Tuff Campground
1Heads up1 fire 44 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 9 of the next 9 nights; a database flag says not open read 15:52 UTC
- A night
- $33From, 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
Tuff Campground is situated along Rock Creek in the scenic Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. It is convenient to Tom's Place and U.S. Highway 395. At an elevation of 7,000 ft., it is lower than many of the region's campgrounds and thus frequently one of the first campgrounds to open in the spring. Popular activities include hiking, fishing, wildlife viewing and viewing the area's volcanic rock formations. Opening and closing dates for the season are dependent on weather. The campground usually opens the last weekend in April to coincide with the first day of fishing in the Sierras. Keep reading
Recreation
Rock Creek and nearby Rock Creek Lake and Crawley Lake are hot spots for trout fishing. A catch from the creek may including brook, brown, rainbow and stocked Alpers trout. The area's majestic scenery and challenging trails are an obvious draw for hikers and mountain bikers.
Facilities
This moderate-sized facility is well spread out over three loops. Some campsites sit in the shade along Rock Creek, and those at the foot of the Tuff rock formations receive more sun. There is space for small trailers and RVs, as well as some very nice level sites for tents. The campground has gravel roads. Firewood is available on-site for purchase, and Tom's Place has other supplies and fee showers within a short drive.
Natural Features
This campground is named for the Tuff rock formations that lie in and around it. Most campsites are situated in an open sagebrush landscape, with aspens, cottonwood and Jeffrey pine trees surrounding the area. The clear, cold and cascading Rock Creek runs alongside the campsites, offering a relaxing sound for campers. The area is home to abundant wildlife, including black bear, mountain lions, mule deer, pine martin, pika and many species of fish and birds.
Nearby Attractions
For campers interested in local events, Mule Days are held in nearby Bishop over Memorial Day weekend, and the Mammoth Jazz Jubilee is hosted in Mammoth in mid-July.
What the agency tells you
This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
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; always keep a clean camp and do not feed any wild animals
Two pets per site and leashed at all times.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Please Note: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per tent site. One vehicle per single site is included with your reservation. 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 if you did not pay for an Extra Vehicle Add On. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at the site.
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.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) 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.
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.
Click here for more information about Inyo National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 33
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 212th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 30 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 15:52 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 18 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 19 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 15:52 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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $33 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 15:52 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
34 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 33 mapped sitesAll 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.
| TUFF | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 93 ft | 1,430 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 47 ft | 1,517 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 003 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 47 ft | 1,545 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 004 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 62 ft | 1,512 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 005 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 49 ft | 1,573 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 006 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 49 ft | 1,599 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 007 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 62 ft | 1,551 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 51 ft | 1,632 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 65 ft | 1,603 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 1,662 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 011 HOST | host pad | 45 ft | 1,861 ft | ||
| TUFF | 012 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 86 ft | 1,852 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 86 ft | 1,905 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 014 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 70 ft | 2,011 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 015 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 70 ft | 2,051 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 016 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 61 ft | 2,080 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 017 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 73 ft | 1,968 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 018 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 48 ft | 2,119 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 019 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 48 ft | 2,142 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 81 ft | 2,223 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 021 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 59 ft | 2,164 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | 2,008 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 023 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 142 ft | 2,475 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 56 ft | 2,606 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 025 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 56 ft | 2,649 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 026 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 73 ft | 2,762 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 027 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 71 ft | 2,828 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 028 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 71 ft | 2,892 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 029 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 49 ft | 2,959 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 030 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 49 ft | 2,960 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 031 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 71 ft | 2,952 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 032 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | 2,890 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 033 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 73 ft | 2,820 ft | $33 |
| TUFF | 034 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 110 ft | 2,727 ft | $33 |
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.
25 of 34 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
French CampInyo National Forest · 1.1 miHoliday CampgroundInyo National Forest · 1.1 mi
Aspen Group (Inyo)Inyo National Forest · 3.8 miIris Meadow CampgroundInyo National Forest · 3.9 miBig Meadow CampgroundInyo National Forest · 4.4 miPalisade Group CampInyo National Forest · 5.6 miFrom Mammoth Lakes or Bishop, California: Take U.S. Highway 395 to the Owens Gorge Road exit at Tom's Place (25 miles north of Bishop and 13 miles south of Mammoth Lakes). Drive 200 yards east to the gravel road and continue north a short distance to the campground along Rock Creek. Follow signs.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sunny Slopes, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 65°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 21°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 · 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
Tuff Campground 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 →
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 moneyKevin KileyU.S. Representative · California’s 3rd district
No contact form we could verify, so that link is their own site. Contact is inside it. Washington office: 202-225-2523.
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAdam B. SchiffU.S. Senator · California
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlex PadillaU.S. Senator · California
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 Tuff Campground, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Kevin Kiley, I’m a constituent in California’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Tuff Campground, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 33 sites at Tuff Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 18 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Tuff Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Tuff 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 Tuff Campground (Inyo National Forest, California) 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 Tuff Campground, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Tuff Campground, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 33 sites at Tuff Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 18 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Tuff Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Tuff 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 Tuff Campground (Inyo National Forest, California) 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 Tuff Campground, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Tuff Campground, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 33 sites at Tuff Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 18 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Tuff Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Tuff 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 Tuff Campground (Inyo National Forest, California) via campanac.com