Wrights Lake Equestrian Campground
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 28 mi
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $36From, per site
- Sites
- 15All of them booked ahead
- Season
- – October 31Closes October 31. No opening date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Wrights Lake Equestrian Campground is available to visitors travelling with equestrian or packstock animals. The campground is situated near the Wrights Lake Campground in a grassy, open timber stand near the stream flowing from the spillway of Wrights Lake. The area is well-known for its vistas, hiking, wildflowers and birding. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground provides access to the stream and lake, where visitors enjoy trout fishing, swimming and paddling. Motorboats are prohibited in the area. Stock users will enjoy access to multiple equestrian trails providing enjoyable rides throughout the back country and Desolation Wilderness, but may not ride through the Wrights Lake Campground and Day Use areas. An equestrian trail map is posted in the campground. Educational programs are offered at the Wrights Lake Campground amphitheater.
Facilities
The campground offers 15 campsites for tents or RVs with equestrians and other packstock. Each site is equipped with a table, campfire ring and grill; there are no hookups. Firewood can be gathered in the area. The campground has accessible vault toilets.
Natural Features
At nearly 7,000 feet in elevation, the campground is surrounded by a mixed conifer forest with a grassy understory. Large lodgepole and fir trees help shade the campsites. Wildflowers bloom throughout the spring and summer seasons. The campground is near Wrights Lake, a shallow 40-acre body of water popular for its serene and quiet atmosphere.
Nearby Attractions
Barrett Lake 4WD trail is popular for both motorized and non-motorized recreation. Desolation Wilderness permits for day trips are available at the wilderness trailheads, and overnight hiking permits are available at the Pacific Ranger Station, or online .
Charges & Cancellations
Change Fee: A service fee may be charged at the time a modification is made depending on the changes. Cancellation Fee: A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refunds for a cancelled reservation. Cut-Off Window: The latest date and/or time that you can make an advanced reservation or a change to an existing reservation. Cut-off windows can vary by location, but are typically 4 days before your arrival date. A customer who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee (see Late Cancellation below). Late Cancellation: If you cancel your reservation too close to the start date, additional service fees may be withheld. Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
What the agency tells you
Travel Notice: Starting May 2024 and continuing through September 2024, Ice House Road will be undergoing repairs. There will be traffic delays so plan your camping trip accordingly.
Please Note: One equine or other pack animal is required per site. Campers traveling without equine or packstock will be required to leave and no refund will be granted.
Bears frequent the area; use appropriate food containers.
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Equestrians and packstock are only allowed in the Equestrian Campground and on trails marked for equestrian use.
Vehicles: 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
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. Call (530) 644-6048 for local information and conditions.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (1PM) 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.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
First Come First Serve sites remain listed as FF for the entire season. They will not show as occupied/available online as the status of these sites is ever changing. You must be on site at the campground to claim a FF site. No guarantees upon arrival that these FF sites will be avaiable.
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.
There is a fee to move from a reserved site to a first come first serve site. Site Transfer Policy
For more information on Eldorado National Forest, click here
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 15 · 15 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…the area. The campground has accessible vault toilets. Natural Features At nearly 7,000 feet in…”
- Store
- Nearby
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 670th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 6 days ago, 15 km away
- No change
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 19
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $36 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.
“- Change Fee: A service fee may be charged at the time a modification is made depending on the changes. - Cancellation Fee: A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refunds for a cancelled reservation. - Cut-Off Window: The latest date and/or time that you can make an advanced reservation or a change to an existi…” · 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
15 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 12 mapped sitesAll 15 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 12 of the 15 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. 15 of the 15 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| EQUESTRIAN | 069 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | $36 | |||
| EQUESTRIAN | 070 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | $36 | |||
| EQUESTRIAN | 071 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | $36 | |||
| EQUESTRIAN | 072 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 88 ft | 320 ft | 1,230 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 073 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 63 ft | 303 ft | 1,304 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 074 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 33 ft | 276 ft | 1,339 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 075 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 33 ft | 256 ft | 1,348 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 076 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 71 ft | 168 ft | 1,437 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 077 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 71 ft | 111 ft | 1,404 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 078 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 55 ft | 136 ft | 1,305 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 079 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 55 ft | 87 ft | 1,254 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 080 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 68 ft | 74 ft | 1,140 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 081 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 68 ft | 117 ft | 1,087 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 082 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 89 ft | 150 ft | 1,010 ft | $36 |
| EQUESTRIAN | 083 | equestrian nonelectric | 35 ft | 89 ft | 138 ft | 971 ft | $36 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Wrights LakeEldorado National Forest · 0.6 miChina FlatEldorado National Forest · 3.2 miKirkwood LakeEldorado National Forest · 3.2 miLovers LeapEldorado National Forest · 3.2 miMokelumneEldorado National Forest · 3.2 miMoore CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 3.2 miFrom Placerville, CA: Travel US-50 east approximately 25 miles to Ice House Road. Turn north onto Ice House Road. Take the 1st right to stay on Ice House Road. Travel approximately 10 miles to the junction with Big Hill Lookout Road/Wrights Lake Tie Road. Turn right toward Ice House Reservoir on the Wrights Lake Tie Road. At approximately 1.2 miles, stay to the left. Travel another 1.7 miles, turn left. Continue approximately 6.2 miles to Wrights Lake Road (Wrights Road). Turn left and travel another 2 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 Meyers, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 62°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 29°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 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
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
Wrights Lake Equestrian Campground is in California’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Kevin Kiley (I), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →