Upper Little Truckee
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 17 mi
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 22All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 24 – October 13Open May 24 through October 13
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Upper Little Truckee Campground is located on Highway 89, about 12 miles north of Truckee. Its location makes it a great base camp for a variety of recreational activities, including fishing, hunting, hiking and biking. This facility is operated and maintained by Lake Tahoe Hospitality LLC for the Tahoe National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing for rainbow and brown trout in the Little Truckee River is a popular activity enjoyed by visitors to the area. The surrounding area offers hiking and biking trails.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family campsites, each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the banks of the Little Truckee River, at an elevation of 6,200 feet. A forest of lodgepole pine, aspen and juniper trees covers the area, offering partial shade. A few sites overlook the river. Contact Info This location has limited staffing. Please call (530) 606-3978 for general information.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Truckee, 10 minutes south, offers all the amenities of a year-round recreational mountain town including top notch restaraunts, resorts, hotels, grocery stores, gas stations, shopping, and historic sites. Lake Tahoe is located an additional 30 minutes south and offers excellent boating, kayaking, fishing, hiking and scenic driving opportunities as well as dining, shopping and lodging options. Stampede Reservoir and recreation area is a 35-minute drive southeast of the campground. Sardine Lakes, within beautiful Lakes Basin, is a 40-minute drive northwest, via the Golden Chain/Highway 49. Other recreational opportunities include Donner Camp Interpretive Trail, Donner Memorial State Park, Overland Emigrant Commemorative Trial, and numerous hiking, mountain biking, and OHV trails.
What the agency tells you
One vehicle included with single site reservation and 10 vehicles included in group site reservation. Additional vehicle fee cost is $10/each per night for all vehicles. All operable, highway legal vehicles must pay extra vehicle fee, excluding the single vehicle included with the reservation. Please pay extra vehicle fee at the self-serve fee tube located near campground entrance if not paid online.
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers.
Off-road vehicle use is prohibited within the campground.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
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 Sierraville Ranger District (530) 994-3401 (voice), (530) 994-3521 (TDD).
Click here for more information on the Tahoe National Forest.
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.
Campsite check-out time is 12:00pm. Check-in time is 2:00pm.
6 people and 2 dogs maximum per single site. Dogs shall always be kept on leash no longer than six feet or otherwise confined. Violation notices WILL be issued for non-compliance.
Modifications for this campground must be made PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 22 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Paved pads
- 2 of 22
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- 19 of 22 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features The campground is…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Scenic drives
- Water access
- Night sky · 923rd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 2 days ago, 37 km away
- No change
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 · 14
What you actually pay
“Additional vehicle fee cost is $10/each per night for all vehicles.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
22 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 22 mapped sitesAll 22 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. 22 of the 22 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 88 ft | 234 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 002 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 75 ft | 232 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 003 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 69 ft | 213 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 004 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 69 ft | 200 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 270 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 56 ft | 275 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 30 ft | 320 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 30 ft | 324 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 009 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 55 ft | 306 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 55 ft | 303 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 011 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 71 ft | 200 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 012 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 57 ft | 143 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 013 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 57 ft | 116 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 27 ft | 90 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 27 ft | 90 ft | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 016 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 85 ft | 144 ftLittle Truckee River | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 017 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 85 ft | 183 ftLittle Truckee River | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 018 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 160 ft | 165 ftLittle Truckee River | $66 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 122 ft | 302 ftLittle Truckee River | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 111 ft | 166 ftLittle Truckee River | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 111 ft | 251 ftLittle Truckee River | $20 |
| AREA UPPER LITTLE TRUCKEE | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 93 ft | 219 ft | $20 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lower Little TruckeeTahoe National Forest · 0.6 miSagehen Creek CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 4.0 mi
Sardine Peak LookoutTahoe National Forest · 4.5 miBear Valley CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 4.6 mi
Cold CreekTahoe National Forest · 5.1 mi
Cottonwood CreekTahoe National Forest · 5.5 miFrom either east bound or west bound Interstate 80 in Truckee take exit 188, Highway 89 north to Sierraville. In aproximately 12 miles turn left into the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sierraville, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 67°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 25°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 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.
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
Upper Little Truckee 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 →