Timber Creek Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 98 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Timber Creek Campground is located in Duck Creek Basin, high on the Schell Creek Range, in eastern Nevada. It sits at an elevation of 8,500 feet, approximately 25 miles from the small city of Ely. Visitors to the area enjoy hiking, horseback riding, fishing and off-road vehicle riding, among other activities. Keep reading
Recreation
Timber Creek is a perennial stream with rainbow and brook trout fishing. The High Schells Wilderness can be accessed from a trailhead located a half-mile up the road from the campground. The 30-mile Success Loop Scenic Drive is located in the Duck Creek Basin with views of the surrounding high desert and mountain terrain. Access to the Ranger OHV Trail is located below the campground and offers recreational opportunities for OHVs, horseback, mountain bikes and hiking.
Facilities
The campground has five group campsites, which serve varying sizes of groups between 25-100 people. Some sites require a short walk from the parking area, on a bridge over Timber Creek, to access the site pad. All sites have picnic and serving tables, a campfire ring and a grill. Vault toilets and drinking water is provided. This is a "pack it in, pack it out" site, with no trash collection service.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a dense forest of Engelmann spruce, aspen and white fir trees, which offers partial shade and beautiful fall color. Timber Creek flows past the campground. High Schells Wilderness sits immediately ajacent to the campground and has multiple peaks greater than 11,000 ft. in elevation.
Nearby Attractions
Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park is a few miles southeast of Ely, providing an opportunity to see interesting historic stone ovens and hike an interpretive trail. The Northern Nevada Railway in Ely has a museum and offers train rides. Cave Lake State Park is a few miles south of Duck Creek Basin along the Success Loop Road.
What the agency tells you
Trailers and RVs are limited to 34 feet in length, due to tight turns
Single-family campsites within the campground are available on a first-come, first-served basis
Click here for more information on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Don't Move Firewood: Help prevent the spread of tree-killing pests in our national forests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 9 · 5 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- 3
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 8 of 9 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE PIT TOILETS on 8 of 9 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 8 of 9 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Birding
- Cross Country Skiing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horse Camping
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Mountain Climbing
- Off Highway Vehicle Trails
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
- Night sky · 35th darkest of 65 in NV
- Bortle 2
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:26 UTC
recreation.gov lists 8 of the 9 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 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 16:26 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
9 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 8 mapped sitesAll 9 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 9 of the 9 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. 8 of the 9 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Timber Creek Campground | 1 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | yes | 257 ft | 14 ft | 557 ft | $10 |
| Timber Creek Campground | 4 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | yes | 248 ft | under 10 ft | 210 ft | $10 |
| Timber Creek Campground | 6 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | yes | 344 ft | 34 ft | 516 ft | $10 |
| TIMBER CREEK CAMPGROUND | A | group standard area nonelectric | 34 ft | 396 ft | 11 ft | 501 ft | $35–$60 | |
| TIMBER CREEK CAMPGROUND | B | group standard area nonelectric | 34 ft | 322 ft | 147 ft | 338 ft | $35–$60 | |
| TIMBER CREEK CAMPGROUND | C | group standard area nonelectric | 35 ft | 322 ft | 38 ft | 164 ft | $35–$60 | |
| TIMBER CREEK CAMPGROUND | C2 | type not stated | 20 ft | under 10 ft | 338 ft | |||
| TIMBER CREEK CAMPGROUND | D | group standard area nonelectric | 34 ft | 257 ft | 83 ft | 590 ft | $35–$60 | |
| TIMBER CREEK CAMPGROUND | E | group standard area nonelectric | 34 ft | 248 ft | 106 ft | 275 ft | $35–$60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Bird Creek CampgroundHumboldt National Forest · 4.6 mi
East Creek CampgroundHumboldt National Forest · 6.8 mi
Cleve Creek CampgroundBristlecone Field Office · 14 mi
Ward Mtn. Campground (Murray Summit)Humboldt National Forest · 22 mi
Wheeler Peak CampgroundGreat Basin National Park · 32 mi
Upper Lehman Creek CampgroundGreat Basin National Park · 34 miFrom McGill, travel north on Highway 93 for 5 miles. Turn on State Route 486 and continue 8 miles on the paved road. Turn left on Forest Road 425, at the Timber Creek sign, and drive up the dirt road another 3 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for McGill, NV
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
Timber Creek Campground is in Nevada’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Mark Amodei (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →