Almanor
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $15–$18Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 5521 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Almanor Campground is a large family-friendly facility for individuals and large groups alike. It provides direct access to beautiful Lake Almanor and a variety of recreational opportunities in the area. Keep reading
Recreation
The 28,000-acre lake provides ample boating, swimming, water skiing and sailing opportunities. A boat ramp can be found next to the north campground. The adjacent beach is mostly rocky, but contains some sand. Fishing in the lake or nearby streams, is a popular activity. Anglers will find a variety of trout, bass, salmon and catfish, among other species. The Lake Almanor Recreation Trail can be accessed from within the campground. The trail winds through the forest, providing spectacular views of the lake, nearby Dyer Mountain and Lassen Peak. The trail stretches approximately 11 miles along the west shore of the lake. It is a non-motorized trail, open to all non-motorized activity.
Facilities
The campground offers numerous single-family campsites, as well as a group site. Campsites are available for tent and RV camping, however, no hookups are provided. Many sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Limited parking is available at the campground. An amphitheater is located on-site.
Natural Features
The campground sits on the west shore of Lake Almanor at an elevation of 4,540 feet. A scenic mixed conifer forest covers the area. Parts of the campground are shaded, while other sections have grassy meadows that often contain wildflowers.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is located 12 miles outside of the town of Chester, California.
What the agency tells you
Limited parking is available. Most sites can accomodate 1 RV or two cars. Please keep all vehicles on pavement in parking spur.
Off-road vehicle use is prohibited within the campground.
Click here for more information on the Lassen National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Check out the forest's campground description for specific information to Fish Your National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Protect California's forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. For more information visit firewood.ca.gov.
Bears frequent this area, please store food properly. For more information visit https://wildlife.ca.gov/Keep-Me-Wild/Bear
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 55 · 2 tent-only, 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Paved pads
- 7 of 55
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- PIT TOILETS on 1 of 55 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Limited parking is available at the…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach, Meadow
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 351st darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 21 of the 55 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$18 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
55 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 21 mapped sitesAll 55 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 54 of the 55 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 55 of the 55 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| ALMA | GS | group standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 3189 ft | 4,001 ft | 345 ft | $36–$100 |
| AREA ALMANOR | 020 | type not stated | 1,448 ft | 555 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 021 | type not stated | 1,410 ft | 652 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 022 | type not stated | 1,462 ft | 591 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 023 | type not stated | 1,493 ft | 623 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 024 | type not stated | 1,447 ft | 694 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 025 | type not stated | 1,532 ft | 638 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 026 | type not stated | 1,521 ft | 713 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 027 | type not stated | 1,597 ft | 592 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 028 | type not stated | 1,645 ft | 561 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 029 | type not stated | 1,694 ft | 533 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 030 | type not stated | 1,616 ft | 663 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 031 | type not stated | 1,667 ft | 650 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 032 | type not stated | 1,716 ft | 616 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 033 | type not stated | 1,552 ft | 129 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 034 | type not stated | 1,650 ft | 82 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 035 | type not stated | 1,559 ft | 222 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 036 | type not stated | 1,640 ft | 186 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 037 | type not stated | 1,544 ft | 278 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 038 | type not stated | 1,612 ft | 269 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 039 | type not stated | 1,453 ft | 314 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 040 | type not stated | 1,451 ft | 283 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 041 | type not stated | 1,366 ft | 364 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 043 | type not stated | 1,423 ft | 269 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 044 | type not stated | 1,501 ft | 198 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 045 | type not stated | 1,375 ft | 306 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 046 | type not stated | 1,445 ft | 235 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 047 | type not stated | 1,359 ft | 347 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 048 | type not stated | 1,357 ft | 313 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 049 | type not stated | 1,333 ft | 268 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 050 | type not stated | 1,292 ft | 211 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 051 | type not stated | 1,223 ft | 118 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 052 | type not stated | 1,181 ft | 121 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | 053 | type not stated | 1,655 ft | 35 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA ALMANOR | S&P Standard Sites | type not stated | 25 ft | $18 | |||
| SMLT | 053 | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 1784 ft | 1,162 ft | 764 ft | $36–$100 |
| SOUT | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 118 ft | 979 ft | 296 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 42 ft | 1,070 ft | 292 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 003 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 42 ft | 1,106 ft | 254 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 004 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 121 ft | 1,121 ft | 164 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 96 ft | 1,267 ft | 124 ft | $15–$18 |
| SOUT | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 93 ft | 1,363 ft | 125 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 007 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 92 ft | 1,352 ft | 191 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 92 ft | 1,491 ft | 153 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 92 ft | 1,444 ft | 222 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 103 ft | 1,331 ft | 276 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 011 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 92 ft | 1,554 ft | 98 ft | $15–$18 |
| SOUT | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 91 ft | 1,498 ft | 122 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 013 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 91 ft | 1,589 ft | 40 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 014 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 92 ft | 1,646 ft | 72 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 015 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 106 ft | 1,740 ft | 122 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 92 ft | 1,719 ft | 158 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 017 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 93 ft | 1,863 ft | 296 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 018 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 93 ft | 1,915 ft | 364 ft | $18 |
| SOUT | 019 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 146 ft | 1,977 ft | 357 ft | $18 |
25 of 55 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Greenville CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 12 mi
Queen Lily Campground (Plumas)Plumas National Forest · 12 miWarner Creek CampgroundLassen National Forest · 13 miFrom Chester, take Highway 36 west to Highway 89 South. Turn left on Highway 89 and continue south about 6 miles, to Almanor Drive West (not to be confused with Almanor West development and Almanor West Drive). Turn left on Almanor Drive West (directly across from the Almanor Group Camp and rest area) and continue approximately 1 mile to Almanor South Campground.
For the Almanor Group camp. From Chester, take Highway 89 South. Turn left on Highway 89 and continue about 6 miles to Almanor Drive west (not to be confused with Almanor West development and Almanor West Drive). Turn right into Almanor Group Camp and rest area ( across from Almanor West Drive).
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Almanor, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 66°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 25°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
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.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Almanor is in California’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Kevin Kiley (I), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →