Spruce Knob Lake
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:29 UTC
- A night
- $18–$32When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 42In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Spruce Knob Lake Campground is tucked in a beautiful hardwood forest less than a mile from Spruce Knob Lake. The campground provides a peaceful setting with easy access to boating on the lake and hiking through the mountainous region. Spruce Knob Lake Campground is comprised of 28 standard camping units, 2 double camping units, and 10 walk in camping units with fire rings, lantern posts, picnic tables and paved spurs (standard camping units). In addition, there is a developed host site equipped with electrical (solar), water, and a sewage holding tank. Keep reading
Spruce Knob Lake Campground contains five single-toilet vault restrooms all of which are accessible. Gatewood Group Campground contains 1 reservable site that can accommodate up to approximately 30 people. The campground contains fire rings, picnic tables, and two single-toilet vault restrooms. There is no electric or drinking water at the group campground. The group campground is not ABA accessible. There are trash dumpsters located at Spruce Knob Lake Campground and there are trash bins located at Gatewood Group Campground for garbage collection and disposal. There are no dump stations in either campground. The average operation and maintenance season for Spruce Knob Lake Campground and Gatewood Group Campground has been from approximately mid-April through mid-October. At a minimum, the Forest Service (FS) will expect the permit Holder to fully operate the campground from the third Friday night in April through the Columbus Day weekend in October. Spruce Knob is the highest peak in West Virginia. A stone and steel observation tower is perched atop the peak, offering breathtaking 360-degree views of the area.
Recreation
Sixty miles of picturesque hiking trails crisscross the region, and the campground provides direct access to the pleasant 1-mile Big Bend River Loop. Trout fishing is available nearby at 25-acre Spruce Knob Lake, and in surrounding creeks. Facilities at the lake include a small boat ramp, parking area and vault toilets. A wooden pier along the shoreline provides barrier-free access to the lake.No swimming is allowed.
Facilities
The campground has accessible vault toilets and a solar-powered system for drinking water. No electric hookups are available. Firewood is for sale on-site.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on a wooded ridge overlooking the lake. To the east is 4,863' Spruce Knob. The vegetation atop Spruce Knob has adapted to a harsh, exposed environment. One-sided red spruce deformed by constant exposure to strong westerly winds cling to the high rocky ridges. Blueberry and huckleberry plants cover the ground. Due to its location, the campground may experience cold fogs and strong winds year-round.
Nearby Attractions
The half-mile Whispering Spruce Trail circles Spruce Knob and provides panoramic views of the beautiful area.
What the agency tells you
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from the area after eating
This campground has first-come, first-served sites
Limit two vehicles per single site; a daily fee is charged for extra vehicles
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Some states have quarantines and may confiscate your firewood. Please help protect our forests from invasive species by obtaining your firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org for more information.
Any accepted senior passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
Click here for more information on Monongahela National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 42 · 12 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- 42
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Campground contains five single-toilet vault restrooms all of which are accessible. Gatewood Group…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…toilets and a solar-powered system for drinking water. No electric hookups are available. Firewood is for…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Hiking
- Night sky · 18th darkest of 69 in WV
- Bortle 3
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:29 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
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.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 11
What you actually pay
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Spruce Knob Lake closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Seneca ShadowsSpruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area · 7.9 mi · 81 sites
- Laurel Fork CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 10 mi · walk-up
- Camp Run CampgroundGeorge Washington National Forest · 21 mi
- Red Creek CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 22 mi · walk-up
recreation.gov availability, read 16:29 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
42 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 42 mapped sitesAll 42 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 42 of the 42 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. 42 of the 42 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| DRUP | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 43 ft | 1,621 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,970 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 68 ft | 1,743 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 2,077 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 52 ft | 1,718 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 2,037 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 43 ft | 1,655 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,996 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 53 ft | 1,631 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,951 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 52 ft | 1,678 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,989 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 67 ft | 1,693 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,985 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 76 ft | 1,583 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,888 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 009 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 76 ft | 1,655 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,922 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 76 ft | 1,579 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,849 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 106 ft | 1,500 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,751 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 79 ft | 1,604 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,834 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 82 ft | 1,472 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,684 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 79 ft | 1,580 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,788 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 82 ft | 1,456 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,641 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 73 ft | 1,514 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,586 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 80 ft | 1,594 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,664 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 82 ft | 1,652 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,698 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 74 ft | 1,660 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,670 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 74 ft | 1,606 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,601 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 97 ft | 1,571 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,603 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 73 ft | 1,460 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,516 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 165 ft | 1,297 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,347 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 97 ft | 1,183 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,190 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 102 ft | 1,102 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,035 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 026 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 97 ft | 1,117 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,098 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 97 ft | 1,000 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 933 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 028 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 97 ft | 1,024 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 979 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 029 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 114 ft | 887 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 820 ft | $18–$32 |
| DRUP | 030 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 112 ft | 799 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 749 ft | $18–$32 |
| WKUP | 031 | walk to | yes | 112 ft | 691 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 655 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 032 | walk to | yes | 163 ft | 669 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 767 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 033 | walk to | yes | 71 ft | 939 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 980 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 034 | walk to | yes | 71 ft | 881 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 958 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 035 | walk to | yes | 142 ft | 1,071 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,217 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 036 | walk to | yes | 128 ft | 1,166 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,351 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 037 | walk to | yes | 185 ft | 1,013 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,265 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 038 | walk to | yes | 128 ft | 1,260 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,473 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 039 | walk to | yes | 175 ft | 1,168 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,449 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 040 | walk to | yes | 140 ft | 1,348 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,596 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 041 | walk to | yes | 131 ft | 1,452 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,760 ft | $15 | |
| WKUP | 042 | walk to | yes | 87 ft | 1,535 ftSpruce Knob Lake | 1,884 ft | $15 |
25 of 42 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Seneca ShadowsSpruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area · 7.9 miLaurel Fork CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 10 mi
Middle Mountain CabinsMonongahela National Forest · 15 miBear Heaven CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 16 miFrom Riverton, WV, take U.S. Route 33 south 2 miles to Briery Gap Road (County Road 33/4). Turn right onto Briery Gap Road. Go 2 miles to Forest Road 112, turn right and continue for 13.5 miles. Turn right on Forest Road 1. The campground is 1/2 mile on the right.
From Elkins, WV, take U.S. Route 33 to State Route 29, which is 1 mile west of Harman. Turn right onto SR 29, go south 18.6 miles and tum left onto Forest Road 1. Follow FR 1 for 2.5 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Whitmer, WV
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January 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
Spruce Knob Lake is in West Virginia’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Carol Miller (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →