Yellowjacket
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 27 mi
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $36–$72Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 5736 on recreation.gov
- Season
- June 1 – September 30Open June 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Yellowjacket Campground provides plenty of opportunities for outdoor fun on Union Valley Reservoir. The water plays host to an array of activities like water skiing and fishing. The surrounding cedar and ponderosa pine forest is a lovely setting for hiking and biking. Keep reading
Recreation
The Union Valley Bike Trail spans 4.8 miles with an easy climb of 300 feet. The trail connects campgrounds on the east side of the lake, from Jones Fork Campground to Wench Creek, and is open to hikers and bikers. The Bassi Falls Hiking Trail is also worth exploring. Anglers seek rainbow, brown and mackinaw trout or kokanee salmon. The reservoir also offers opportunities for swimming, water skiing and boating. A boat ramp and boat trailer parking are provided at this campground.
Facilities
Sites are equipped with picnic tables, grills and campfire rings. The campground offers a dump station, drinking water, and vault toilets. A host is on-site. Some sites at this camp are available on a first-come, first-served basis ( more campground details )
Natural Features
Union Valley Reservoir sits in the Crystal Basin within the Sierra Nevada Mountains at an elevation of 4,900 feet. The area is part of the Eldorado National Forest, which includes the famed gold mining territory of the 1800s. Protected remnants of the days of the California Gold Rush are all around the region. The climate is similar to that of the Mediterranean, with warm, dry summers and cold, wet winters. An abundance of wildlife can be found within the Sierra Nevada Range, including black bears, mule deer, bobcat, gray fox, bighorn sheep, pikas, martens and a variety of squirrels. Several species of reptiles, amphibians and birds also inhabit the area.
Nearby Attractions
The Desolation Wilderness is nearby, offering the opportunity to get away from the crowds and enjoy the serenity of nature. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (831) 245-6891.
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.
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers
There are no electric/water/sewer site hook-ups at this facility
Everything else this campground posts · 8
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.
Please Note: 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
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).
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.
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.
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
- 57 · 1 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Paved pads
- 36 of 57
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…a dump station, drinking water, and vault toilets. A host is on-site. Some sites at this camp are…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…The campground offers a dump station, drinking water, and vault toilets. A host is on-site. Some sites…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Water Skiing
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 752nd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 6 days ago, 24 km away
- No change
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 36 of the 57 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 · 21
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $36–$72 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
58 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 19 mapped sitesAll 58 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 16 of the 58 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. 55 of the 58 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 020 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 021 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 022 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 023 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 024 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 025 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 026 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 027 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 028 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 029 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 030 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 031 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 032 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 033 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 034 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 035 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 036 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 037 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 038 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 039 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| AREA YELLOWJACKET | 040 | type not stated | $36 | ||||
| YELL | 001 | rv nonelectric | 152 ft | 789 ft | |||
| YELL | 002 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 91 ft | 637 ft | $36–$72 | |
| YELL | 003 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 91 ft | 649 ft | $36–$72 | |
| YELL | 004 | standard nonelectric | 79 ft | 513 ft | 3,228 ft | $36–$72 | |
| YELL | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 79 ft | 507 ft | 3,225 ft | $36–$72 |
| YELL | 006 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 89 ft | 402 ft | 3,115 ft | $36–$72 |
| YELL | 007 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 264 ft | 2,978 ft | $36–$72 | |
| YELL | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 76 ft | 345 ft | 3,060 ft | $36–$72 |
| YELL | 009 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 196 ft | 2,911 ft | $36–$72 | |
| YELL | 010 | standard nonelectric | 83 ft | 226 ft | 2,941 ft | $36–$72 | |
| YELL | 011 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 73 ft | 325 ft | 3,042 ft | $36–$72 |
| YELL | 012 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 83 ft | 180 ft | 2,898 ft | $36–$72 |
| YELL | 013 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 58 ft | 298 ft | 3,020 ft | $36–$72 |
| YELL | 014 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 284 ft | 3,011 ft | $36–$72 | |
| YELL | 015 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 102 ft | 250 ft | 2,992 ft | $36–$72 |
| YELL | 016 | standard nonelectric | 102 ft | 166 ft | 2,902 ft | $36–$72 | |
| YELL | 017 | standard nonelectric | 103 ft | 81 ft | 2,824 ft | $36–$72 | |
| YELL | 018 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 97 ft | 180 ftUnion Valley Reservoir | 2,933 ft | $36–$72 |
| YELL | 019 | standard nonelectric | 97 ft | 164 ftUnion Valley Reservoir | 2,941 ft | $36–$72 | |
| YELL | 20 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 21 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 22 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 23 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 24 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 25 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 26 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 27 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 28 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 29 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 30 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 31 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 32 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 33 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 34 | walk to | 25 ft | ||||
| YELL | 35 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 36 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $36–$72 | |||
| YELL | 37- Host Site | host pad | 25 ft | $36 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 58 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Wolf Creek CaliforniaEldorado National Forest · 0.7 mi
Wench Creek0.8 miWench Creek Group CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 1.3 miAzalea Cove CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 1.4 miSunset CampgroundEldorado National Forest · 1.6 mi
FashodaEldorado National Forest · 1.6 miFrom Placerville, take Highway 50 east. Go 21 miles to Icehouse Road. Turn left on Icehouse Road. Then drive 14 miles north to the Yellowjacket turnoff. Drive a half mile to the campground entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pollock Pines, CA
Typical weather
Typical June night 38°F, day 73°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical September night 36°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
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
Yellowjacket 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 →