Buck Creek Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 24 mi
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $27–$54Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2813 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Situated on the banks of Buck Creek in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Buck Creek campground offers stunning scenery and access to numerous recreational activities popular in the Northern Cascade Range in Washington. Scattered beneath a towering canopy of old-growth forest, the sites in this campground are secluded and within walking distance to the waterfront, making it an ideal setting for visitors wanting to camp in a private, rustic setting. Keep reading
Recreation
Situated along Buck Creek in old growth forest where every campsite can hear the rushing water, activities in the area include fishing and hiking. Popular with those seeking a quiet getaway and an ideal base camp to access many area trails.
Facilities
Buck Creek campground offers 14 standard sites. Sites are equipped with picnic tables and vault toilets.
Natural Features
Hemmed in by several designated wilderness areas, the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest showcases rugged peaks, sparkling alpine lakes and old-growth forests, providing visitors with a variety of scenic landscapes. Wildlife in the area includes mountain goats, porcupine, pine marten and a variety of migratory birds and native fish. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 932-0242.
Nearby Attractions
Charges & Cancellations Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
What the agency tells you
Buck Creek Campground near Darrington, WA not in the Mather Parkway near Mt. Rainier National Park.
This is a NO WATER facility; campers will need to bring their own supply.
Extra Vehicles: One RV with tow vehicle per single site or one vehicle per single tent site. Two RVs with tow vehicle per double site or two vehicles per double tent site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. A fee of $12/extra vehicle per night must be paid for upon arrival by cash or check only.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site may be forfeited and released to other guests.
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
Don't Move Firewood: Please protect Pacific Northwest forests by preventing the spread of invasive species. Firewood can carry insects and diseases that can threaten the health of our western forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest has a Food Storage Order in effect. All food and refuse must be acceptably stored (in a hard sided vehicle or trailer, food storage locker, or certified bear resistant container) or acceptably possessed (attended to by a person who is physically present).
Click here for more information about Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 28
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 98 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…are equipped with picnic tables and vault toilets. Natural Features Hemmed in by several designated…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Picnicking
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 213th darkest of 400 in WA
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 13 of the 28 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
“A fee of $12/extra vehicle per night must be paid for upon arrival by cash or check only.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $27–$54 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.
“Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
29 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 13 mapped sitesAll 29 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 29 of the 29 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. 13 of the 29 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 116 ft | 64 ftBuck Creek | 210 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 002 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 83 ft | 59 ftBuck Creek | 178 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 63 ftBuck Creek | 183 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 62 ftBuck Creek | 217 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 005 | type not stated | 47 ft | 107 ftBuck Creek | 428 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 006 | type not stated | 62 ft | 60 ftBuck Creek | 570 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 007 | type not stated | 28 ft | 59 ftBuck Creek | 695 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 008 | type not stated | 48 ft | 96 ftBuck Creek | 783 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 009 | type not stated | 29 ft | 83 ftBuck Creek | 869 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 010 | type not stated | 29 ft | 117 ftBuck Creek | 915 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 011 | type not stated | 33 ft | 167 ftBuck Creek | 848 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 012 | type not stated | 55 ft | 203 ftBuck Creek | 786 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 013 | type not stated | 81 ft | 238 ftBuck Creek | 704 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 014 | type not stated | 94 ft | 263 ftBuck Creek | 612 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 015 | type not stated | 98 ft | 246 ftBuck Creek | 497 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 016 | type not stated | 46 ft | 299 ftBuck Creek | 425 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 110 ft | 263 ftBuck Creek | 341 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 018 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 110 ft | 340 ftBuck Creek | 276 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 019 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 61 ft | 347 ftBuck Creek | 113 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 020 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 61 ft | 400 ftBuck Creek | 170 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 021 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 95 ft | 200 ftBuck Creek | 177 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 022 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 68 ft | 106 ftBuck Creek | 366 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 023 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | yes | 58 ft | 95 ftBuck Creek | 317 ft | $27–$54 |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 024 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 58 ft | 109 ftBuck Creek | 270 ft | $27–$54 |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 125 ft | 91 ftBuck Creek | 263 ft | $27–$54 | |
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 026 HOST | host pad | 25 ft | 66 ftBuck Creek | 253 ft | |||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 06A | type not stated | 64 ftBuck Creek | 452 ft | ||||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 06B | type not stated | 77 ftBuck Creek | 357 ft | ||||
| AREA BUCK CREEK | 06C | type not stated | 88 ftBuck Creek | 269 ft |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 29 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Suiattle Guard StationMt. Baker National Forest · 0.6 mi
Sulphur Creek CampgroundMt. Baker National Forest · 6.3 mi
Clear Creek CampgroundMt. Baker National Forest · 12 mi
Bedal CampgroundMt. Baker National Forest · 12 mi
Mineral Park CampgroundMt. Baker National Forest · 15 miBeaver Creek Group CampgroundMt. Baker National Forest · 16 miFrom Darrington, head north on WA-530 for 7.5 miles. Cross the Sauk River Bridge, then immediately turn right on Suiattle River Road (FS-26). Proceed 15 miles east (10 miles paved followed by 5 miles of gravel road) to Buck Creek Campground on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Darrington, WA
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 32°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Buck Creek Campground is in Washington’s 8th congressional district. Its representative, Kim Schrier (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →