Buck Ridge
1Heads up1 fire 40 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:15 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Buck Ridge group day-use pavillion is located within the Buck Ridge Recreation Area at Hidden Dam, Hensley Lake. The pavilion has drinking water access, multiple picnic tables, a large barbeque pit and grill for cooking, two horseshoe pits and a water-borne restroom for your use. The lake area offers many recreational opportunities, such as swimming, water skiing, fishing and hiking, and attracts a growing number of visitors per year. It is within a short drive to Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, as well as Sierra National Forest. The 1,500-acre lake was created by the construction of Hidden Dam on the Fresno River. With over 20 miles of shoreline, it is a popular vacation spot for families because of its playground, swimming areas and water activities. Keep reading
Recreation
The area is packed with opportunities for outdoor fun. The lake area has a swim beach, a disc golf course and a hiking, mountain biking and equestrian trail. On the water, visitors can ski, swim and fish.
Facilities
This facility has boat ramps, picnic areas, a group picnic shelter and a playground. Drinking water is provided, and there is a grocery store within a short driving distance.
Natural Features
Buck Ridge is located directly on the shore of Hensley Lake and surrounded by the oak woodlands of the Sierra Nevada foothills, offering a mixture of sun and shade.
Nearby Attractions
Yosemite National Park is about one hour north, and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are about 1.5 hours southeast of the facility. Yosemite National Park Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
What the agency tells you
Day use only; no overnight camping allowed.
Day-use passes for each vehicle are required. All America the Beautiful Passes are accepted at this location.
Rental of pavilion includes three (3) day-use passes. Visitors with additional vehicles must pay $10 day-use fee at main entrance.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
This area is patrolled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Park Rangers and Madera County Sheriff's Deputies.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
For more information please call 559-831-7040 or email hensley-info@usace.army.mil
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Dam, Hensley Lake. The pavilion has drinking water access, multiple picnic tables, a large barbeque…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Picnicking
- Swimming
Full this Saturdayread 16:15 UTC
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in. How full the weekend is nationally.
5 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:19 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:15 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
“Visitors with additional vehicles must pay $10 day-use fee at main entrance.” · the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own agency notice
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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 5
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:19 UTC
- Hidden ViewHensley Lake · 1.2 mi · 62 of 94 site-nights open
- Wildcat Recreation Area CampgroundEastman Lake · 7.6 mi · 36 of 38 site-nights open
- Codorniz Recreation Area CampgroundEastman Lake · 8.1 mi · 67 of 130 site-nights open
- Forks Campground (Sierra)Sierra National Forest · 21 mi · 1 of 42 site-nights open
- Recreation PointSierra National Forest · 22 mi · 13 of 14 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:15 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
| BRID | A | day use | 617 ft | $30 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Hidden View1.2 mi
Wildcat Equestrian Area7.5 mi
Wildcat Recreation Area Campground7.6 miWildcat Campground7.7 miFrom south of Fresno: Take State Route 99 to SR 41 north to SR 145. Turn left on 145 and go 8.4 miles to Road 33. Turn right on Road 33, and go 1 mile to Road 400. Turn right on 400, and go 9.7 miles to the Buck Ridge Recreation Area. Follow the signs to the campground and various areas within the park.
From south of Madera: Take SR 99 north to exit 153B. Bear right onto Madera Ave. and go .3 miles to Gateway. Turn left and drive .2 miles to the traffic light at Yosemite Ave. (SR 145). Turn right and go 7.2 miles to Road 33. Turn left on Road 33, and go 1 mile to Road 400. Turn right on 400, and go 9.7 miles to the Buck Ridge Recreation Area. Follow the signs to the campground and various areas within the park.
From north of Madera: Take SR 99 south to exit 153B. Exit onto Olive Ave. Turn left onto Madera Ave. and go .3 miles to Gateway. Turn left and drive .2 miles to the traffic light at Yosemite Ave. (SR 145). Turn right and go 7.2 miles to Road 33. Turn left on Road 33, and go 1 mile to Road 400. Turn right on 400, and go 9.7 miles to the Buck Ridge Recreation Area. Follow the signs to the campground and various areas within the park.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Yosemite Lakes, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 50°F, day 80°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 37°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Buck Ridge 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyTom McClintockU.S. Representative · California’s 5th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAdam B. SchiffU.S. Senator · California
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlex PadillaU.S. Senator · California
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Buck Ridge, California
Dear Tom McClintock, I’m a constituent in California’s 5th district. I tried to camp at Buck Ridge, California, and couldn’t. Every site at Buck Ridge is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Buck Ridge keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buck Ridge. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Buck Ridge (California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Buck Ridge, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Buck Ridge, California, and couldn’t. Every site at Buck Ridge is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Buck Ridge keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buck Ridge. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Buck Ridge (California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Buck Ridge, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Buck Ridge, California, and couldn’t. Every site at Buck Ridge is reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Buck Ridge keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Buck Ridge. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Buck Ridge (California) via campanac.com