U.S. Forest Service · Eldorado National Forest · CA

Stumpy Meadows

1Heads up1 fire 25 mi away
Wildfire
Old fire · 25 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 16, 2026
ReservableOut of season, no booking; November 22 opens May 22.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
A night
$36–$72Across the site types the agency prices
Sites
38All of them booked ahead
Season
June 1 – September 30Open June 1 through September 30
26 ftLongest rig
4,410 ftElevation
979 ftWater · Stumpy Meadows Reservoir
8.5 miN of Pollock Pines, CA
53%Tree cover
Open June 1 through September 30Today

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices

In the agency’s own words

Stumpy Meadows, on the Stumpy Meadows Reservoir, provides an enjoyable setting in a heavy conifer forest with easy access to an array of water activities. Campers come here to while away warm summer days on the lake and enjoy the sights and sounds of the great outdoors. The campground provides easy access to both hiking and biking trails. The historic town of Georgetown is 15 miles away. In the 19th century, the town was a hub of the productive gold mining region, and residents proclaimed the town the "pride of the mountains." Recreation The crystal clear reservoir is stocked with both Rainbow and German Brown Trout, providing excellent fishing during the season. The lake is a grand place for a swim. Kayaking and canoeing are much enjoyed activities on the lake's clear waters. Slow-paced motor boating is allowed, but is restricted to a 5 m.p.h. speed limit. Keep reading

Facilities

Campsites are well spaced and offer ample privacy from neighboring sites. The reservoir is within a short walk, but no campsites have views of the water. Vault toilets and drinking water from spigots are provided. A boat ramp is located a mile from the campground.

Natural Features

All sites are shaded by groves of towering Ponderosa pine, fir, oak, and cedar trees. The campground is in Eldorado National forest, which boasts over 400 miles of hiking trails, an abundance of lakes and rivers for fishing and swimming, and incredible scenery. Here, the climate is similar to that of the Mediterranean with warm, dry summers and cold, wet winters.

Nearby Attractions

Take a drive on the El Dorado County Scenic Highway or visit the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.

Charges & Cancellations

Recreation Fee: Recreation fees are the fees a visitor pays for things like overnight camping, a day-use pavilion, group facilities, a tour or a permit. Recreation fees vary by location and/or activity. Reservation Fee: A fee may be charged at the time a reservation is made to cover the cost of reservation services. This fee is in addition to the Recreation Fee and is non-refundable. Fees for camping, day use, group sites, cabins and lookouts: $8 if made on-line; $9 if made through the call center; $3 if made in-person. Change Fee: A service fee may be charged at the time a modification is made depending on the changes. Cancellation Fee: A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refunds for a cancelled reservation. Cut-Off Window: The latest date and/or time that you can make an advanced reservation or a change to an existing reservation. Cut-off windows can vary by location, but are typically 4 days before your arrival date. A customer who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee (see Late Cancellation below). Late Cancellation: If you cancel your reservation too close to the start date, additional service fees may be withheld.

What the agency tells you

Rule

Forest Order No. 19-15-01: Prohibits camping for a combined total of no more than 14 days during a calendar year (January-December), forest-wide. Visitors may book campsites annually but the maximum stay may not exceed a total of 14 days each calendar year (January-December)

Rule

Please Note: One vehicle per single site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground.

Rule

Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed. Call (530) 644-6048 for local information and conditions.

Everything else this campground posts · 7
Rule

Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (1PM) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.

Rule

Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).

Rule

Don't Move Firewood: Protect California's forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. For more information visit firewood.ca.gov.

Rule

First Come First Serve sites remain listed as FF for the entire season. They will not show occupied/available as the status of these sites is ever changing. You must be on site at the campground to claim a FF site. No guarantees upon arrival that these FF sites will be avaiable.

Rule

Several of the curves in this campground are very hard to maneuver with a trailer because they are lined with large pines; If you are an inexperienced driver, sites 3 - 16 are the easiest to access (5th wheels maneuver the road more easily than other trailers)

Rule

There is a fee to move from a reserved site to a first come first serve site. Site Transfer Policy

Rule

Click here for more information on the Eldorado National Forest.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Tents and rigs

Sites
38 · 10 tent-only
Hookups
None
Longest rig
26 ft
Paved pads
All
Accessible sites
5
Pets
Allowed at 37 of 38 sites
Campfires
Allowed, barring fire bans
Shade
Every site
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Vault Toilets
VAULT TOILETS on 39 of 39 campsite records
Drinking water
Yes
DRINKING WATER on 39 of 39 campsite records, WATER SPIGOT on 39 of 39 campsite records
Boat ramp
Yes
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026
Water, toilets and showers: counted from this campground’s own campsite records, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Reservoir, Lake, River, Meadow
Boating
Fishing
Hiking
Night sky · 874th darkest of 1,201 in CA
Bortle 4
Fall color · reported 10 days ago, 29 km away
Minimal color
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (29 km) · Oct 6, 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 windowOut of seasonOut of season, no booking. On November 22, 2026 at 10 AM ET, availability opens through May 22, 2027.recreation.govAdd to calendar (.ics)
Max stay14 nightsthe facility record
A night$36–$72plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$80–$152DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservation; this campground publishes its own terms toorecreation.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, May 22 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$36–$72
Standard Nonelectric$36
Tent Only Nonelectric$36
Standard Nonelectric- Double Site$72
These are next season’s rates, May 22, 2027 to Sep 6, 2027. The campground is between seasons now.
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$44–$80
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$80–$152

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $36–$72 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

“Fees for camping, day use, group sites, cabins and lookouts: $8 if made on-line $9 if made through the call center” · this campground’s own terms

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

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

39 records · which ones have room · the site map

The sites, ranked

from 38 mapped sites
80 ftbetween you and the next site, typically
Least roomLoop STUM 025 58 ftLoop STUM 026 58 ftLoop STUM 035 59 ft

All 39 records

39 of 39 records located
Standard28Tent only10Host pad1
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. 38 of the 39 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

STUM001standard nonelectric26 ft175 ft1,149 ft$36–$72
STUM002- Host Sitehost pad26 ft1,021 ft
STUM003standard nonelectric111 ft953 ft$36–$72
STUM004standard nonelectric76 ft957 ft$36–$72
STUM005standard nonelectric76 ft881 ft$36–$72
STUM006standard nonelectric81 ft848 ft$36–$72
STUM007standard nonelectric26 ft81 ft928 ft$36–$72
STUM008standard nonelectric26 ft98 ft843 ft$36–$72
STUM009standard nonelectric26 ft112 ft899 ft$36–$72
STUM010tent only nonelectric105 ft810 ft$36
STUM011standard nonelectric26 ftyes79 ft727 ft$36–$72
STUM012standard nonelectric26 ftyes79 ft677 ft$36–$72
STUM013standard nonelectric26 ftyes92 ft639 ft$36–$72
STUM014standard nonelectric26 ftyes92 ft574 ft$36–$72
STUM015standard nonelectric25 ft66 ft557 ft$36–$72
STUM016standard nonelectric26 ftyes71 ft493 ft$36–$72
STUM017tent only nonelectric66 ft539 ft$36
STUM018standard nonelectric19 ft78 ft426 ft$36–$72
STUM019standard nonelectric26 ft75 ft399 ft$36–$72
STUM020standard nonelectric26 ft85 ft316 ft$36–$72
STUM021tent only nonelectric75 ft393 ft$36
STUM022standard nonelectric26 ft75 ft338 ft$36–$72
STUM023tent only nonelectric82 ft377 ft$36
STUM024tent only nonelectric101 ft442 ft$36
STUM025tent only nonelectric58 ft546 ft$36
STUM026tent only nonelectric58 ft591 ft$36
STUM027tent only nonelectric68 ft555 ft$36
STUM028standard nonelectric26 ft80 ft707 ft$36–$72
STUM029standard nonelectric26 ft80 ft746 ft$36–$72
STUM031tent only nonelectric172 ft648 ft$36
STUM032standard nonelectric26 ft90 ft710 ft$36–$72
STUM033standard nonelectric26 ft74 ft797 ft$36–$72
STUM034standard nonelectric26 ft74 ft847 ft$36–$72
STUM035standard nonelectric26 ft59 ft877 ft$36–$72
STUM036standard nonelectric26 ft88 ft903 ft$36–$72
STUM037tent only nonelectric59 ft919 ft$36
STUM038standard nonelectric26 ft84 ft1,003 ft$36–$72
STUM039standard nonelectric26 ft114 ft1,038 ft$36–$72
STUM040standard nonelectric26 ft111 ft959 ft$36–$72

The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t 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 39 listed

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Coordinate38.90417, -120.59167
The phone831-245-6891
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Getting there

From Placerville take Hwy 49 N for 1/2 mile, turn right on Hwy 193 to Georgetown. Take a right on main street in Georgetown and proceed 15 miles to the campground.

From Auburn, Take Hwy 49 S to Cool, turn left on Hwy 193 to Georgetown, turn left on main street in Georgetown and proceed 15 miles to the campground.

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

This Afternoon86°Sunny
Tonight53°Clear
Saturday81°Sunny
Saturday Night52°Clear

NWS forecast for Pollock Pines, CA

Typical weather

Typical June night 47°F, day 82°F.

100°32°20°

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.

Measured at: PACIFIC HOUSE, CA (USC00046597), 11 miles away and 960 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
Rubicon4,872 acres · 3 mi · inventoried roadless area

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

Who answers for this land

Kevin Kiley, official portrait

Stumpy Meadows is in California’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Kevin Kiley (I), 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: The agency lists it out of season. The season it publishes is the bar below.
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (29 km) · Oct 6, 2026
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.