Van Vleck Bunkhouse
1Heads up1 fire 36 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Winter guests take on a more challenging adventure and must traverse an approx. 6-mile trek with a 1,300-foot elevation gain to reach the bunkhouse. The route is marked by blue reflective diamonds and this journey is for intermediate to advanced backcountry skiers only. Winter vehicle access from Jan. 1 through May 15 is restricted by snow. Winter user access is from the Loon Lake Campground vehicle pull out. Summer guests can access the bunkhouse by road and enjoy the simple pleasure of the cabin and nearby hiking and horseback riding. Vehicle access is restricted to the Bunkhouse parking area. Keep reading
Van Vleck Bunkhouse overlooks a 40-acre meadow and the Tells Peak portion of the Crystal Range of the Sierra Nevada, providing a rustic camping experience year-round. Built in 1957, the bunkhouse is the last remaining building at the Van Vleck Ranch site. The area was operated as a cattle ranch from the 1860s to the 1960s.
Recreation
Popular summer activities include mountain biking, hiking, backpacking in Desolation Wilderness, stream fishing in Cheese Camp Creek, horseback riding, and bird watching. The Tells Creek Primitive Equestrian Trail leads into Desolation Wilderness. In winter, cross country skiing or snowshoeing is required to reach the bunkhouse, so these are the featured activities of the trip.
Facilities
The bunkhouse has a 10x10' deck, two rooms and an indoor bathroom with a flush toilet, shower and sink. Outside is a vault toilet, picnic table, and campfire ring. The parking area accommodates up to six vehicles. The main living area includes a kitchen, a table with chairs, a gas log stove, a sleeper sofa and a bunk bed. The bedroom has another bunk bed and a queen-size bed. The heater and cook stove operate on propane. During the summer season, the bunkhouse is supplied with well water. Hot and cold running water is available in the kitchen, bathroom sinks, and the shower. Please conserve water as the supply is limited and can run out during dry periods. Due to freezing temperatures, the water system is shut down during the winter. If available, melt and boil snow for water during winter months, or bring water with you. There is no electricity. Other items to bring year-round include food,utensils,pots,pans, bedding, toilet paper, paper towels,flashlights, headlamps,matches, a first aid kit and all other basic camping gear. Click here for more cabin details.
Natural Features
Van Vleck sits halfway up a small peak of the Sierra Nevada, about a half-mile from Cheese Camp Creek, at an elevation of 6,000 feet. The front deck overlooks a meadow and offers a view of the Crystal Range. If skiing or snowshoeing to the bunkhouse, guests will pass over a bridge on the South Fork of the Rubicon River, and past a small aspen grove and Milkhouse Meadow.
Nearby Attractions
The nearest general store is at Ice House Reservoir, a 30-minute drive away. In winter this is closed, so the nearest store is in Pollock Pines, a 1.5-hour drive away. Tells Creek Primitive Equestrian Campground is located near the bunkhouse.
What the agency tells you
Guests must contact the Eldorado National Forest at (530) 644-2324 to arrange for permit, access, check-in and current conditions at least 7 days prior to arrival
Check out time is 1pm and check in time is 2pm
In winter, access is by ski or snowshoe on unmaintained 6-mile intermediate to advanced trail
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Climbing skins are required for cross country skiers
For bad winter weather, the Van Vleck Storm Shelter is located en route to the Bunkhouse at mile 2.4
Bring drinking water in winter months
Winter conditions can occur from September through June and may provide visitors with challenging weather, affecting access and amenities
This is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility; please bring garbage bags
Bears frequent the area; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
For current weather conditions and fire restriction status, click here
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.
In order to provide an enjoyable and memorable experience to all visitors, a stay limit of days per calendar year is now in effect. Use of any Eldorado National Forest cabins is limited to 6 nights per recreation rental facility and a total of 12 nights per calendar year. This time limit includes any combination of stays in Harvey West Cabin, Loon Lake Chalet, Robbs Hut, Sly Guard Cabin and Van Vleck Bunkhouse.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…two rooms and an indoor bathroom with a flush toilet, shower and sink. Outside is a vault toilet, picnic…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Facilities The bunkhouse has a 10x10' deck, two rooms and an indoor bathroom with a flush toilet, shower and sink.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “Hot and cold running water is available in the kitchen, bathroom sinks, and the shower.”
- Store
- Nearby
- Stay limit
- 6 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Meadow
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Winter sports
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 17 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 · 12
What you actually pay
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA VAN VLECK BUNKHOUSE | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 718 ft | 2,445 ft | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Loon Lake ChaletEldorado National Forest · 3.5 miLoon Lake Group CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 3.6 miWench Creek Group CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 3.6 mi
Loon LakeEldorado National Forest · 3.7 mi
Wench Creek3.9 mi
Big Silver GroupEldorado National Forest · 4.0 miFrom Placerville, drive 21 miles on Highway 50, then turn left on Ice House Riverton Road. Go 23 miles north and turn right on Tells Creek Road. Then drive 5 miles east and turn left on the gated, dirt/gravel road to the bunkhouse, which is 0.5-miles ahead on the left side.
Winter access is from the Loon Lake parking area. From Highway 50, go 28 miles north on Icehouse Road and take the right fork to Loon Lake. Go 5 miles to the plowed parking area at the entrance to the campground road. A permit and gate combination is required and should be arranged prior to arrival with the Pacific Ranger Station at (530) 644-2349.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Tahoma, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 18°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
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
Van Vleck Bunkhouse 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 →