Silver Lake East- Eldorado
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $36–$72Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 48All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Silver Lake East is located 50 miles east of Jackson, California, just a short distance from the shores of Silver lake, where activities like boating, fishing, swimming and hiking, provide campers with the perfect outdoors retreat. Numerous trails leaving the campground connect with the lake and swimming beaches. Silver Lake West is adjacent to Silver Lake East on the other side of Highway 88, and offers additional trails and access to the Silver Fork of the American River. Keep reading
Recreation
Because the campground is already at such a high elevation, hiking is particularly popular, allowing visitors to access high alpine lakes and other destinations through short but spectacular hikes. In addition to the trails which connect this campground to Silver Lake and other swimming areas, the Granite Lake Trail, which gives way to the Hidden Lake Trail, begins on the east shore of Silver Lake at the Minkalo TH. The trail ascends and crosses Squaw Creek on a wooden bridge. Approximately one-half mile beyond the bridge is a junction. The right fork will take you to Plasse's and the left fork will take you to Granite Lake. At the southeast end of the lake you will find the trail to Hidden Lake. Anglers will be happy to know that Silver Lake boasts stocked populations of Rainbow, German Brown and Mackinaw trout.
Facilities
Vault toilets, drinking water, campfire rings and picnic tables are provided. Some sites have bear-proof food storage containers as well. Single units are limited to a maximum of 2 vehicles and 6 people. A pay phone, restaurant, boat rentals and boat ramp are located at a nearby lodge.
Natural Features
The campground is situated at the base of Thunder Mountain at an elevation of 7,200 feet, on the north end of beautiful Silver Lake. A small pond in the middle of the campground attracts ducks, but cannot be seen from any of the camp sites. Silver Lake spans 200 acres in a large granite basin surrounded by a forest of mixed conifers. The lake's mirror-like waters are known to reflect the colors of the sky above, attracting both hikers and photographers to its scenic shores. The Silver Lake area blooms with bright wildflowers in the summer months, delighting visitors with their presence around the lakes and high in the mountain meadows.
Nearby Attractions
Take a scenic drive on Carson Pass Highway, which runs past Silver Lake along the mountains and crosses the picturesque Carson Pass. It is a must-do activity for those who love mountain views and landscape photography. The campground is an easy drive south of Lake Tahoe, the popular lake and ski area.
Charges & Cancellations
Recreation Fee: Recreation fees are the fees a visitor pays for things like overnight camping, a day-use pavilion, group facilities, a tour or a permit. Recreation fees vary by location and/or activity. Reservation Fee: A fee may be charged at the time a reservation is made to cover the cost of reservation services. This fee is in addition to the Recreation Fee and is non-refundable. Fees for camping, day use, group sites, cabins and lookouts: $8 if made on-line; $9 if made through the call center; $3 if made in-person. Change Fee: A service fee may be charged at the time a modification is made depending on the changes. Cancellation Fee: A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refunds for a cancelled reservation. Cut-Off Window: The latest date and/or time that you can make an advanced reservation or a change to an existing reservation. Cut-off windows can vary by location, but are typically 4 days before your arrival date. A customer who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee (see Late Cancellation below). Late Cancellation: If you cancel your reservation too close to the start date, additional service fees may be withheld.
What the agency tells you
Check the link under Facility Information-->Additional Info Links for an updated facility map. The interactive map has NOT been updated yet.
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers
No electric/water/sewer hookups at this facility
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Forest Order No. 19-15-01: Prohibits camping for a combined total of no more than 14 days during a calendar year (January-December), forest-wide. Visitors may book campsites annually but the maximum stay may not exceed a total of 14 days each calendar year (January-December)
Please Note: One vehicle per single site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground.
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. Call (530) 644-6048 for local information and conditions.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (1PM) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
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.
First Come First Serve sites remain listed as FF for the entire season. They will not show occupied/available as the status of these sites is ever changing. You must be on site at the campground to claim a FF site. No guarantees upon arrival that these FF sites will be avaiable.
There is a fee to move from a reserved site to a first come first serve site. Site Transfer Policy
For more information on Eldorado National Forest, click here
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 48 · 3 tent-only, 2 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 55 ft
- Paved pads
- 44 of 48
- Accessible sites
- 10
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Brown and Mackinaw trout. Facilities Vault toilets, drinking water, campfire rings and picnic tables…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…trout. Facilities Vault toilets, drinking water, campfire rings and picnic tables are provided.…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach, Meadow
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Night sky · 563rd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 18 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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $36–$72 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.
“Fees for camping, day use, group sites, cabins and lookouts: $8 if made on-line $9 if made through the call center” · 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
66 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 32 mapped sitesAll 66 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 32 of the 66 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. 47 of the 66 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.
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX | unnamed record | 35 ft | $33.97 | ||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX1 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX10 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX11 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX12 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX13 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX14 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX15 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX16 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX17 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX2 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX3 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX4 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX5 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX6 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX7 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX8 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| AREA SILVER LAKE EAST, ELDORADO | XXX9 | unnamed record | $33.97 | |||||
| SILV | 001 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 53 ft | 968 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,353 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 002 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 91 ft | 861 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,406 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 53 ft | 934 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,327 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 004 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $36–$72 | ||||
| SILV | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | 818 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,315 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 747 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,343 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $36–$72 | ||||
| SILV | 008 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 83 ft | 900 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,184 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 009 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 83 ft | 964 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,186 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 010 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $36–$72 | ||||
| SILV | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 89 ft | 979 ft | 1,133 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $36–$72 | ||||
| SILV | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 53 ft | 914 ft | 979 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 014 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 53 ft | 968 ft | 1,005 ft | $36–$72 |
| SILV | 015 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $36–$72 | ||||
| SILV | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 77 ft | 946 ft | 869 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 017 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | yes | 77 ft | 1,003 ft | 821 ft | $36–$72 |
| SILV | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | $36–$72 | |||
| SILV | 019 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | $36–$72 | |||
| SILV | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | $36–$72 | |||
| SILV | 021 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 44 ft | 1,214 ft | 1,088 ft | $36–$72 |
| SILV | 022 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 44 ft | 1,253 ft | 1,124 ft | $36–$72 |
| SILV | 023 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 64 ft | 1,180 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,229 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 64 ft | 1,205 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,258 ft | $36–$72 |
| SILV | 025 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 87 ft | 1,103 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,368 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 026 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 66 ft | 1,016 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,432 ft | $36–$72 |
| SILV | 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 78 ft | 1,032 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,361 ft | $36–$72 |
| SILV | 028 | walk to | 25 ft | 66 ft | 969 ftSilver Fork American River | 1,438 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 029 | walk to | 25 ft | 182 ft | 1,154 ft | 673 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 030 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $36–$72 | ||||
| SILV | 031 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $36–$72 | ||||
| SILV | 032 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | |||||
| SILV | 033 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $36–$72 | ||||
| SILV | 034 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 101 ft | 1,248 ft | 721 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 035 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $36–$72 | ||||
| SILV | 036 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 101 ft | 1,203 ft | 676 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 037 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 81 ft | 1,065 ft | 541 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 038 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 81 ft | 1,059 ft | 544 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 039 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 90 ft | 898 ft | 376 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 040 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $36–$72 | ||||
| SILV | 041 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | $36 | ||||
| SILV | 042 | tent only nonelectric | 90 ft | 808 ft | 288 ft | $36 | ||
| SILV | 043 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | $36 | ||||
| SILV | 044 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 58 ft | 638 ft | 141 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 045 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 58 ft | 688 ft | 199 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 046 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 76 ft | 677 ft | 235 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 047 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 80 ft | 611 ft | 147 ft | $36–$72 | |
| SILV | 048 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 80 ft | 691 ft | 166 ft | $36–$72 |
The agency files 18 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It types every one of them MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 66 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
From Pioneer, CA, take State Route 88 east 36.6 miles to campground on right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Kirkwood, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 18°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
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 Lake East- Eldorado is in California’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Tom McClintock (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →