Upper Lehman Creek Campground — Great Basin National Park

Recreation.gov and The National Forest/Parks need to do something about reserved sites being unoccupied - it's getting really bad.   

Upper Lehman is not RV/trailer friendly, but sites 1, 3, and 17 are the best options.

I was pleasantly surprised at how large and private the campsites were. Lots of trees and a creek that runs along the campground. The vault toilet was clean and well-maintained.

Beautiful area. My wife and I had a blast. The campground was busy but plenty of spaces open through the weekend.

Campsites are spacious and private. We stayed at 3, which had a paved pad, tent area and picnic table. Shady and the creek runs right past the site. Saw a wild turkey rummaging in the bushes.

High altitude so beware if you are coming from sea level. Drive up to Mount Wheeler goes to 10,000’ with spectacular views. Cave tour was also a must.

No dogs on hiking trails.

A respite from summer heat and crowds.

Upper Lehman Creek campground nice sized campground in Great Basin National Park. Campground has 24 sites sitting in trees.  Campground is available by reservation only. This is the second campground along the paved Wheeler Peak Drive. Campground road and parking pads are all paved. Each site has a picnic table and metal fire ring. Trash, recycling is available. Campground has vault toilets. The campground has two ADA campsites(Site#2 and#18) . While water spigots are located through out the campground water is currently not available at the campground and a fire restriction was in effect. Water can be obtained at the Visitor Center. Campsites are nicely spread apart and being in the park made for a silent night with the only sounds coming from the nearby creek.  Some of these campsites are listed as no tents, so be careful when registering for a site if you are tent camping.

This was a beautiful campground with sites that were very private. It is great for tents and RVs. There were wildflowers around my site. It is located at 7500 feet elevation. I checked the campground website before going here and it said there was drinking water. There was not! The water was turned off for the season. Luckily, this has happened to me several times before, so I always bring extra water with me now. Since the water was turned off and it had vault toilets, I can only give it a 3 star rating. If the water was on (or the website information accurate) I would have given it a 4 star.

Beautifully managed because there is no concessionaire to muddle things up. This is a first class forest experience.

Arrive early--- No cell- No internet -- some sites restricted from RV's. Not many level sites.

Bring everything you need. No gas, no groceries for many, many miles.

23 sites--- (there is no site # 19.) numbered to 24. 18-24 are best for tents.

Exceptionally clean vault toilets. No bears in this park. There are 2-3 pull through sites and 2 good ADA sites.

Astronomy program is first class.

We saw the sign says full, talked to the host who told us Baker’s Creek was first come first serve. The two Lehman Creek campgrounds are reservations only. No overflow rarely a vacancy. We got one of the last sites in Baker Creek.

Pretty good spot, much better than the super dusty BLM option we had to use one night.

Beautiful campground amid the trees, with a lovely stream flowing through. 

Our site was a great spot for two 2+ tents. It had a picnic table and fire pit. We were right near the pit toilets, but not so close that we got the smell.

No bear issue here. Lock your stuff in your car and it'll be fine. Bigger issue is with little critters who try to steal food. After dark, in flip flops, I actually had a tiny mouse run over my foot. (Sorry for screaming, fellow campers!) The mice are tiny and quick. They're only about an inch long. So keep your food stored if you're not around it.

Our site was just a few steps down a trail from a stream. It was nice to hear that stream... until the wind kicked up. This is no fault of the campground, but my camping buddy and I didn't get much sleep, with 22 mph sustained winds with 40 mph gusts. We thought the trees around our site and how it was situated a little down a hill from where we were parked would add some protection. No such luck. But again, not the campground's fault. It's a lovely campground.

The camp hosts were also super nice. If you have questions, they are set up in the first site you come to when you come into the campground.

As the connotation infers these sites are large and clean. Paved parking, dedicated tent sites, picnic tables, fire rings and bbq. Clean, well maintained pit toilets. Set in a well treed area with a creek on either side of the loop. A few pull through spots and a few tent only spots makes a well rounded campground. The stars are amazing!Lehman Cave as well as Wheeler Peak are just minutes away. Hikers rejoice. We volunteered for a project on Public Lands Day and also squeezed in some pine nut harvesting. At $23 a pound who wouldn’t? The weather was iffy for our first time here. Rain, wind and snow with a few sunny breaks. We would definitely come back, but maybe a little earlier in the year next time. FYI, this park seems to always be needing camp hosts. Hint, hint.

Sites are situated near the creek and no matter which one your at the bathroom is just a short walk away. Even though it’s a pit toilet the bathrooms are cleaner and smell better than some of the flushable toilet bathrooms in other National Park Campgrounds. This is my fourth time staying at Great Basin and I have loved all the times. Highly recommend site 3.

All sites are first come-first served (no reservations). But given the remoteness of the park, there were open sites all week.  Most sites are separated by trees, creating a back-country feel (as opposed to a crowded Nat'l Park).  There is a nice creek along one side, enhancing the camping experience.  The whole site is spacious.  The picnic tables are smooth concrete, not splintered wood.  The tent area is flat and level.  The bathroom vaults are the cleanest I've ever encountered.  Overall, the perfect setting for a great week.

I was apprehensive after reading reviews for this campground about how unlevel the sites were. We travel and sleep in our 17 foot van without leveling blocks so we need a level site. Yes, some were not level (but many of those were tent sites) but we found many that were just fine! Site 1 was very level (and could accommodate a large RV). Probably the cleanest pit toilets I have ever seen! Many sites had lots of privacy between them. We were there at the end of April so many roads and hiking trails were not yet open so we toured Lehman Caves which I highly recommend (reserve ahead of time at Recreation.gov). All tours were booked for a Monday in April (when we booked day before, there were still plenty of openings). Limited or no cell service.

Sitting at about 7750 feet within Great Basin National Park, this small campground offers glorious views of the surrounding mountains. Each site has 1-2 huge picnic tables, fire pit and grill, and many have tent pads. The campground is well-maintained and the pit toilets are kept stocked and immaculately clean. We visited in late April and the water in the campground was not yet turned on for the season (though there is an active stream running through the campground, so you can filter water). The Lehman Caves Visitor Center also has drinking water available.

One issue to note is that most of parking pads are not very level (to help with snow melt) in the upper campground, so it made it quite challenging to level our little camper -- probably the most challenging over the past 6.5 years! But, we got it leveled and had plenty of sun for our solar panel in site 10. Lots of trees between sites offer a good deal of privacy, too.

Because of the big winter in 2019, the scenic road was not yet open, so we walked up it for a few miles to enjoy some long range views of the desert valley (Great Basin) below. The road is an 8% grade, so be ready to expand those lungs at 8000 feet! We also went on a challenging snowshoe hike up the Lehman Creek trail, which starts right from the campground.  The jewel of this park during the off/shoulder season is Lehman Cave, with fun ranger-led tours starting right from the visitor center.

This park is truly in the middle of nowhere, with almost no development (yay!!) close to the entrance. What that means is that you need to come prepared with groceries and supplies as not much is available in the tiny hamlet of Baker, which is about 6 miles from the campground. There is a tiny café by the Visitor Center if you need it, too.

Campsites are first-come, first-served and you can use a credit card or cash to make your payment. Not much service in the park as a whole, but we could get a call out if need be.

Out of the way and many opportunities for isolated reflection. Beautiful location next to a creek. The National Park staff does a great job and better taken care of than the National Forest Campsites in White Pine County.

Approximately 24 campsites next to Lehman Creek, first come fIrst served. Many are next to the creek but all can hear it. Deer everywhere, lots of vegetation and many of the sites are shaded. The cleanest vault toilets I’ve every seen. Very quiet and peaceful.

I love this place! It is a HIDDEN GEM. There are caves, glaciers, alpine lakes, Bristlecone pine trees....it's incredible. It feels like such a secret treasure in Nevada. The stars are amazing at night time! And another highlight...there are barely any people here! It is a quiet place with no crowds. It feels like a more "wilderness" experience for a National Park. It is very beautiful and peaceful. I loved camping here. I am itching to come back!

This campsite is located within Great Basin National Park. Each site offers a different natural setting, with plenty of space for a couple of tents, a campfire, picnic tables, and easy access to restrooms and drinking water. It's nestled between babbling brooks, with serene sounds of nature and wildlife.

Enjoyable sites right next to the creek. Lots of space between sites. Clean outhouses.

I had a perfect long weekend camping at Upper Lehman Campground on August 11-14. After arriving at Great Basin National Park a little before noon on Friday, I had a handful of nice sites to choose from, a rarity in the national park system these days. I settled on site #21 and I couldn't have asked for a better site. Impeccably clean, far enough off the road to not get flashed with headlights, and the perfect distance from the pit toilets. There was also a water pump close by, and a fire pit on the site.

Every morning, I'd wake up to several mule deer moseying through camp and a family of turkeys. The park itself is gorgeous and a hidden gem. I enjoyed the Cave Tour and my strenuous, but rewarding hike to Wheeler Peak. There was a nice astronomy program about the Perseid Meteor Shower, but it was best viewed from the perfect clearing I had amongst the aspens of my camp site.

I will return to Great Basin many more times in the near future!

Great Basin is one of the less-visited national parks, but when we visited during the annual Astronomy Festival in September, we knew we might have a little more trouble finding a campsite inside the park. None of the campgrounds in Great Basin are reservable ahead of time. We aimed to camp at Upper or Lower Lehman Creek Campgrounds, located near the entrance of the park, and after driving through the lower campground with no luck, we snagged the last site at Upper Lehman Creek. The sites here are nicely spread out and nestled in plenty of vegetation, and we had no issues with noise even though we camped on what might be the busiest weekend in Great Basin.

Like most other national park campgrounds, Upper Lehman Creek provided just the basic amenities: flush toilets, water, and picnic tables. We’d gladly take this rustic setting over other over commercialized campgrounds.

Although Great Basin takes a lot of work to access -- it truly is in the middle of nowhere -- this park is a hidden gem. We especially enjoyed climbing Wheeler Peak (the second-highest point in Nevada), walking among the Bristlecone trees (the oldest trees in the world), taking the tour of Lehman Caves, and attending various activities at the Astronomy Festival. There’s little sense of being “on the beaten path” anywhere here, but if you want to get even further away from people, the Johnson Lake/Baker Lake 11-mile loop trail was also a great loop hike. 

The only downside, besides being located in the middle of nowhere, is that sites at Upper Lehman Creek campground are not reservable, so be sure to arrive early enough in the day to grab a site, especially if you are visiting during peak weekends.

You can read much more about our four days in the park on our blog: Switchback Kids (Great Basin)

After driving us 50 across NV this spot was a great place for a good nights sleep. Camped here while driving to visit family in CO and wish I had more time to explore the hiking. I had a friend who was a NPS ranger at this park who couldn’t recommend it enough and had to check it out. Definitely worth the stop. My campsite was near the creek with a picnic table and fire ring. It was pretty standard for a campground though the park it’s in is awesome. Drove up to check out the views of wheeler peak before driving on to CO.

I camped here as the first night of a two week western states road trip after a long drive across the Loneliest Road in America (Hwy 50 across NV). After hundreds of miles of desert this beautiful forested spot was a true oasis! When I arrived the camp host was there to greet me and help me pick a prime spot for my tent close to Lehman creek. This campground is first come first serve which was a bit frightening as I drove 10 hrs across Nevada with no other backup plans. The site was forested, clean and had a picnic table and fire ring. The campground had bathrooms but no showers. The campsite was fairly private with not too many other campers. There were a few trails leading from the campsite, but I did not use them. The next morning I drove up towards Wheeler Peak. The views were incredible and it reinforced how amazing this little park truly is. I hiked a part of the Bristlecone trail but had to turn around when a lightning storm got a bit too close for comfort. I saw deer and plenty of birds along the way. If I had more time I would have loved to make it to the bristlecones as they are such a rare and unique tree. While this park is difficult to reach from any direction it is quite a little forest paradise and this campground is definitely recommended.

After being on the loneliest freeway for the day (us50), what a delightful surprise. We camped in Upper Lehman creek. The sound of the creek lulled us to sleep.