry only. Parking is available at a small area below the group camp area and a walking trail will lead you to the lake. Swimming is not allowed in the upper lake. Hiking trails surround the area offering everything from a short walk around the lake on the Lakeside and Cliff Trails to a day hike up the mountain on the White Rock Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway. For the more adventurous hiker, more challenging day hikes and backpacking trips are available by heading up the Blue Loop Trail to the Torry Ridge Trail to Bald Mountain and beyond.
Facilities
The campground is divided into three loops: Meadow Loop (Loop C) and River Bend Loop (Loop B) have campsites with electric hookups which are suitable for larger camping units and RV's; White Oak Loop (Loop A) has non-electric campsites, suitable for tents and camping units less than 20 feet in length. All camping requires a reservation prior to arriving. Campsites can be reserved via Recreation.gov or 1-877-444-6777. No first-come, first-serve sites. Each campsite is equipped with a picnic table, serving table, lantern post, and campfire ring with grill. The designated tent pads are covered with a fine brown sandy gravel. Showers, flush toilets and drinking water hydrants are located in each loop. The water hydrants are not threaded for hose hook-ups. Most campsites are equipped with a food storage locker for securing your food due to bear activity. It is mandatory that all food be either stored in a food storage locker or secured in a locked vehicle. Violators are subject to a fine. You are camping in the mountains with unlevel ground. Please be prepared. A trailer dump station is located along the main road between the entrance station and the road to the lower lake parking. A potable water station with threaded hose (to fill RV tanks) is located within the campground, opposite of the Day-Use parking area near the Williams Branch picnic area bathroom. Both the dump station and fill station are signed.
Natural Features
The campground sits between Lower Sherando Lake and Upper Sherando Lake at an elevation of about 1,800 feet in the shadows of Torry Ridge. The Upper Lake is 7 acres and is fed by the waters of the North Fork of Back Creek. The Lower Lake is 25 acres and is fed by springs, the North Fork of Back Creek, and Williams Branch, so the water stays refreshingly cool all summer long.
Nearby Attractions
There are opportunities for gas, groceries, and firewood at convenience stores and local vendors along the state road to Sherando Lake. ICE IS NO LONGER FOR SALE ON SITE. Additional supplies can be obtained in Stuarts Draft, about a 15 minute drive away. The Blue Ridge Parkway, with its scenic overlooks and ridgetop views, is a short 3 mile drive up State Route 664 from the Sherando Lake entrance. The Wintergreen Resort offers a golf course and ski area within 10 miles of Sherando Lake. Cabin rentals are available near Sherando Lake from local private vendors.
What the agency tells you
Please note the gate code in confirmation emails prior to arriving at Sherando Lake. No reliable cell service on-site. Gate code necessary to enter Sherando Lake.
Check-In Time: 1pm. Early arrivals will not have access to their campsite until 1pm. Check-Out Time: 11am Site must be vacated by 11am.
No refunds for any reason.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Electric hook-ups only in River Bend (Loop B) & Meadow Loops (Loop C). No water or sewer hook-ups are available.
No boat ramp available for either the Upper Lake or Lower Lake.
Only electric trolling motors, canoes, kayaks or similar boats are allowed on either lake, no gasoline engines.
Firewood and Ice is not available at the park.
Cell phone coverage is unreliable.
No First-Come, First Service Sites. No campsite switching once you arrive at the campground.
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
No lifeguards are on duty at the swimming area. Swim at your own risk.
Pets are allowed, but must be leashed and under the owner's control at all times. Pet owners are responsible for cleaning up after their pet.
Camping units in White Oak Loop (Loop A) are restricted to less than 20 feet in length due to the access road hill and turn.
Campsites in White Oak Loop (Loop A) do NOT have electric, water or sewer hook-ups.
Use of food storage lockers is mandatory for campsites. All food must be secured in a locked vehicle or storage locker. Violators are subject to a fine.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 65
- Hookups
- 31 electric
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 32 of 65
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…with a fine brown sandy gravel. Showers, flush toilets and drinking water hydrants are located in each…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- SHOWERS on 15 of 65 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 15 of 65 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach, Meadow
- Accessible Swimming
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Picnicking
- Stargazing
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 30th darkest of 88 in VA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 9 days ago, 39 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 16:42 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:38 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 65 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 32 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 16:42 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.
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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $25–$47 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:38 UTC
- Otter Creek CampgroundBlue Ridge Parkway · 30 mi · 22 of 128 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:42 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
65 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 36 mapped sitesAll 65 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. 65 of the 65 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
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.
| Meadow Loop C | C01 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 196 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C02 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 127 ft | 276 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C03 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 124 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C04 | standard electric | 28 ft | 50 amp | 101 ft | 128 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C05 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 29 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C06 | standard electric | 24 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 37 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C07 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 109 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C08 | standard electric | 24 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 26 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C09 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 37 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C10 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 35 ft | 51 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C11 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 121 ft | 177 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C12 | standard electric | 20 ft | 50 amp | 35 ft | 52 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C13 | standard electric | 36 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 57 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C14 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 87 ft | 112 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C15 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 111 ft | 307 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C16 | standard electric | 32 ft | 50 amp | 93 ft | 260 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C17 | standard electric | 40 ft | Electricity Hookup | 93 ft | 353 ft | $32–$47 |
| Meadow Loop C | C18 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 121 ft | 374 ft | $32–$47 |
| River Bend Loop B | B01 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B02 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B03 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B04 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B05A | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B05B | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B07 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B08 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B09 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B10 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B11 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B12 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| River Bend Loop B | B13 | standard electric | 50 amp | $32–$47 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A01 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 100 ft | 399 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A02 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 100 ft | 443 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A03 | standard nonelectric | 23 ft | 121 ft | 436 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A04 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 101 ft | 440 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A05 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 101 ft | 427 ftSherando Lake | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A06 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 172 ft | 344 ftSherando Lake | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A07 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 102 ft | 543 ftSherando Lake | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A08 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 105 ft | 567 ftSherando Lake | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A09 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 99 ft | 662 ftSherando Lake | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A10 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 99 ft | 594 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A12 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 118 ft | 712 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A13 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 108 ft | 648 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A14 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 145 ft | 473 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A15 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 97 ft | 590 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A16 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 77 ft | 465 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A17 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 77 ft | 540 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A18 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A19 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A20 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A21 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A22 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A23 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A24 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A25 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A26 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A27 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A28 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A29 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A30 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A31 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A32 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A33 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | $25 | |||
| White Oak Loop A | A34 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 87 ft | 386 ft | $25 | |
| White Oak Loop A | A35 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 87 ft | 319 ft | $25 |
25 of 65 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sherando Lake Group CampGeorge Washington National Forest · 1.8 mi
Loft Mountain CampgroundShenandoah National Park · 29 mi
Otter Creek CampgroundBlue Ridge Parkway · 30 miNorth River CampgroundGeorge Washington National Forest · 31 miTodd Lake Recreation AreaGeorge Washington National Forest · 33 miTodd Lake CampgroundGeorge Washington National Forest · 33 miFrom I-64, take Exit 96 just east of Stuarts Draft. Go south on State Route 624, which becomes State Route 664 at Lyndhurst. Continue south on State Route 664 approximately 8 miles to the entrance to the Sherando Lake Recreation Area on the right. The gatehouse is approximately 0.5 miles ahead.
If the gatehouse is closed, continue through the recreation area to your assigned campsite in either White Oak Loop (Loop A), which is the first turn to the right after passing the lower lake or Meadow Loop (Loop C), which is the last loop on the left before the playground. A campground host is available in each loop to answer questions you may have.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Wintergreen, VA
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 68°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 23°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 · a letter you can send
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
Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping is in Virginia’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, Ben Cline (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
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 member who votes the moneyBen ClineU.S. Representative · Virginia’s 6th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMark R. WarnerU.S. Senator · Virginia
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTim KaineU.S. Senator · Virginia
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 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 Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping, George Washington National Forest, Virginia
Dear Ben Cline, I’m a constituent in Virginia’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping, George Washington National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. All 65 sites at Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 65 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest 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 Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping (George Washington National Forest, Virginia) 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 Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping, George Washington National Forest, Virginia
Dear Mark R. Warner, I’m a constituent in Virginia. I tried to camp at Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping, George Washington National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. All 65 sites at Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 65 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest 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 Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping (George Washington National Forest, Virginia) 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 Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping, George Washington National Forest, Virginia
Dear Tim Kaine, I’m a constituent in Virginia. I tried to camp at Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping, George Washington National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. All 65 sites at Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 65 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest 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 Sherando Lake Recreation Area Family Camping (George Washington National Forest, Virginia) via campanac.com