Six more national forests propose campground fees, including $10 a person a night to camp at Carson Pass

The Forest Service has filed six more proposed fee notices, scheduled for the Federal Register on Monday, October 19, 2026, and the one that changes how people camp is a per-person fee to sleep in the Mokelumne Carson Pass Management Area in the Eldorado National Forest. Nothing in them can start before April 19, 2027.

Each notice says the fees “would be established no earlier than six months following the publication of this notice,” the advance notice the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act requires. The September batch covered 11 other forests and walks through the process.

What each notice proposes

Read from the filed text, October 17, 2026.

Eldorado (California): $26 a night at Airport Flat, Azalea Cove, Camino Cove, Cole Creek Camping Area and Lone Rock, $46 for Camino Cove double sites, and $100 a night for Bunker Hill Lookout Cabin. $10 per vehicle per day at Echo Summit Nordic Ski Area and five trailheads. And a special recreation permit at $10 per person, per night for overnight camping in the Mokelumne Carson Pass Management Area, rising to $15 in year 5.

Tahoe (California): $20 a night at Grouse Ridge Campground.

Lake Tahoe Basin: $20 a night at Luther Pass Overflow and Watson Lake campgrounds. Six day-use sites at $10 per vehicle per day, three of which (Big Meadow Trailhead, Kiva Beach, Taylor Creek Visitor Center) go to $15 “after five years.”

Apache-Sitgreaves (Arizona): $15 a night plus $5 per extra vehicle at 10 campgrounds: Black Jack, Blue Crossing, Coal Creek, Granville, Hannagan, KP Cienega, Lower Juan Miller, Scott Reservoir, Upper Blue and Gabaldon Horse Camp. Sixteen boating, fishing and day-use sites at $5 a day or $40 a year.

Helena-Lewis and Clark (Montana): $10 a night at Mill Falls, $15 at Pine Grove and Falls Creek, $55 for the Forest Lake and Highwood cabins.

North Carolina: $50 a day for the Rocky Bluff and Poplar Boat Launch group picnic sites. No camping.

Why Carson Pass is the one to notice

Every other overnight fee here is a nightly campground or cabin fee. The Carson Pass fee is charged per person, for camping in a management area, under a permit. A party of four would pay $40 a night at the proposed year-one rate, and $60 a night from year 5. The notice does not describe the area’s boundary or say how the permit would be issued, so we cannot tell you yet which trailheads it touches.

The pass question

Your America the Beautiful pass covers the per-vehicle day-use fees. Three notices say the pass “would be honored at these standard amenity recreation fee sites.” The campground and cabin fees are expanded amenity fees, Carson Pass is a special recreation permit fee, and none of the six notices says the pass covers either. We explain that split here. The $8 Recreation.gov charge, the notices say, “is not a Forest Service recreation fee” and is added on top.

What we could not check

Whether these sites charge anything today. “Establish” normally means a site that is not a fee site now, but fs.usda.gov still returns 403 to our requests, and none of the campgrounds we searched for by name, across all five camping forests, came up on Recreation.gov on October 17. Do not assume any of them is free right now. The board at the campground entrance is the answer that counts.

What to do

If you camp at one of these, nothing in these notices changes before April 19, 2027. To comment, write to the forest address in each notice; the proposals then go to a resource advisory committee before any final decision. For free camping in those states, see the Arizona, California and Montana free camping pages.