Upper Sage Flat
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 40 mi
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 8 of the next 8 nights read 15:52 UTC
- A night
- $29From, per site
- Sites
- 2120 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Take the family to Upper Sage for a pleasant camping trip along the banks of Big Pine Creek. Here, visitors can experience the beauty of the creek that runs along the base of a narrow canyon. Visitors can swim or fish, in the creek that is stocked annually with trout, or head to a nearby lake for power boating. Keep reading
Recreation
Rainbow, brown, brook and alpers trout swim in the stream, enticing anglers. Hikers are fans of the Big Pine Creek Trail, a 1.5-mile footpath that provides access to the John Muir Wilderness trails.
Facilities
Parking aprons are paved and most are 40 feet long. Amenities include flush toilets, drinking water, picnic tables and campfire rings.
Natural Features
The campground is sprawled out along Big Pine Creek beneath shady Jeffrey pines and cottonwoods, just 9 miles west of the town of Big Pine. Inyo National Forest is home to many natural wonders, including Mt. Whitney, Mono Lake, Mammoth Lakes Basin, and the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest atop the White Mountains. Bristlecone pines rank as the oldest trees in the world and have achieved immense scientific and cultural importance. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (760) 872-4552.
Nearby Attractions
Head to the neighboring John Muir Wilderness for incredible views of Palisades Glacier, the southern-most glacier in the country. Nearby Tinemaha Reservoir provides additional fishing opportunities.
What the agency tells you
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers
Outside peak season, campsites are open for walk-ins
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.
For more information on Inyo National Forest, click here
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 21
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Paved pads
- 20 of 21
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…most are 40 feet long. Amenities include flush toilets, drinking water, picnic tables and campfire rings.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…long. Amenities include flush toilets, drinking water, picnic tables and campfire rings. Natural Features…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 195th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 39 km away
- Peak color
Full this Saturdayread 15:52 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 19 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 16 are free on Thu, Oct 22. 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, $29 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
21 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 18 mapped sitesAll 21 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 18 of the 21 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. 21 of the 21 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.
| UPPE | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 85 ft | 100 ft | 105 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 003 | standard nonelectric | $29 | ||||
| UPPE | 004 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 81 ft | 99 ft | 180 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 73 ft | 196 ft | 234 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 81 ft | 96 ft | 256 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 178 ft | 306 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 107 ft | 64 ft | 361 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 009 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 85 ft | 135 ft | 430 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 85 ft | 65 ft | 507 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 011 | standard nonelectric | $29 | ||||
| UPPE | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 64 ft | 219 ft | 81 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 013 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 64 ft | 266 ft | 144 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 014 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 81 ft | 273 ft | 241 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 89 ft | 150 ft | 180 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 88 ft | 82 ft | 261 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 017 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 75 ft | 55 ft | 348 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 018 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 73 ft | 406 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 70 ft | 131 ft | 424 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 70 ft | 196 ft | 383 ft | $29 |
| UPPE | 021 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 81 ft | 240 ft | 308 ft | $29 |
| UPPER SAGE FLAT | 001 | type not stated | $29 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Big Pine Creek CampgroundInyo National Forest · 0.1 mi
Big Pine CanyonInyo National Forest · 0.7 miUpper Sage CampgroundInyo National Forest · 0.7 miWillow CampgroundInyo National Forest · 8.6 mi
Table Mountain (Inyo)Inyo National Forest · 9.3 mi
Mountain Glen CampgroundInyo National Forest · 10 miIn Big Pine, on US Highway 395, turn west at the yellow flashing traffic light onto Crocker Street (Big Canyon Road). Continue on this road for 9 miles to campground, on your left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Big Pine, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 23°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Upper Sage Flat 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 Upper Sage Flat, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Kevin Kiley, I’m a constituent in California’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Upper Sage Flat, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 20 of the 21 campsites the agency files at Upper Sage Flat, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 19 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Upper Sage Flat keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Upper Sage Flat. 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 Upper Sage Flat (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 Upper Sage Flat, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Upper Sage Flat, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 20 of the 21 campsites the agency files at Upper Sage Flat, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 19 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Upper Sage Flat keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Upper Sage Flat. 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 Upper Sage Flat (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 Upper Sage Flat, Inyo National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Upper Sage Flat, Inyo National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 20 of the 21 campsites the agency files at Upper Sage Flat, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 19 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Upper Sage Flat keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Upper Sage Flat. 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 Upper Sage Flat (Inyo National Forest, California) via campanac.com