U.S. Forest Service · Monongahela National Forest · WV

Stuart Recreation Area

ReservableOut of season; bookable April 17 through September 16.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
A night
$33–$58Across the site types the agency prices
Sites
28All of them booked ahead
99 ftLongest rig
2,280 ftElevation
975 ftWater · Shavers Fork
3.3 miE of Elkins, WV
85%Tree cover

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices

In the agency’s own words

The Stuart Campground and Recreation Area is set in a mixed forest along the banks of the Shavers Fork River. The river provides excellent fishing and is regularly stocked with trout. Hiking trails lead to outstanding overlooks, local caves and Blackwater Falls. It is comprised of one campground, one group campground and a day-use area. The campground has 26 (25 single, 1 double) camping units with electric hookups, fire rings, lantern posts, picnic tables and paved spurs. In addition, there is a developed host site equipped with electrical, water, and sewage hookups. Keep reading

Most of the campground sites and facilities within it are ABA accessible. The campground contains two single-unit vault toilets, one double-unit vault toilet, and one six-unit flush restroom with four shower units all of which are accessible. The group campground contains one reservable site that will accommodate up to 40 people. The group campground contains fire rings, picnic tables, lantern posts, and two single-unit vault toilets. There is no electric at the group campground. Drinking water may be obtained from Stuart Campground. The group campground is not accessible. The day-use area contains three reservable pavilions. The “Large” Pavilion has electricity and can accommodate 100 people. There are two non-electric pavilions: the “Small” Pavilion is non-electric and can accommodate 50 people; the “Alpena” Pavilion is non-electric and can accommodate 25 people. The day use area also contains 5 separate vehicle parking areas, with space for approximately 25-40 vehicles in each lot, a 14 acre field (approximately), multiple picnic tables, multiple pedestal grills, four restroom facilities with two toilets in each restroom (two changing rooms located at one of the restrooms), a river-beach area, easy stream access to Shavers Fork of Cheat River, and volleyball net. The restrooms, changing areas, parking areas, Large and Small Pavilions are accessible. The entire 14 acre field (approximately) must be mowed and trimmed. Holder will be responsible for all grounds maintenance of the site and facilities. New for the 2025 season the day-use area also contains a historic cabin that was previously managed under the local Forest Service district office for storage and administrative use. It was recently fully renovated and has been added to this prospectus for future use as a rental. The cabin contains a fully furnished kitchen (overhead cabinets, refrigerator, oven/range, sink, and countertops with drawers underneath), a single full-bathroom (with standing shower, toilet, and sink), a study room with two desks, a living room (with two couches, and end tables), a second living/dining space (with table, chairs and benches), and two furnished bedrooms (with two single beds, night stands, standing closets, and lamps in each room – 4 beds total). The cabin has electric heat, public water, and the sewer is tied into the on-site wastewater system. The cabin does not have air conditioning. Permit holder will be responsible for adding the cabin to the reservation system. Similar to all the other sites listed in this prospectus, the permit holder will be responsible for all daily upkeep of the cabin, check-in/check-out, as well as repair and replacement of consumables within the cabin. Due to the cabin being on the National Register of Historic Places, any proposed alterations/repairs to the cabin and the adjacent landscaping by the permit holder must be reviewed and approved by the Forest Supervisor in conjunction with consultation with the Forest Service Archaeologist and the State’s Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) prior to implementation. Applicants must consider the cost of cabin maintenance, upkeep, and cleaning as part of their business operations when calculating operating costs. Applicants must include a proposed nightly fee for the cabin within the fee structure portion of the application. There is one trash dumpster located at the Stuart Recreation Area and one trash dumpster located in the campground for garbage collection and disposal. There are individual trash bins located at each of the shelters and at the group campground. There is one recreation vehicle dump station in the recreation area located adjacent to the campground. The average operation and maintenance season for Stuart Recreation Area has been approximately from mid-April through October. At a minimum, the Forest Service (FS) will expect the permit Holder to fully operate the recreation area from the third Friday night in April through the Columbus Day weekend in October.

Recreation

Day Hiking - There is a hiking trail in the recreation area: River Loop Trail - #119 which is 2 miles in length. Mountain Biking - There is a hiking trail in the recreation area: River Loop Trail - #119 which is 2 miles in length. Picnicking - Stuart offers tables, grills, and waste receptacles for picnicking. There are three reservable pavilions - the large electric, small non-electric, and the Alpena - are available for family outings. Pavilion reservations may be made online or by calling (877)444-6777. Pavilion reservations must be made at least 5 days prior to your arrival or can be made 360 days in advance. Group Picnicking - Stuart offers tables, grills, and waste receptacles for picnicking. There are three reservable pavilions - the large electric, small non-electric, and the Alpena - are available for family outings. Pavilion reservations may be made online or by calling (877)444-6777. Pavilion reservations must be made at least 5 days prior to your arrival or can be made 360 days in advance. River and Stream Fishing - Catch and release fishing is allowed in the Shavers Fork River. A state fishing license, National Forest Stamp, a Conservation stamp, and trout stamp are required. Please contact the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources for more information on fishing and hunting licensing requirements. River Swimming - It's a lot of fun, and there are plenty of trout to tempt anglers of all skill levels. The 2-mile River Loop Hiking Trail is enjoyed by many visitors, and is a great way to watch for birds and wildlife. No lifeguard.

Facilities

The campground lies on a single loop with long spurs. Drinking water and accessible flush toilets and showers are provided, with a dump station is on-site. Each site comes with a campfire ring, tent pad, lantern post and electric hookups. The day-use area has three picnic pavilions with maintained fields and a beach on the riverfront.

Natural Features

The campground is perched along a bend on the Shavers Fork River. Shavers is a tributary of the Cheat River, a popular rafting river with rocky rapids. Stuart is in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. The Monongahela Forest extends over the north central highlands of the state, straddling many of the region's highest peaks. Elevations here range from 1,000 to 4,863 feet above sea level. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (304) 567-3082.

Nearby Attractions

The town of Elkins is a 14-minute drive from the campground. An annual Mountain State Forest Festival takes place here every October.

What the agency tells you

Rule

Be bear aware; keep all food out of site in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating

Rule

Entrance gates are locked from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Rule

This campground has first-come, first-served sites

Everything else this campground posts · 5
Rule

Limit 2 vehicles per single site; a daily fee is charged for extra vehicles

Rule

After Labor Day, the day-use area closes at 6 p.m.

Rule

For more information on Monongahela National Forest, click here

Rule

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.

Rule

RECREATION AREA MAY FLOOD - YOUR SAFTETY IS YOUR RESPONSIBILTY

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Tents and rigs

Sites
28 · 1 group, 1 cabin
Hookups
27 electric
Longest rig
99 ft
Paved pads
26 of 28
Accessible sites
4
Pets
Allowed
Campfires
Not allowed
Shade
Every site
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Flush Toilets
FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 50 campsite records
Showers
Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
SHOWERS on 1 of 50 campsite records
Drinking water
Yes
DRINKING WATER on 1 of 50 campsite records, WATER (SEASONAL) on 1 of 50 campsite records
Dump station
Yes
recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
Source: National Park Service and agency records
Water, toilets and showers: counted from this campground’s own campsite records, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
River, Creek, Beach
Fishing
Hiking
Hunting
Swimming
Night sky · 53rd darkest of 69 in WV
Bortle 4
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

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.

Booking windowFrom April 17Out of season now. Bookable for April 17, 2027 through September 16, 2027. Today at 10 AM ET, availability opens through September 17, 2027.recreation.gov
A night$33–$58plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$74–$124DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
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’ll write once, when the season that starts Sat, Apr 17 2027 is open for booking.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 14

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night, per site$33–$58
Standard Electric$33
Double Standard Electric$58
Group areas, a night$55–$150
Rates for the season the campground is in now, Apr 17, 2026 to Oct 12, 2026.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$41–$66
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$74–$124

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $33–$58 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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

50 records · which ones have room · the site map

The sites, ranked

from 30 mapped sites
96 ftbetween you and the next site, typically
Least roomLoop STUA 012 63 ftLoop STUA 013 63 ftLoop STUA 008 73 ft

All 50 records

30 of 50 records located
RV / electric26Group1Day use3
SleepsTakes aUp to

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 28 of the 50 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

CabinHistoric Cabincabin electric12 ft30 amp$150
DAY USEAlpenaday useyes480 ft149 ft$55–$75
DAY USELarge Picnicday use30 ampyes480 ft469 ft$130
DAY USESmall Picnicday useyes472 ft323 ft$55–$75
MANAGEMENT SITESXXXunnamed record45 ftyes$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX1unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX10unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX11unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX12unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX13unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX14unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX15unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX16unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX17unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX18unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX2unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX3unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX4unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX5unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX6unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX7unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX8unnamed record$33.97
MANAGEMENT SITESXXX9unnamed record$33.97
OVERNIGHTGS1group standard nonelectricyes827 ft185 ft$70
RCDB010standard electric99 ft30 amp103 ft659 ft$33–$58
STUA001standard electric45 ft30 amp176 ft1,037 ft$33–$58
STUA002standard electric45 ft30 amp96 ft967 ft$33–$58
STUA003standard electric45 ft30 amp114 ft900 ft$33–$58
STUA004standard electric45 ft30 amp82 ft869 ft$33–$58
STUA005standard electric45 ft30 amp82 ft851 ft$33–$58
STUA006standard electric45 ft30 amp95 ft873 ft$33–$58
STUA007standard electric45 ft30 amp88 ft864 ft$33–$58
STUA008standard electric45 ft30 amp72 ft834 ft$33–$58
STUA009standard electric45 ft30 amp72 ft793 ft$33–$58
STUA011standard electric45 ft30 amp81 ft662 ft$33–$58
STUA012standard electric45 ft30 ampyes63 ft699 ft$33–$58
STUA013standard electric45 ft30 ampyes63 ft702 ft$33–$58
STUA014standard electric45 ft30 ampyes88 ft719 ft$33–$58
STUA015standard electric45 ft30 amp110 ft710 ft$33–$58
STUA016standard electric45 ft30 amp110 ft703 ft$33–$58
STUA017standard electric45 ft30 amp96 ft893 ft$33–$58
STUA018standard electric45 ft30 amp112 ft963 ft$33–$58
STUA019standard electric45 ft30 amp105 ft796 ft$33–$58
STUA020standard electric45 ft30 amp101 ft632 ft$33–$58
STUA021standard electric45 ft30 amp98 ft631 ft$33–$58
STUA022standard electric45 ft30 amp93 ft701 ft$33–$58
STUA023standard electric45 ft30 amp93 ft743 ft$33–$58
STUA024standard electric45 ft30 amp120 ft831 ft$33–$58
STUA025standard electric45 ft30 amp82 ft938 ft$33–$58
STUA026standard electric45 ft30 amp82 ft1,019 ft$33–$58

The agency files 22 more records here that aren’t sites for the night: 3 it files as day use and 19 it types 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.

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 50 listed

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Coordinate38.91750, -79.77111
The phone304-636-5070
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Getting there

From Elkins, West Virginia: Take Highway 219 to Highway 33. Travel east for approximately 4 miles, turn north on old Route 33 and travel for 2 miles. Turn left at Highway 6 (at the Stuart Recreation Area directional sign) and drive .25 miles to entrance.

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight38°Rain Showers79% rain
Saturday47°Rain Showers Likely then Mostly Cloudy67% rain
Saturday Night19°Widespread Frost
Sunday56°Widespread Frost then Sunny

NWS forecast for Bowden, WV

Typical weather

Typical October night 39°F, day 66°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 20°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

90°32°10°

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.

Measured at: ELKINS RANDOLPH CO AP, WV (USW00013729), 5 miles away and 301 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Mcgowan Mountain10,504 acres · 5 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Cheat Mountain8,191 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Riley Moore, official portrait

Stuart Recreation Area is in West Virginia’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Riley Moore (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate: the number below is the only way to be sure.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Bowden, WV, 3.1 mi W (a census designated place). Straight line.