Ward Lake Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 19 mi
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- Season
- June 1 – September 30Open June 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Located on Ward Lake, Ward Lake Campground provide sites with lake views. Sites offer picnic tables, fire rings, bear boxes, and pine and aspen trees provide shade for most campsites. Vault toilets are also provided. Ward Lake offers opportunities for non-motorized boating, fishing, and swimming.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…trees provide shade for most campsites. Vault toilets are also provided. Ward Lake offers opportunities…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 36 km away
- Peak color
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. 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 · 6
What you actually pay
“$10 fee for each additional vehicle.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
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
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Big Creek, 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
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
Ward Lake 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 →