How we source and verify Lake Tahoe camping facts

Where facts come from

Rules and limits — RV and trailer lengths, seasons, booking windows, dog rules, bear storage, fire and camping restrictions — come from the managing agency's own pages: California State Parks, Nevada State Parks, the USDA Forest Service (Lake Tahoe Basin, Tahoe and Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forests), the City of South Lake Tahoe, Tahoe City PUD, Caltrans and NDOT. Recreation.gov's campground pages and campsite lists count as official for the federal campgrounds it books.

Availability, prices, photos, site lists and guest ratings come from booking partners' listing feeds (Recreation.gov, ReserveCalifornia, ReserveNevada, KOA, Hipcamp, Campspot). Those facts are labelled as listing facts and name the provider. A few campgrounds missing from the feeds are entered by hand from their official or operator pages; they show no live availability.

Drive times are computed with OSRM on OpenStreetMap data (fastest route, no traffic or chain delays) and labelled approximate. Distances elsewhere are straight-line unless an official source gives a drive. [OSRM (approx.)]

How we verify

Every official fact is read on the agency page and stored with that page's URL and the date we checked it. Pages show the source next to the fact, and the checked date in the source list.

If no source we use states a fact, the page says "Not listed" — we don't estimate it. We don't publish cell coverage, walking distances to the water or bear-locker sizes unless an official page states them.

When sources disagree, the agency's own page wins over Recreation.gov site data, and both win over a booking listing. An official RV limit caps the longest site a listing shows. Where Recreation.gov's site list is our only length source, we use the longest equipment length listed for at least two sites, so one mis-keyed site can't set the figure. Conflicts we can't resolve are shown with both values (for example, Lake Forest's 25 ft page limit and its 30 ft information-sheet allowance for self-contained motor homes).

Road status changes daily, so we don't publish fixed closure dates for SR-89 at Emerald Bay or mountain passes; pages link Caltrans and NDOT live status instead. [Caltrans][NDOT nvroads.com]

Updates and corrections

Listing facts refresh automatically from partner feeds. Official facts are re-checked when we work on the pages that use them; there is no fixed review schedule, which is why every source carries its own checked date. Seasonal statuses (such as 2026 campground closures) are dated on the page.

If an official page changes, it wins: confirm limits, seasons and rules on the agency's site before you go, and confirm availability and price on the booking site.

Money and independence

Bookings are completed on each campground's or partner's own site. We may earn a commission from some partner links. Sponsored placements, if any are ever sold, are labelled; none are running on this site now. Payment never changes official facts, filters or the order of hub tables.

The homepage photo was supplied by the site owner; other photos come from listings or are credited where shown.

Open data

The same sourced facts are published as JSON at /campgrounds.json and through a read-only API at /api/v1/campgrounds (documented at /openapi.json). Every non-null value carries its source URL; null means no source we use states it. The API serves no live availability or prices.