Upper Billy Creek CG
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 12 mi
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $47–$92Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 37All of them booked ahead
- Season
- June 1 – September 30Open June 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Upper Billy Creek Campground is located across the road from Huntington Lake near the Kaiser Wilderness. The adjacent Billy Creek Guard Station Museum provides historical overviews of Huntington Lake, Native Americans and the Forest Service. Some sites at Upper Billy Creek offer lake views and others overlook Billy Creek and its abundant wildflowers. The location makes it possible to discover all the activities and attractions at Huntington Lake, and it's an excellent base for further exploration of the Kaiser Wilderness. Keep reading
Recreation
Many hiking trails are in the area, including Rancheria Falls (1 mile), Indian Pools (1 mile) and Black Point (.7 miles). Hikers and horseback riders can access the 12-mile Kaiser Loop Trail, which connects to a network of trails within the Kaiser Wilderness. Huntington Lake offers swimming, sailing, boating, canoeing, kayaking, fishing and water skiing. Additionally, California Land Management sponsors a variety of interpretive programs and nature walks throughout the summer at several locations in the area, including the amphitheater at Upper Billy Creek.
Facilities
This campground has paved spurs, some of which have a slight slope. Each campsite has a picnic table, food storage locker, and campfire ring. Vault toilets, flush toilets and drinking water are provided.
Natural Features
The campground is tucked beneath a grove of large cedar, fir and pine trees within the Sierra National Forest on the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada. Many sites have a view of Huntington Lake. The forest is known for its spectacular mountain scenery and abundant natural resources. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (559) 893-2308.
Nearby Attractions
The 83-mile Sierra Vista Scenic Byway (Highway 168) makes a great day trip from the Huntington Lake area.
Charges & Cancellations
Rules & Reservation Policies As you make travel plans that include reservations on Recreation.gov, there are standard policies that apply to most locations of which you should be aware. Do keep in mind, however, that there are many exceptions, so it is best to review reservation information listed on individual facility pages for those policies and procedures that pertain to your specific locations. Any location or activity requiring a permit or lottery will have unique requirements and policies. Please check individual facility pages for pertinent information for those sites. Booking Window For most locations, you can reserve six months in advance of your stay for individual sites and 12 months in advance for group sites. There are some exceptions, so it is best to check with each facility. Change and Cancellation Policies and Fees Overnight and Day Use Facilities: To ensure fairness, reservation arrival or departure dates may not be changed beyond the booking window until 18 days after booking the reservation. Camping / Day Use: A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation (including campsites, cabins, lookouts, group facilities, etc.). The $10.00 service fee will be deducted from the refund amount. You can cancel or change reservations through Recreation.gov or by calling 1-877-444-6777. Tours & Tickets: You may request changes to tour dates at no cost before the arrival date. If you cancel before your tour date, you may be eligible for a refund. Cancellation fees apply. Please check the tour facility description details page for cancellation policies. Permits: Varies by location. Please check the permit details for the permit location. Late Cancellations Overnight and Day Use Facilities: Late cancellations are those cancelled between 12:01 a.m. (Eastern) on the day before arrival and check out time on the day after arrival. Individual Campsites: If a customer cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival they will be charged a $10.00 service fee and will also forfeit the first night's use fee (not to exceed the total paid for the original reservation). Cancellations for a single night's reservation will forfeit the entire use fee but no cancellation fee will apply. Cabins / Lookouts: Customers will be charged a $10.00 cancellation fee and forfeit the first night's use fee if a cabin or lookout reservation is cancelled within 14 days of the scheduled arrival date. Cancellations for a single night's use will not be assessed a service fee. Group Facility: If a customer cancels a group overnight facility reservation within 14 days of the scheduled arrival date they will be charged the $10.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's use fee. Cancellations for a single night's use will not be assessed a service fee. Group Day Use Area: If a customer cancels a group day use facility reservation within 14 days of the scheduled arrival date, they will forfeit the total day use fee with no service fee charge. No-Shows Camping / Day Use: A camping no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Reserved campsites and group overnight facilities will be held until check-out time on the day following your scheduled arrival. Group day-use facilities will be held until check-in time on your scheduled arrival date. If a customer does not arrive at the campground or group facility by check-out time the day after arrival or does not cancel the reservation by the times listed under "Late Cancellations" above, the customer may be assessed a $20.00 service fee and forfeit use fees. Tours: A tour or ticket no-show is one who does not cancel a ticket before arrival and does not arrive for the tour. Tour no-shows are not entitled to a refund. Refunds Customers must request refunds no later than 14 days after the scheduled departure date. Recreation.gov will not grant refund requests after 14 days of departure. Reservation Fee: For some facilities, tours or permits an additional reservation fee is charged. For some overnight and day-use facilities, an additional non-refundable reservation fee may apply. The non-refundable reservation fee for tours and tickets is $1.00. The non-refundable reservation fee for permits varies by location. Refunds for Bankcard Purchases: Refunds for bank card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank card. Refunds for Check or Cash Purchases: Refunds for Recreation.gov payments made by check or money order, and cash payments at selected campgrounds will be issued a check refund. A refund will be processed within 30 days of receipt and approval. Please Note: Refund requests made during or after departure can only be processed when approved by the facility management staff based upon local policy. Refunds for Emergency Closures: In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team will attempt to notify users and offer alternate dates (as appropriate). If this is not possible, reservations will be cancelled and all fees paid will be refunded. Reservation fees for free tickets are non-refundable in the event of an emergency closure. Recreation.gov Billing Information Reservation transaction will appear on customer's credit card statements as "Recreation.gov 877-444-6777." Changes to Policies and Procedures Recreation.gov reserves the right, when necessary, to modify reservation policies. These policies were last updated July
What the agency tells you
Please register at the boat ramp kiosk.
Bears frequent the area; please store food in bear-proof containers
Verify map with campground, gps is not reliable.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Two pets per site and leashed at all times.
Please Note: One RV with tow vehicle for single site or one vehicle for single tent camping. Two RV’S with tow vehicle per double site or two vehicles for double tent only camping. 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.
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. For current fire conditions or weather closures contact the High Sierra Ranger District, Sierra National Forest (559) 855-5355
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.
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 to learn more about the Sierra National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 37 · 7 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- 15
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…food storage locker, and campfire ring. Vault toilets, flush toilets and drinking water are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…ring. Vault toilets, flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features The campground is…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Ranger programs
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 631st darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
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.
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 · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $47–$92 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.
“Camping / Day Use: A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation (including campsites, cabins, lookouts, group facilities, etc.). The $10.00 service fee will be deducted from the refund amount.” · this campground’s own no-show 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
The sites
37 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 33 mapped sitesAll 37 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 37 of the 37 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 001 | tent only nonelectric | $47–$92 | ||||
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $47–$92 | |||
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 152 ft | 586 ft | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 74 ft | 646 ft | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $47–$92 | |||
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 006 | standard nonelectric | 23 ft | yes | 67 ft | 577 ft | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 74 ft | 518 ft | $47–$92 | ||
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 90 ft | 639 ft | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 94 ft | 572 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | ||
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 95 ft | 538 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 68 ft | 463 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 52 ft | 361 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 444 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 38 ft | 168 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 015 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | yes | 37 ft | 315 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $47–$92 | |||
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 37 ft | 279 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 65 ft | 189 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 47 ft | 241 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 020 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 60 ft | 323 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 021 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | yes | 76 ft | 349 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 150 ft | 221 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 023 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | yes | 111 ft | 79 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 74 ft | 32 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 025 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 74 ft | 51 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 026 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 43 ft | 318 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 38 ft | 144 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 028 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 43 ft | 285 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 029 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 72 ft | 165 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 030 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 72 ft | 219 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 031 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 89 ft | 303 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 032 | tent only nonelectric | 48 ft | 357 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | ||
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 033 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 58 ft | 410 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 034 | tent only nonelectric | 43 ft | 504 ftBilly Creek | $47–$92 | ||
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 035 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 43 ft | 488 ft | $47–$92 | |
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | 036 | tent only nonelectric | 74 ft | 454 ft | $47–$92 | ||
| UPPER BILLY CREEK CG | Munahoo Group Site | group tent only area nonelectric | 27 ft | yes | 67 ft | 571 ft | $122 |
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 37 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lower Billy CreekSierra National Forest · 0.1 mi
CataveeSierra National Forest · 2.8 mi
KinnikinnickSierra National Forest · 2.9 mi
Deer CreekSierra National Forest · 2.9 mi
CollegeSierra National Forest · 3.3 mi
RancheriaSierra National Forest · 3.8 miTake Highway 168 east from Clovis to Shaver Lake. Continue through Shaver Lake to Huntington Lake. Continue around Huntington Lake for 3.2 miles to Upper Billy Creek Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Big Creek, CA
Typical weather
Typical June night 43°F, day 66°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical June night 43°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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 Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Upper Billy Creek CG is in California’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Tom McClintock (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →