Summit Lake Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 33All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
A 33-unit semi-primitive, wooded campground with paved access roads and parking spurs, located approximately 10 miles from Richwood, WV, adjacent to a popular 43-acre cold water fishing lake. Although the campground closes in winter, the lake is accessible year-round. Summit Lake was constructed in 956 as a reservoir for the town of Richwood, WV. It is fed by the two forks of Coats Run, a tributary of the North Fork of the Cherry River. The area has a rich history dating back to Native Americans, the lumber boom of the early 1900s and its current era of land preservation and use. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing for stocked trout is the most popular activity at Summit Lake in addtion to canoeing and kayaking. When conditions allow, hardy anglers ice fish the lake. A 1.8 mile trail around the lake offers shoreline access to the lake as well as wildlife viewing opportunities. The Cranberry Wilderness, the Cranberry Glades, Falls of Hills Creek, and the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center are all within a short drive or day bike ride.
Facilities
Summit lake campground is comprised of two loops. The first loop has sites 1-9 and a spring fed water faucet water source, trash cage, and double vault toilets. The second loop has sites 10 -33, has a hand pump for water, two double vault toilets, trash cage, and both loops offer easy access to the Summit Lake loop trail. At each campsite you will find paved spur, picnic tables, lantern post, and fire ring. Cell phone coverage is very spotty but may at times be obtained in the middle of the upper camping loop. Please Plan Ahead.
Natural Features
Summit Lake is a 43-acre cold water lake and is only a short hike or drive away from the campground. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources stocks the lake with trout in the spring and fall. There is also a naturally reproducing poplulation of largemouth bass and panfish. Near the lake you may see a bald eagle come in for some fishing or a black bear making his way along the outer edge of the lake. At 3,392 you will find Aspen trees and a variety of birds.
Nearby Attractions
Richwood is just a short 10-mile drive from the Campground. There you will find locally owned, full of unique personality dining at local restaurants. Richwood also currently offers a dollar general with grocery market.
What the agency tells you
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
No RV hookups are available
Only boats with electric outboard motors are allowed on the lake
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Limit 2 vehicles per campsite
For more information on Monongahela National Forest, click here https://www.fs.usda.gov/mnf
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 https://www.dontmovefirewood.org/
Summit Lake Recreation Day Use Area is Open Year Round but the Summit Road does not Receive Routine Snow Removal or Treatment.
The group picnic shelter is reservable. Limit of 75 people.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 33
- Hookups
- None
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 34 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…loop has sites 1-9 and a spring fed water faucet water source, trash cage, and double vault toilets.…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Spotty
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 14:28 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 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 14:28 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
34 records
All 34 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 33 of the 34 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Shelter | Group Picnic Shelter | day use | $50 |
| Summit Lake | 1 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 10 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 11 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 12 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 13 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 14 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 15 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 16 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 17 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 18 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 19 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 2 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 20 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 21 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 22 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 23 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 24 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 25 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 26 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 27 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 28 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 29 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 3 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 30 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 31 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 32 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 33 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 4 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 5 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 6 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 7 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 8 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
| Summit Lake | 9 | standard nonelectric | $15 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 34 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Big RockMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 mi
Bishop KnobMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 mi
Cranberry CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 mi
Cranberry River CampsitesMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 mi
Day Run CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 mi
Pocahontas CampgroundMonongahela National Forest · 0.0 miDirections: From Richwood, WV Tavel East on State Route 39/55 Approximately 8 miles to Summit Lake Road/WV39/5, then 2.2 miles to Summit Lake Campground.
From Marlinton Travel South on US-219 S Approximately 8.3 Miles to Mill Point. Turn Right Onto WV-39 W/WV-55 W. Approximately 21 Miles Turn Right on to Summit Lake Road/ WV39/5. Approximately 2.2 Miles turn left into Summit Lake Campground.
From Lewisburg Travel North on US-219 N Approximately 33 miles to Mill Point. Turn left onto WV-39 W/WV-55W. Approximately 21 Miles Turn Right On to Summit Lake Road WV39/5. Approximately 2.2 miles turn left In to Summit Lake Campground.
The agency publishes this point for 10 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Durbin, WV
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 14°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
Summit Lake Campground 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…spur, picnic tables, lantern post, and fire ring. Cell phone coverage is very spotty but may at times be obtained in the middle of the upper…”