South Ruby Campground
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $17–$34Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 3735 on recreation.gov
- Season
- May 1 – November 30Open May 1 through November 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
South Ruby Campground is situated above Ruby Lake at the base of the beautiful Ruby Mountains at 6,000 feet in elevation, near the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Ruby Valley, Nevada. Ruby Valley is a surprising wildlife oasis. An expansive marsh is laced with riparian corridors coursing with cool, spring-fed waters. Together with lush meadow and shrub-steppe uplands, these habitats support a diversity of wildlife seldom found in the high desert and is one of the most important waterfowl nesting areas in the region. The refuge is either home or a stopover location for over 220 species of birds. Of specific interest are canvasback ducks, trumpeter swans, greater sandhill cranes and sage grouse. Mule deer and pronghorn antelope can also be found in the area. Keep reading
Recreation
Ruby Lake is visible from the campground and offers excellent birding, fishing and hiking. The lake is stocked with largemouth bass and several species of trout. The Ruby Lake NWR headquarters is two miles north of the campground and offers visitor information. The campground is located on the Hastings Cutoff route, near the Pony Express Trail and historic ruins of Fort Ruby. An interpretive trail was recently constructed at Fort Ruby historic site and provides insight on local history as well as spectacular views of the southern Ruby Mountains, uninterrupted by development. The southern trailhead for the Ruby Crest National Recreation Trail at Green Mountain Traihead is located within reasonable driving distance from the campground. Many dirt and gravel roads begin at Harrison Pass (just north of the refuge), and Overland Pass (south of the area), and provide enjoyable routes for jeeps, off-road motorcycles, OHVs, and mountain bikes.
Facilities
A forest of pinyon pine and juniper covers the area offering partial shade. The campground contains 33 single sites, one double and one accessible site with picnic tables and campfire rings. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided during the main summer season, which usually runs from early May to late September. Garbage service is available through the summer months. The lower loop of the campground typically remains open all winter, but may be closed depending on local conditions. Please call the local office for further information. Off season camping is first come first serve with a reduced fee without water available; only campsites, picnic tables, fire rings and vault toilets offered at that time. Both RV and tent campsites are available for those who visit the campground. Please call the local office for more information.
Natural Features
The campground is situated above Ruby Lake, at an elevation of 6,000 feet. A forest of pinyon pine and juniper covers the area. The trees provide good privacy between campsites, but limited shade.
What the agency tells you
Campgrounds are generally open from Memorial Day to Labor Day for reservations on rec.gov. However, things can change based on weather and other emergency situations, please contact the Ranger station for the most up-to-date information.
A $6 fee for extra vehicles will be collected at the campground
Limited supplies are available 11 miles north of the campground
Everything else this campground posts · 3
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.
Click here for more information on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest
Reserved site held until check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. If you haven't occupied it at any time during this period, your reservation is null and void and we will give it to first come first serve folks. Your reservation will be a no show and no refund will be given.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 37
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…campsites, picnic tables, fire rings and vault toilets offered at that time. Both RV and tent campsites…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Meadow
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 22nd darkest of 65 in NV
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 35 of the 37 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 · 15
What you actually pay
“A $6 fee for extra vehicles will be collected at the campground” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $17–$34 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
37 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 35 mapped sitesAll 37 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. 35 of the 37 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LOWE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 59 ft | 2,023 ft | $17–$34 |
| LOWE | 002 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 60 ft | 2,027 ft | $17–$34 |
| LOWE | 003 | rv nonelectric | 45 ft | 74 ft | 1,957 ft | $17 |
| LOWE | 004 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 72 ft | 2,039 ft | $17 |
| LOWE | 005 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 86 ft | 1,972 ft | $17 |
| LOWE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 2,056 ft | $17–$34 |
| LOWE | 007 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 73 ft | 2,072 ft | $17 |
| LOWE | 008 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 73 ft | 2,087 ft | $17 |
| LOWE | 009 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 91 ft | 1,985 ft | $17 |
| LOWE | 010 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 91 ft | 2,026 ft | $17 |
| LOWE | 011 | rv nonelectric | 40 ft | 98 ft | 2,211 ft | $17 |
| LOWE | 012 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 98 ft | 2,127 ft | $17 |
| S&P | Double S&P | type not stated | 50 ft | |||
| S&P | Standard, S&P | type not stated | 50 ft | |||
| UPPE | 013 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 59 ft | 2,027 ft | $17 |
| UPPE | 014 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 60 ft | 2,110 ft | $17 |
| UPPE | 015 | rv nonelectric | 40 ft | 78 ft | 2,101 ft | $17 |
| UPPE | 016 | rv nonelectric | 25 ft | 84 ft | 2,179 ft | $17 |
| UPPE | 017 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 93 ft | 2,184 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 018 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 85 ft | 2,250 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 019 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 85 ft | 2,330 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 020 | rv nonelectric | 25 ft | 94 ft | 2,321 ft | $17 |
| UPPE | 021 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 99 ft | 2,430 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 022 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 99 ft | 2,519 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 023 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 102 ft | 2,568 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 98 ft | 2,437 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 025 | rv nonelectric | 40 ft | 92 ft | 2,358 ft | $17 |
| UPPE | 026 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 98 ft | 2,519 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 92 ft | 2,437 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 028 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 83 ft | 2,340 ft | $17 |
| UPPE | 029 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 83 ft | 2,391 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 030 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 86 ft | 2,248 ft | $17 |
| UPPE | 031 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 86 ft | 2,276 ft | $17 |
| UPPE | 032 | rv nonelectric | 25 ft | 97 ft | 2,165 ft | $17 |
| UPPE | 033 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 97 ft | 2,086 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 034 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 60 ft | 2,100 ft | $17–$34 |
| UPPE | 035 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 82 ft | 2,034 ft | $17–$34 |
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.
25 of 37 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Terraces Campground - Picnic AreaHumboldt National Forest · 32 mi
Thomas CanyonHumboldt National Forest · 33 miAngel Lake CampgroundHumboldt National Forest · 63 mi
Angel Lake (Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, NV)Humboldt National Forest · 63 miAngel Creek CampgroundHumboldt National Forest · 63 miTake Interstate 80 to Highway 93. Exit at Wells and follow Highway 93 south for 30 miles to State Route 229. Follow State Route 229 for 15 miles, then head south on State Route 767 and County Road 788 for 30 miles, to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Spring Creek, NV
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 64°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical November night 22°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 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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
South Ruby Campground is in Nevada’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Mark Amodei (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →