Silver Lake Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 1615 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Silver Lake Campground is a small, primitive hike or bike-in only campground located on Silver Lake in Leicester, VT. There are 15 campsites, seven of which are available for advanced reservations along with eight first-come, first-served sites. It is a 0.6 mile hike in or a 1.5 mile bike ride in to access the campground. Please note: This Silver Lake Campground is located in Vermont. Keep reading
Recreation
The Moosalamoo National Recreation Area consists of 16,000 acres abounding with recreation opportunities. With over 70 miles of well-maintained trails, mountain vistas, waterfalls, lakes and streams, it offers opportunities for hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, swimming, fishing, hunting and more. From Silver Lake Campground, several hiking and mountain biking trails begin, including the Leicester Hollow / Chandler Ridge loop (open to hiking and biking) and the Rattlesnake Cliff / Aunt Jenny hiking loop (closed March 15 - August 1 for Peregrine Falcon nesting). Fishing and swimming are both popular activities accessible from the campground.
Facilities
There are two vault toilets and a spring (treat or boil water) within the campground. To access each campsite you must hike or bike-in, including all your gear . Each campsite has a fire ring, picnic table and a bear-proof food storage locker. There is no garbage service available; please carry out what you carry in.
Natural Features
Silver Lake is a gorgeous 100-acre lake surrounded by National Forest on all sides. It has attracted people for many generations and, along with its natural beauty, holds a strong sense of history. Long before the famous Silver Lake Hotel and religious retreat located on the site of today's picnic area, ancestors of today's Abenaki people were here enjoying the peace and beauty.
Nearby Attractions
The nearest available shopping and dining is in Brandon, located nine miles from the campground. Also nearby is Middlebury (17 miles from the campground), which offers many additional options.
What the agency tells you
To access the campground and your campsite, you must hike or bike-in, including all your gear. The hike is .6 miles and the bike ride is 1.5 miles.
This Silver Lake Campground is located in Vermont.
There is no garbage service available; please carry out what you carry in.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 16
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…the campground. Facilities There are two vault toilets and a spring (treat or boil water) within the…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, Creek
- Fall color · reported 9 days ago, in Addison County
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 15 of the 16 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
16 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 16 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. 16 of the 16 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| 1 | standard nonelectric | 217 ft | 45 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 10 | standard nonelectric | 128 ft | 213 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 11 | standard nonelectric | 126 ft | 48 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 12 | standard nonelectric | 157 ft | 221 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 13 | standard nonelectric | 152 ft | 47 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 14 | standard nonelectric | 157 ft | 229 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 15 | standard nonelectric | 166 ft | 43 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 2 | standard nonelectric | 217 ft | 237 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 3 | standard nonelectric | 253 ft | 69 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 4 | standard nonelectric | 254 ft | 264 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 5 | standard nonelectric | 254 ft | 57 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 6 | standard nonelectric | 138 ft | 259 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 7 | standard nonelectric | 135 ft | 77 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 8 | standard nonelectric | 128 ft | 203 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| 9 | standard nonelectric | 126 ft | 39 ftSilver Lake | $10 |
| S&P Standard Nonelectric | type not stated | $10 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Moosalamoo CampgroundMoosalamoo National Recreation Area · 1.9 miBingoGreen Mountain National Forest · 7.0 mi
Chittenden Brook CampgroundGreen Mountain National Forest · 8.7 miLittle Rock Pond/Green Mountain LoopRobert T. Stafford White Rocks National Recreation Area · 35 mi
Greendale CampgroundGreen Mountain National Forest · 39 mi
North Hartland Lake Beach (VT)40 miFrom Middlebury, travel south on Route 7 to the Junction of Route 125.Travel east on Route 125 for 6.8 miles, and turn right onto Forest Road 32. Follow FR 32 for 6.8 miles, and turn right onto Silver Lake Road. Follow Silver Lake Road 2.2 miles to the parking lot at the end.
From Rochester, travel south on Route 100 to the junction of Route 73. Travel west on Route 73 for 10.3 miles. Turn right on Hathaway Road, and follow it for 1.3 miles. Turn right onto Flora White Road, and follow it for 1.4 miles to a stop sign. Go straight through onto Silver Lake Road. Follow Silver Lake Road 2.2 miles to the parking lot at the end.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for East Middlebury, VT
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 9°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Silver Lake Campground is in Vermont’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Becca Balint (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →