Wakalu Hep Yo (Wild River) Campground
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Season
- May 1Opens May 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
var $j = jQuery;$j.noConflict();$j(window).load(function() {$j('#slider').nivoSlider( {effect: 'fade',startSlide: 0,animSpeed: 750,pauseTime: 8000});}); For over 2000 years the Miwuk people lived seasonally in this canyon, gathering food, and fishing the river. The Miwuk word WaKaLuu means river and Hep Yoo describes an untamed or wild force of nature. This beautiful campground is set in mature conifer and oak forest on the North Fork Stanislaus River.
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and a night costs $30 with nothing added. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 9
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($30), and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Waka Lu Hep YoStanislaus National Forest · 0.1 miBig Meadow CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 8.9 mi
Big Meadow (Stanislaus National Forest)Stanislaus National Forest · 8.9 miSand Bar Flat CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 10 miBeardsley Dam CampgroundStanislaus National Forest · 11 miMokelumne CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 11 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Dorrington, CA
Typical weather
Typical May night 42°F, day 63°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 42°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 Julys are colder than the July 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
Wakalu Hep Yo (Wild River) Campground 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 →