Southwest Campground
3Heads uppark alerts
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 3625 of them walk-up
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Southwest Campground (elevation 6700FT.) is a first come first serve campground. It has 20 walk-in tent sites and 5 RV sites located in the parking lot adjacent to the campground. It is located within walking distance to the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center. Keep reading
Recreation
The park boasts more than 150 miles of hiking trails, a variety of which can be accessed from the campground, including family-friendly hikes as well as those for more experienced hikers Facilities Restrooms with running water and flush toilets are available 24/7 in the Visitor Center vestibule. Public WiFi is available around the Visitor Center. The park's dump station is located 30 miles north of Southwest Campground, at Manzanita Lake (additional fees apply).
Natural Features
The national park is known for its volcanic history, as well as its diversity of plants and animals. It contains 300 active volcanic domes, as well as many hydrothermal features, such as mud pots and steam vents. Lassen Peak is the southernmost active volcano in the Cascades, and the second most recent to erupt in the lower 48 of the United States before Mount Saint Helens. Lassen National Park boasts over 700 species of flowering plants and 250 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and fish. The park is at the junction of the Cascade Mountains, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Great Basin, thus providing many unique habitats.
Nearby Attractions
Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center Mill Creek Falls Trail Brokeoff Mountain Trail (1/2 mile south on Hwy 89) Sulphur Works (1 mile north on Hwy 89)
What the agency tells you
The Southwest Campground is a first-come first-serve campground. It has 19 walk-in tent sites, and 10 RV sites located in the adjacent parking lot. All payments must be made through the Scan & Pay system. You must download the recreation.gov app in order to use the Scan & Pay system. It is highly recommended that you download the app prior to coming to the park as connectivity can be limited. The Scan & Pay QR code located at the campground can be used with or without connectivity.
Be bear aware; food and scented products must be stored in the bear lockers provided at each campsite.
Pets must be leashed (no longer than 6ft) at all times, are not allowed on hiking trails, and should never be left unattended. Pets are not allowed on snow and must stay on paved surfaces only.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
There are no electricity, water, or sewer hookups.
Campsites are limited to 2 tents, 6 people, and 2 vehicles per site.
Parking Lot sites are limited to self-contained RV's, trailers, vehicles, or other camping units. Tents or other camping structures are not allowed to be set up in the parking lot.
An entrance fee of $30 per vehicle is required. We highly recommend purchasing a digital pass through Rec.gov
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.
Sites 2 and 3 at the Southwest Campground are ADA sites only. A Handicap Permit is required to use these two sites.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 36 · 19 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- 20 of 34 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Dump station
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Backpacking
- Hiking
- Scenic drives
- Skiing
- Sledding
- Snowshoeing
- Visitor center
- Night sky · 163rd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 38 km away
- Peak color
Fully booked this Friday and Saturday, all 1 site-nights takenread 15:40 UTC
recreation.gov lists 20 of the 36 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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.
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 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:40 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
36 sites
All 36 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. 20 of the 36 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | 1 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 10 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 11 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 12 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 13 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 14 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 15 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 16 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 17 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 18 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 19 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 2 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 3 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 4 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 5 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 6 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 7 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 8 | walk to | $16 |
| A | 9 | walk to | $16 |
| A | Scan and Pay - Walk To | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot | Scan and Pay - RV Non-electric | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 10 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 11 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 12 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 13 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 14 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 15 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 2 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 3 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 4 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 5 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 6 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 7 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 8 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot 9 | type not stated | |
| Parking Lot RV Non-Electric | Parking Lot RV | rv nonelectric | $10 |
25 of 36 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Manzanita LakeLassen Volcanic National Park · 6.6 mi
Manzanita Lake Group CampgroundLassen Volcanic National Park · 6.6 mi
Manzanita Lake Camping Cabins (CA)Lassen Volcanic National Park · 6.6 mi
Summit Lake SouthLassen Volcanic National Park · 6.8 mi
Summit Lake NorthLassen Volcanic National Park · 6.9 miWalk-in tent campsites are located on the east side of the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center parking area. Camping in self-contained vehicles, RVs, or trailers is permitted in the adjacent parking lot.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mineral, CA
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
Southwest Campground is in California’s 1st congressional district. Whoever holds it votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. See how its representative votes on public lands →
Our roster still carries Doug LaMalfa for this district and the current federal record doesn’t list them as sitting, so we’re not naming a representative here until the two agree.