Bird Creek Campground
October 2026
About
Overview
Bird Creek Recreation Area is located in the Duck Creek Basin, high on the Schell Creek Range. It sits at an elevation of 8,200 feet, approximately 25 miles from the small city of Ely. Hiking, mountain biking and off-road vehicle riding are popular activities enjoyed by visitors to the area.
Recreation
The Ranger Trail can be accessed from this campground. The Ranger Trail is a designated OHV trail that also accommodates hiking and mountain biking use as well. The 30-mile Success Loop Scenic Drive is also in the area, with views of high desert and mountain terrain.
Facilities
The campground has 10 sites. Site A is a day-use group stie, site 5 is a mult-family site, sites 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7 are single sites, sites 8 and 9 are double sites requiring a short walk from the parking area, on one to two bridges over Bird Creek. All sites have picnic and serving tables, campfire rings and grills.
Vault toilets and drinking water are provided seasonally. This is a "pack it in, pack it out" facility.
Natural Features
Bird Creek flows perennially through the campground. A mixed forest of juniper, pinyon pine and alder trees covers the area, but provides only limited shade.
Contact Info
This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (775) 289-3031.
Nearby Attractions
Cave Lake State Park and Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park are a few miles from Ely. Interesting historic stone ovens and an interpretive trail are available there. The Northern Nevada Railway in Ely has a museum and offers train rides.
Charges & Cancellations
All change and cancellation requests should be done through Recreation.gov.
Amenities
Phone: 775-289-3031
Is Bird Creek Campground fully booked?
A campground showing no availability is almost never full for good. People cancel — plans change, weather turns, someone books three weekends and keeps one — and the site goes straight back into the booking system, usually without warning and often at odd hours. The reason sold-out campgrounds feel impossible is not that sites never free up; it is that nobody is watching at the moment they do.
CampHawk watches Bird Creek Campground in Ely, NV for you. We recheck it every 15 seconds, around the clock, and the moment a site opens we send a text, an email and a push notification — and on Recreation.gov we can put the site straight into your cart, so it is held while you get to your phone.
Searching is free and needs no account — the calendar above is live right now. Watching Bird Creek Campground for cancellations is the paid part.