Ward Mtn. Campground (Murray Summit)
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 32All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ward Mountain Recreation Area and Campground sits in the shadow of its namesake, just 10 miles southwest from the city of Ely, in eastern Nevada. It sits at an elevation of 7,400 feet. Many trails are available for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding. Keep reading
Recreation
Ward Mountain and the surrounding area offers miles of trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding. Many of the trails offer scenic views of the surrounding high desert terrain.
Facilities
This campground offers single-family campsites and three large group sites that can accommodate up to 100 or more people. Multiple access points for trails are found throughout the campground with the main trailhead located at the eastern most side. All campsites are equipped with picnic tables, campfire rings and grills. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided, but there is no electricity. A campground host is on-site during the peak summer season.
Natural Features
Ward Mountain is the highest point in the Egan Range, topping out near 10,800 feet. The campground is well below the summit, but sits high above the desert floor below. A forest of pinyon pine and juniper trees covers the area, offering partial shade and privacy between campsites.
Nearby Attractions
Comins Lake is about 13 miles from the campground offering boating and fishing for trout and bass. Cave Lake State Park is less than 20 miles away, with opportunities for boating and fishing for rainbow and brown trout. Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park is 26 miles away, with interesting historic stone ovens and an interpretive trail. The Northern Nevada Railway in Ely has a museum and offers train rides. Stop by the Chamber of Commerce for more information on local events and sites.
What the agency tells you
Utility hookups are not available
Off-highway vehicles (ATVs, motorcycles, and side-by-sides) are only allowed on the main campground road
Additional first-come, first-serve campsites may be available within the campground
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Don't Move Firewood: Help prevent the spread of tree-killing pests in our national forests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
All individual sites can accomodate for a Tent or RV.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 32
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- 32
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE PIT TOILETS on 34 of 35 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 35 of 35 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Biking
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 39th darkest of 65 in NV
- Bortle 3
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:31 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $12 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 16:31 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
35 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 33 mapped sitesAll 35 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 33 of the 35 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. 32 of the 35 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| S&P | RV Nonelectric S&P | type not stated | 24 ft | yes | Accessible Pit Toilets listed | $12 | ||
| S&P | Standard Nonelectric S&P | type not stated | 40 ft | yes | Accessible Pit Toilets listed | $12 | ||
| WMGR | A | day use | yes | 186 ft | 1.4 mi | 552 ft | $50–$75 | |
| WMGR | B | day use | yes | 186 ft | 1.4 mi | 594 ft | $50–$75 | |
| WMGR | C | day use | yes | 111 ft | 1.5 mi | 343 ft | $50–$75 | |
| WMPT | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 96 ft | 1.3 mi | 228 ft | $12 |
| WMPT | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 88 ft | 1.3 mi | 133 ft | $12 |
| WMPT | 003 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 92 ft | 1.3 mi | 133 ft | $12 |
| WMPT | 004 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 77 ft | 1.3 mi | 52 ft | $12 |
| WMPT | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 96 ft | 1.3 mi | 114 ft | $12 |
| WMPT | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 99 ft | 1.3 mi | 122 ft | $12 |
| WMPT | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 69 ft | 1.3 mi | 157 ft | $12 |
| WMPT | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 77 ft | 1.3 mi | 46 ft | $12 |
| WMPT | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 69 ft | 1.3 mi | 156 ft | $12 |
| WMPT | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 105 ft | 1.5 mi | 429 ft | $12 |
| WMRV | 023 | rv nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 87 ft | 1.5 mi | 313 ft | $12 |
| WMRV | 024 | rv nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 85 ft | 1.5 mi | 286 ft | $12 |
| WMRV | 025 | rv nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 73 ft | 1.5 mi | 211 ft | $12 |
| WMRV | 026 | rv nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 92 ft | 1.5 mi | 235 ft | $12 |
| WMRV | 027 | rv nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 60 ft | 1.5 mi | 156 ft | $12 |
| WMRV | 028 | rv nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 55 ft | 1.5 mi | 132 ft | $12 |
| WMRV | 029 | rv nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 107 ft | 1.6 mi | 175 ft | $12 |
| WMRV | 030 | rv nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 55 ft | 1.5 mi | 96 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 82 ft | 1.4 mi | 512 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 153 ft | 1.4 mi | 412 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 013 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 77 ft | 1.4 mi | 542 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 77 ft | 1.4 mi | 573 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 100 ft | 1.4 mi | 532 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 74 ft | 1.4 mi | 624 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 017 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 100 ft | 1.4 mi | 617 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 74 ft | 1.4 mi | 679 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 019 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 92 ft | 1.5 mi | 349 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 020 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 92 ft | 1.5 mi | 287 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 021 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 108 ft | 1.5 mi | 214 ft | $12 |
| WMTL | 022 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 112 ft | 1.5 mi | 177 ft | $12 |
The agency files 3 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 35 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Timber Creek CampgroundHumboldt National Forest · 22 mi
Cleve Creek CampgroundBristlecone Field Office · 23 mi
Bird Creek CampgroundHumboldt National Forest · 24 mi
East Creek CampgroundHumboldt National Forest · 26 mi
Wheeler Peak CampgroundGreat Basin National Park · 38 mi
Upper Lehman Creek CampgroundGreat Basin National Park · 41 miFrom Ely, travel south on Highway 6 for 10 miles. Turn left just before Murray Summit, at the sign for the recreation area.
From Las Vegas, travel north on Highway 93 for about 86 miles, to the junction with State Route 318. Follow State Route 318 north for 124 miles, to Murray Summit. Turn right at the sign for the recreation area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ely, NV
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 7°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
Ward Mtn. Campground (Murray Summit) is in Nevada’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Mark Amodei (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →