Bretz Mill Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 5 mi
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- FreeNo camping fee
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Located in a setting of pines and oak, Bretz Mill Campground is located alongside Big Creek. Some sites are located on the creek. The location of the campground makes an great get-a-way for picnicking, cooling off during hot days and overnight camping, especially when higher elevation campgrounds are under snow. The area also serves as a popular OHV base camp. Access to facility is paved. Campground is maintained by Mountain Toppers 4 WD club.
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and it costs nothing at all. 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 · 4
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Dinkey CreekSierra National Forest · 5.1 miA Group Group CampgroundSierra National Forest · 5.2 miFence Meadow Camping AreaSierra National Forest · 5.3 miOak Flat Camping AreaSierra National Forest · 6.4 miThe weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Shaver Lake, CA
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

Bretz Mill 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 →