Vermillion
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 23 mi
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $37From, per site
- Sites
- 3130 on recreation.gov
- Season
- June 1 – September 30Open June 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Vermillion Campground is located on the northwest shore of Edison Lake, in a shady stand of Ponderosa pine. Most sites provide lake views. The campground is ideal for tents, as well as small RVs. Visitors can enjoy mountain views of the surrounding John Muir and Ansel Adams Wilderness areas. Keep reading
Recreation
Edison Lake has a free public boat launch. Canoeing and kayaking near the shoreline are popular activities. Anglers can fish for rainbow, brown or brook trout. Sandy beaches within the campground provide lake access for swimming. Campfire programs are offered throughout the summer. Numerous hiking and equestrian trails are in the area.
Facilities
Each campsite has a picnic table, campfire ring and bear-proof food storage locker, all set off a bit from the parking spur. Some sites are sloped and not suitable for tent camping. Vault toilets are provided. There are 8 water spigots in the campground with potable drinking water. Limited supplies and pay showers are available at the Vermillion Valley Resort, which is within walking distance.
Natural Features
The Sierra National Forest, located on the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada, is known for its spectacular mountain scenery and abundant natural resources. The terrain includes rolling, oak-covered foothills, heavily forested middle elevation slopes and the starkly beautiful alpine landscape of the High Sierra. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (559) 893-2308.
Nearby Attractions
Vermillion Campground is an excellent base for exploring the Ansel Adams or John Muir Wilderness Areas. The Vermillion Valley Resort offers ferry rides across the lake to trails within the Ansel Adams Wilderness.
Charges & Cancellations
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
What the agency tells you
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.
RVs and motor homes are not recommended on Kaiser Road due to single-lane road with blind curves.
Please Note: One vehicle per single site. 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.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
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 to learn more about the Sierra National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 31 · 30 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and not suitable for tent camping. Vault toilets are provided. There are 8 water spigots in the…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Vault toilets are provided. There are 8 water spigots in the campground with potable drinking water.…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Ranger programs
- Swimming
- Night sky · 325th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 27 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 30 of the 31 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $37 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.
“Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.” · this campground’s own 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
31 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 30 mapped sitesAll 31 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 30 of the 31 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| VERMILLION | 1 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 102 ft | 186 ft | 351 ft |
| VERMILLION | 10 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 64 ft | 363 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 166 ft |
| VERMILLION | 11 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 64 ft | 380 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 224 ft |
| VERMILLION | 12 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 91 ft | 560 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 310 ft |
| VERMILLION | 13 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 91 ft | 558 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 384 ft |
| VERMILLION | 14 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 132 ft | 440 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 391 ft |
| VERMILLION | 15 | tent only nonelectric | 16 ft | 87 ft | 350 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 285 ft |
| VERMILLION | 16 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 87 ft | 281 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 234 ft |
| VERMILLION | 17 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 88 ft | 386 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 214 ft |
| VERMILLION | 18 | tent only nonelectric | 26 ft | 91 ft | 338 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 127 ft |
| VERMILLION | 19 | type not stated | ||||
| VERMILLION | 2 | tent only nonelectric | 50 ft | 98 ft | 306 ft | 236 ft |
| VERMILLION | 20 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 96 ft | 370 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 117 ft |
| VERMILLION | 21 | tent only nonelectric | 26 ft | 69 ft | 354 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 201 ft |
| VERMILLION | 22 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | 45 ft | 258 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 169 ft |
| VERMILLION | 23 | tent only nonelectric | 24 ft | 45 ft | 241 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 215 ft |
| VERMILLION | 24 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 58 ft | 335 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 266 ft |
| VERMILLION | 25 | tent only nonelectric | 33 ft | 58 ft | 304 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 319 ft |
| VERMILLION | 26 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 64 ft | 255 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 210 ft |
| VERMILLION | 27 | tent only nonelectric | 26 ft | 64 ft | 241 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 146 ft |
| VERMILLION | 28 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 102 ft | 187 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 148 ft |
| VERMILLION | 29 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 98 ft | 273 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 196 ft |
| VERMILLION | 3 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 102 ft | 189 ft | 288 ft |
| VERMILLION | 30 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 94 ft | 280 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 99 ft |
| VERMILLION | 31 | tent only nonelectric | 21 ft | 94 ft | 294 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 72 ft |
| VERMILLION | 4 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 98 ft | 315 ft | 149 ft |
| VERMILLION | 5 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 86 ft | 227 ft | 201 ft |
| VERMILLION | 6 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 86 ft | 297 ft | 146 ft |
| VERMILLION | 7 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 113 ft | 417 ft | 22 ft |
| VERMILLION | 8 | tent only nonelectric | 33 ft | 91 ft | 320 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 96 ft |
| VERMILLION | 9 | tent only nonelectric | 33 ft | 75 ft | 397 ftLake Thomas A Edison | 94 ft |
25 of 31 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Mono CreekSierra National Forest · 1.8 mi
Mono Hot SpringsSierra National Forest · 3.6 miBolsillo CampgroundSierra National Forest · 4.6 miPortal Forebay CampgroundSierra National Forest · 4.9 miWard Lake CampgroundSierra National Forest · 5.5 miOnion Springs Overflow Camping AreaSierra National Forest · 6.6 miFrom Clovis, take Highway 168 east to Shaver Lake. Continue through Shaver Lake to Huntington Lake. At the east end of Huntington Lake, turn right on the Kaiser Pass Road (at Eastwood Visitor Center). Travel 17 miles to the Edison Lake Road. Turn left toward Edison Lake and travel 7 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mammoth Lakes, 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
Vermillion 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 →