Steel Bridge Campground
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Sites
- 3All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1 – November 1Open April 1 through November 1
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Steel Bridge Group Campground provides old-fashioned, rustic group camping for those that require few amenities. There are three well shaded camping sites for available for small group camping. Keep reading
Recreation
Steel Bridge Group Camping provides old-fashioned, rustic group and family camping. Visitors enjoy splashing in the cool water of Potts Creek that edges the campground. Potts Creek is a stocked trout stream and has a small swimming hole as well as many rock ledges and small falls to play in.
Facilities
There are three color coded campsites -- Red, White and Blue. "Red" and "Blue" have a maximum occupancy of 25 people and 10 vehicles per site. Larger groups must reserve more than one site. "White" campsite has a maximum capacity of 10 people and three vehicles. There is no minimum occupancy at any site. All camping must be within the designated campsites. Tents, vehicles, etc., cannot be outside the boundary of your campsites. The area adjacent to the entrance gate is for day-use only. It is open to ALL permit holders of the three reservable campsites and is not for overnight use. Each group area contains a group fire ring and picnic tables. Two primitive toilets are located within the campground. There is no potable water and no hookups.
Natural Features
The campground is set in a narrow valley, flanked by National Forest land. Potts Crees lies adjacent to the campground.
Nearby Attractions
Steel Bridge is located 5 minutes from Paint Bank, VA, and 25 minutes from New Castle, VA.
What the agency tells you
Please check your confirmation email for gate code. If not listed, you must call the Eastern Divide Ranger District at (540) 552-4641 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, prior to your arrival date to get the combination code to the gate(s). You will not be able to access Steel Bridge without the code.
You must bring your own drinking water.
The area must be trash free upon your departure. This includes the fire ring.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
There are no hookups and no electricity serving this camping area, and cell phones DO NOT work here.
A valid Virginia license including a national forest stamp is required for fishing. Visit http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/regulations/licenses.asp for more information.
This campground is not staffed by Forest Service personnel or volunteers. Forest Service staff intermittently visit this campground to clean and check on conditions.
Area subject to flooding. You are responsible for monitoring conditions and taking precautionary measures to protect your life and property.
All state laws are to be abided, including those regarding alcohol drinking ages and driving while under the influence.
All fires must be contained inside the established fire ring and must be completely extinguished before departure.
Fireworks are not permitted.
Vehicles may not park along the road.
Amplified music is prohibited.
The gate to the field must be left locked when not attended and upon departure.
Pack animals are not allowed.
Now accepting comments on 2023 Recreation Fee Proposals affecting this recreation site until October 31, 2023. For more information and to submit comments visit: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/gwj/home/?cid=FSEPRD1129447
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 3 · 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…are located within the campground. There is no potable water and no hookups. Natural Features The campground is…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
Full this Saturdayread 16:44 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:38 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 3 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Thu, Oct 22. read 16:44 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 10
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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:38 UTC
- Craig Creek Recreation AreaGeorge Washington & Jefferson National Forest · 14 mi · 1 of 1 site-night open
- Morris Hill CampgroundGeorge Washington National Forest · 27 mi · 74 of 110 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:44 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 3 sites
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Craig Creek Recreation Area14 miWhite Rocks CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 19 mi
Caldwell Fields Group CampgroundJefferson National Forest · 19 mi
Blue Bend Rec AreaMonongahela National Forest · 22 miBlue Bend Recreation Area and CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 22 miDirections: From I-81: Take Exit 141 onto SR 419 north to SR 311. Travel north on SR 311 36 miles to Paint Bank. Take right on SR 18, and then go 3.5 miles to campground on right. All roads are paved until you reach the campground. Driving distance from I-81 is about 40 miles; estimated driving time is 1 hour.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for New Castle, VA
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 66°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical November night 29°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 · a letter you can send
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
Steel Bridge Campground is in Virginia’s 9th congressional district. Its representative, H. Morgan Griffith (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyH. Morgan GriffithU.S. Representative · Virginia’s 9th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMark R. WarnerU.S. Senator · Virginia
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTim KaineU.S. Senator · Virginia
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Steel Bridge Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia
Dear H. Morgan Griffith, I’m a constituent in Virginia’s 9th district. I tried to camp at Steel Bridge Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Steel Bridge Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Steel Bridge Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Steel Bridge Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Steel Bridge Campground (Jefferson National Forest, Virginia) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Steel Bridge Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia
Dear Mark R. Warner, I’m a constituent in Virginia. I tried to camp at Steel Bridge Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Steel Bridge Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Steel Bridge Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Steel Bridge Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Steel Bridge Campground (Jefferson National Forest, Virginia) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Steel Bridge Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia
Dear Tim Kaine, I’m a constituent in Virginia. I tried to camp at Steel Bridge Campground, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia, and couldn’t. All 3 sites at Steel Bridge Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Steel Bridge Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Steel Bridge Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Steel Bridge Campground (Jefferson National Forest, Virginia) via campanac.com