Bailey Cove
1Heads up1 fire 22 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $30–$60Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 97 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bailey Cove Campground is nestled in a forested area on the McCloud Arm of Shasta Lake. The site is a popular destination due to its convenient access from I-5 and the adjacent public boat ramp. The area surrounding the campground offers an abundance of recreational and sightseeing opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground provides access to the 3-mile Bailey Cove Trail. This trail hugs the shoreline and is open to both hikers and mountain bikers. Lake Shasta attracts anglers due to its wide variety of fish. Boaters can access the lake via the adjacent boat ramp, and boat rentals are available nearby.
Facilities
Each of the 7 sites has a tent pad, picnic table, raised fire ring, bear boxes, and paved parking spur. Brick pavers have been used to provide added accessibility. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. There is a day use area adjoined to the campground and boat ramp, which provides parking and restrooms and pic-nic tables with bbq's and hiking trails.
Natural Features
Shasta-Trinity is the largest national forest in California with a diverse landscape encompassing five wilderness areas, hundreds of mountain lakes and 6,278 miles of streams and rivers. Lake Shasta sits at an elevation of 1,067 feet, with 365 miles of shoreline punctuated by steep mountains blanketed in manzanita and evergreens. A snow-capped Mount Shasta, the second-tallest mountain in the Cascade Range, looms in the distance. This area boasts abundant wildlife. Osprey nests are often seen in the area around Bailey Cove Campground.
Nearby Attractions
Lake Shasta Caverns are also located on the McCloud Arm of Shasta Lake in an area know as the Grey Rocks. Tours are given daily at this privately owned facility. At an elevation of 3,500 feet, the nearby Hirz Mountain Lookout offers panoramic views of Mt. Shasta, Mt. Lassen and the surrounding area.
What the agency tells you
If applicable, Golden Pass holder must be present; Bring voucher to the campground
There is a $12/day fee for using the day use area facility
The extra vehicle fee is $12 per vehicle per day.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
There is a $17 daily fee required to use the boat ramp
Bears frequent the area; Keep food in lockers provided or bring gear to hang food from trees out of reach of bears
Poison oak is abundant throughout the forest
Click here for more information on this campground
Click here to learn more about the Shasta-Trinity 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.
Accepting Walk-Ins year-round at this facility
Check-in time 3 P.M. and Check-out time 2 P.M.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 9
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…used to provide added accessibility. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. There is a day use…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…added accessibility. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. There is a day use area adjoined to…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Bear boxes
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
- Night sky · 821st darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:02 UTC
recreation.gov lists 7 of the 9 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 27
What you actually pay
“The extra vehicle fee is $12 per vehicle per day.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $30–$60 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:02 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
9 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 7 mapped sitesAll 9 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 7 of the 9 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. 9 of the 9 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.
| AREA BAILEY COVE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 92 ft | 205 ft | 297 ft | $30–$60 |
| AREA BAILEY COVE | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 191 ft | 61 ft | 382 ft | $30–$60 |
| AREA BAILEY COVE | 003 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 109 ft | 95 ft | 148 ft | $30–$60 |
| AREA BAILEY COVE | 004 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 109 ft | 101 ft | 52 ft | $30–$60 |
| AREA BAILEY COVE | 005 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 138 ft | 31 ft | 118 ft | $30–$60 |
| AREA BAILEY COVE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 92 ft | 254 ft | 389 ft | $30–$60 |
| AREA BAILEY COVE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 93 ft | 203 ft | 471 ft | $30–$60 |
| S&P | S&P - Double | type not stated | 45 ft | $30–$60 | |||
| S&P | S&P - Single | type not stated | 45 ft | $30–$60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Bailey Cove CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 2.0 mi
Mariners Point Group CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 3.7 mi
Nelson PointWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 4.6 mi
Hirz BayWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 4.7 mi
Hirz Bay Group 1Whiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 4.7 mi
Hirz Bay Group 2Whiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 4.7 miBailey Cove campground is located 15 miles north of Redding, CA. Take I-5 into O'Brien, CA. Exit Shasta Caverns Road to Bailey Cove entrance. (approximately 1 miles off I-5).
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mountain Gate, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 55°F, day 78°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 41°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
Bailey Cove is in California’s 1st congressional district. Whoever holds it votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. See how its representative votes on public lands →
Our roster still carries Doug LaMalfa for this district and the current federal record doesn’t list them as sitting, so we’re not naming a representative here until the two agree.