West Ashtabula Crossing
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20–$26Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 3130 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
West Ashtabula Crossing Campground is located on 23 developed acres adjacent to Lake Ashtabula in eastern North Dakota. It is very popular and fills up on most weekends. Lake Ashtabula was created by the construction of the Baldhill Dam on the Sheyenne River in 1944, and is situated in one of the most scenic river valleys in the region, offering visitors a wide range of recreation opportunities year-round. Summer activities include fishing, boating, swimming and picnicking, while Ice fishing and cross-country skiing are popular during winter months. Keep reading
Recreation
The name "Ashtabula" is a Native American word meaning "Fish River," which suits the lake's fish population; popular species include walleye, northern pike, white bass, yellow perch and black bullhead. With seven boat ramps, three accessible fishing piers and four automated fish cleaning stations, the lake is very convenient for anglers. Nearly 3,000 acres of land around the lake is managed as wildlife habitat by the Corps of Engineers and open to the public for wildlife viewing, birding, hiking and hunting. Hunters and anglers should contact the North Dakota Game and Fish Department for seasons, restrictions and licenses; fishing licenses and bait may be purchased from concessionaires around the lake. Campers can also reach the 63-mile Sheyenne River Valley National Scenic Byway nearby and access the North Country National Scenic Trail from the campground.
Facilities
West Ashtabula Crossing has 38 campsites, 26 of which offer electric hookups. The facility also features a boat launch, dump station, fishing pier, fish cleaning station and picnic shelter. Campers will find a swimming beach, playground and restaurant less than one mile away. The nearest town is Valley City, 15 miles south.
Natural Features
The campground is on a wooded hillside offering shade for most sites. It lies amidst the 'prairie potholes' region of glacially-carved lakes in North Dakota. Spring and fall bring bountiful views of migratory water birds to Lake Ashtabula, including the unique white pelican, which can be seen in large flocks during summer. The lake region also provides habitat for white-tailed deer, sharptail grouse, wild turkey and gray partridge.
What the agency tells you
Firewood restrictions are in place; because of the potential to carry invasive insects, absolutely no outside firewood is allowed
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 31 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- 30 electric
- Longest rig
- 55 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Night sky · 3rd darkest of 27 in ND
- Bortle 2
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$26 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
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
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 29 of the 31 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 01 | tent only electric | 15 ft | 50 amp | 37 ft | 59 ft | |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 02 | standard electric | 24 ft | 37 ft | 72 ft | $26 | |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 03 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 90 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 04 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 94 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 05 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 154 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 06 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 39 ft | 86 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 07 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 39 ft | 75 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 08 | standard electric | 41 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 71 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 09 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 63 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 10 | standard electric | 39 ft | 50 amp | 66 ft | 88 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 11 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 66 ft | 96 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 12 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 151 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 13 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 170 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 14 | standard electric | 36 ft | 30/50 amp | 79 ft | 176 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 15 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 172 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 16 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 50 ft | 138 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 17 | type not stated | 55 ft | 50 amp | 155 ft | ||
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 18 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 249 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 19 | standard electric | 25 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 248 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 20 | standard electric | 49 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 65 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 21 | standard electric | 49 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 68 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 22 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 114 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 23 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 92 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 24 | standard electric | 27 ft | 50 amp | 26 ft | 132 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 25 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 94 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 26 | standard electric | 39 ft | 50 amp | 26 ft | 110 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 27 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30/50 amp | 55 ft | 128 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 28 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 219 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 29 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 206 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 30 | standard electric | 43 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 161 ft | $26 |
| WEST ASHTABULA CROSSING | 31 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 51 ft | 130 ft | $26 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 31 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Eggerts Landing0.7 mi
East Ashtabula Crossing3.6 mi
Mel Rieman Rec5.8 mi
Jorgen's Hollow CampgroundSheyenne National Grassland · 56 mi
Hankinson Hills CampgroundSheyenne National Grassland · 84 miThe main route to the park is via Interstate 94 to Valley City exit 292. Follow the signs through Valley City to County Road 21. Travel North for 15 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sibley, ND
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 56°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -2°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
West Ashtabula Crossing is in North Dakota’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Julie Fedorchak (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →