Silver Creek
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $27.36–$38.76Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 22All of them booked ahead
- Season
- June 1 – September 30Open June 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Silver Creek Campground is located near the town of Markleeville on scenic Highway 4. Visitors enjoy fishing various waterways in the area and exploring the nearby Pacific Crest Trail. Keep reading
Recreation
Anglers enjoy fishing the nearby East Fork Carson River, as well as other creeks in the vicinity. The Pacific Crest Trail can be accessed just 3 miles west of the site.
Facilities
This campground straddles Highway 4, creating two separate loops containing several single-family sites with picnic tables, food storage lockers and campfire rings with grills. Vault toilets, No Water Available, Dry Camping only and trash collection are provided. Firewood is available for purchase from the host.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a beautiful, shady fir and pine forest on the mountainside just above Noble Creek. The elevation is 7,100 feet.
What the agency tells you
Caution: black bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers
Highway 4 becomes steep, uphill, narrow and winding immediately past the campground
A fee for extra vehicles will be collected at the campground
Everything else this campground posts · 5
This campground has first-come, first-served sites
Opening and closing dates are subject to change due to existing weather conditions
Click here for more info about the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests
Don't Move Firewood: Help prevent the spread of tree-killing pests in our national forests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
This is a DRY campground. "NO WATER"
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 22
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 51 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…lockers and campfire rings with grills. Vault toilets, No Water Available, Dry Camping only and trash…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…rings with grills. Vault toilets, No Water Available, Dry Camping only and trash collection…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Hiking
- Night sky · 427th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 23 km away
- Peak 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $27.36–$38.76 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
22 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 22 mapped sitesAll 22 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. 22 of the 22 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.
| SILV | 001 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 64 ft | 390 ft | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 002 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 64 ft | 403 ft | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 003 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 71 ft | 415 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 004 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 135 ft | 363 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 005 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 109 ft | 314 ft | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 006 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 115 ft | 278 ft | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 007 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 123 ft | 192 ft | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 008 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 123 ft | 231 ft | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 009 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 65 ft | 357 ft | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 010 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 65 ft | 355 ft | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 58 ft | 525 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 57 ft | 469 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 013 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 48 ft | 479 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 014 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 48 ft | 452 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 015 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 91 ft | 373 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 016 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 91 ft | 286 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 017 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 70 ft | 203 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 018 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 66 ft | 158 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 134 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 91 ft | 240 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 65 ft | 252 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
| SILV | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 65 ft | 299 ftNoble Creek | $27.36–$38.76 |
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
Where it is
Highland Lakes CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 6.9 mi
Markleeville7.5 mi
Pacific Valley CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 7.9 miLocated 11.7 miles south of Markleeville, California on State Highway 4, east of Ebbetts Pass.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Markleeville, CA
Typical weather
Typical June night 38°F, day 72°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical September night 35°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
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
Silver Creek 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 →