U.S. Forest Service · Sierra National Forest · CA
A Group Group Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 0 mi
Wildfire
Wildfire Training fire · 0.2 mi away · 0 acres · updated Oct 15, 2026
Wildfire
Land fire · 30 mi away · 20 acres · updated Oct 11, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 15, 2026
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- Season
- May 1 – October 31Open May 1 through October 31
5,830 ftElevation
563 ftWater · Dinkey Creek
10.9 miE of Auberry, CA
0%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 761st darkest of 1,201 in CA
Open May 1 through October 31Today
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
A Group Group Campground
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 3
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Coordinate37.07081, -119.15562
The mapSee it on the map
The driveDirections ↗
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗
Where it is
Also near here
Dinkey CreekSierra National Forest · 0.2 miSummit Camping AreaSierra National Forest · 2.6 miGigantea CampgroundSierra National Forest · 4.7 miBretz Mill CampgroundSierra National Forest · 5.2 miRoss Crossing Camping AreaSierra National Forest · 5.9 miOak Flat Camping AreaSierra National Forest · 6.2 mi
Dinkey CreekSierra National Forest · 0.2 miSummit Camping AreaSierra National Forest · 2.6 miGigantea CampgroundSierra National Forest · 4.7 miBretz Mill CampgroundSierra National Forest · 5.2 miRoss Crossing Camping AreaSierra National Forest · 5.9 miOak Flat Camping AreaSierra National Forest · 6.2 miSource: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Tonight40°Clear
Saturday72°Sunny
Saturday Night38°Clear
Sunday70°Sunny
NWS forecast for Shaver Lake, CA
Source: National Weather Service, HNX forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 63°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 38°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
90°32°20°
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
Measured at: GRANT GROVE, CA (USC00043551), 25 miles away and 750 ft higher
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
Roadless
Roadless
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026
Who answers for this land
A Group Group Campground is in California’s 5th congressional district. Its representative, Tom McClintock (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it open right now. Its own recreation database, though, flags it not open with no reason or date; the flag is named under How we know all this.
Listed not open: USFS EDW Recreation Opportunities, openstatus field: a not-open flag in a database, with no reason and no date published; read there since Sep 9, 2026. A flag, not a notice, so this page doesn’t call it a closure. · Oct 16, 2026
Season: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Shaver Lake, CA, 5.1 mi ESE (a census designated place). Straight line.