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An imagined scene of Tahoe National Forest
Imagined scenePhotorealistic landscape photograph at golden hour in the northern Sierra Nevada: a jagged saw-toothed granite crest rising above a deep blue high-country reservoir ringed by conifer forest, granite talus and scattered pines along the shore, clear sky, warm low light, no people, no boats, no buildings, no signs. 35mm lens, natural color, faint film grain.
National Forest · CA

Tahoe National Forest

171 free camps mapped · tap a dot for its page
Indian Springs CampgroundRobinson Flat CampgroundLoch Leven Lakes Dispersed CampingGoose Meadow CampgroundSilver Tip Group CampgroundWoodcamp CampgroundFir Top CampgroundFindley CampgroundJackson Point CampgroundEast Meadow CampgroundAspen Group CampgroundPass Creek CampgroundLakeside CampgroundProsser Family CampgroundEmigrant CampgroundLake of the Woods CampgroundChapman Creek CampgroundYuba Pass CampgroundLittle Lasier Meadow Horse CampGiant Gap RidgeLoganvilleSalmon CreekGarden Point BoatingBeyers LakesGold ValleyTunnel MillsMeadow LakeElliot RanchAhartCanyon CreekSterling LakeChapmanOak ValleySoda SpringsHead Waters Middle ForkLewisMorristownSalmon LakesLittle American ValleySierraLittle Oak FlatSmithneckHampshire RocksGastonBig BendCasa LomaDuncan DiversonNorth ForkCarltonNichols CreekLast ChanceCastle PeakLower Little TruckeeJack RobinsonPierce CreekGatesSawmill LakeUpper Little TruckeeBullpen LakeEmpire CreekSpencer CreekAlpine Meadows (Martis Creek)Madrone CoveBoca RestMilton ReservoirTrapper CampBeartrapCatfish CoveMildred LakesBig Valley BluffSpencer LakesPacksaddleBoyington MillCottonwoodDark DayPoker Flat Ohv CampGranite FlatAlder CreekCherokee CreekMumford Bar To BeacroftRocky RestMooney CreekFirst DivideFive Lakes BasinKanaka CreekCascade Lake / Long LakeFrenchy PointPoppyFulda CreekSchoolhouseLindsey LakePacker SaddleGrouse RidgeBocaMeadow Knoll OhvFrenchy PointBear Valley OhvChurch MeadowLake ValleyMitchell MineWoodchuckLittle Needle LakeHornswoggleWeaver LakeMadrone CoveDuncan CreekTalbotFall CreekOnion ValleyFord PointAnnie McloudSecret HouseCold CreekUnion FlatWhite RockIndian ValleyHumbug RidgeBridger CreekPeavine RoadBerger CreekShenanigan FlatBurlingtonBrandy CityGarden PointSanford LakeGiant GapCarr LakeLoggerSecret Canyon / American HillBear LakeMears MeadowTamarack LakesBrimstone Ohv CampgroundCanada HillGreek StoreSpruce Creek LoopRamshornLunch CreekFinning MillButcher RanchWhite CloudGiant Gap RoadWillow CreekTadpole / Sun Flower Hill AreaInter BayFiddle CreekHoke / VerdiSkillmanBoca SpringsClyde MountainSummit LakeWild PlumBullards LakeshoreCal IdaCoyoteSilver Creek CgProsser RanchDiabloSardineSagehen CreekJackson CreekDoolittle TrailPierce MeadowMeadow Lake ShorelineShirttail CreekForbesBig ReservoirFrench MeadowsRucker LakePicayuneDeadman LakeAlleghanyAltaAlta SierraBlairsdenCalpineCamptonvilleCarnelian BayCedar FlatChilcoot-Vinton020 miN
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Where the camps cluster

The place

Tahoe National Forest spreads across a roughly 1.2-million-acre swath of the northern Sierra Nevada in California -- climbing from the oak-and-pine foothills above the Sacramento Valley up over the granite crest to the Nevada line. Only about 850,000 acres of that is actually public forest; the rest is a checkerboard of private inholdings left over from the railroad and mining days. It's a landscape of high granite ridges, deep river canyons, and dozens of glittering reservoirs, and it's one of the busiest playgrounds in the whole Sierra: the Pacific Crest Trail runs its length, historic Donner Pass crosses its crest, and some of the deepest snow in the country piles up along the way. It's also Gold Rush ground -- some of the most torn-up, storied country in California.

History

The forest grew out of the Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve, set aside in 1899, and was reorganized and expanded into Tahoe National Forest under the young Forest Service around 1905-06 (a neighboring Yuba reserve was folded in about the same time). Long before that, this was home to the Washoe, the Nisenan (Southern Maidu), and neighboring Maidu and Miwok peoples. Then came 1848 and the Gold Rush, which hit this country about as hard as anywhere: miners rerouted whole rivers and blasted hillsides apart with water cannons chasing gold, and towns like Nevada City and Downieville boomed on the strike (Truckee, just east over the crest, came later as a railroad and logging town). This was also the great crossing of the Sierra -- the Donner Party wintered in the Truckee-Donner corridor on the forest's edge in 1846-47, and twenty years later the Transcontinental Railroad was punched over Donner Summit.

Wildlife & plants

Black bears are the forest's most famous residents -- the northern Sierra holds a healthy population, and they're a regular presence around campgrounds (hang your food) -- along with mule deer, coyotes, and mountain lions you're far more likely to read in tracks than to see. Overhead there are Steller's jays in the pines, and bald eagles and ospreys working the bigger reservoirs. The lakes and rivers are trout water -- rainbow, brown, and brook trout -- with kokanee salmon (a landlocked form of sockeye) in reservoirs like Stampede. The forest layers up by elevation through ponderosa and Jeffrey pine, sugar pine -- which grows the longest cones of any pine in the world -- incense cedar, and red and white fir up high.

Notable features

The forest's signature landmark is the Sierra Buttes -- a jagged, saw-toothed crest topping out around 8,590 feet, crowned by an old fire lookout you reach by climbing a set of open steel stairs bolted to the bare rock (the highest ground on the forest is actually Mount Lola, a bit over 9,100 feet). The western slope gives rise to the upper Yuba, Bear, and American rivers, while the east side drains into the Truckee; together they feed a chain of high reservoirs -- Bowman, Jackson Meadows, Stampede, Prosser, Boca, and more. Donner Summit crosses the crest on the east side of the forest, and the Pacific Crest Trail traverses that crest the whole length of the unit.

Camps are sourced from public U.S. Forest Service recreation data and have not been personally visited. Roads shown are Forest Service passenger-car routes (maintenance level 3–5) and may be seasonal or gated. Always confirm access, fees and fire rules with the ranger district before you go. Found a fee where we show free? Tell us on the contact page.