Buckhorn
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 43 mi
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:19 UTC
- A night
- $18–$20Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 93All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Buckhorn Recreation Area is at Black Butte Lake, situated at the northern end of the Sacramento valley, 100 miles north of Sacramento, CA and 30 minutes south of Red Bluff, CA. The lake is a popular meeting place for water sports and outdoor enthusiasts, so bring family and friends for an incredibly scenic getaway. Keep reading
Recreation
Find excitement with wake boarding and sailing or explore the shoreline's 13 miles of fitness trails for hiking, running and biking. Black Butte is renowned for its warm-water fishing, including catches such as crappie, channel catfish, and large and smallmouth bass.
Facilities
Buckhorn has 93 campsites, including a group campground and five walk-in sites. Conveniences include showers, a modern boat ramp complex, two playgrounds, an exercise area, and shoreline access. No sites have electric or water hookups. The area is open year-round.
Natural Features
Black Butte Lake was formed in 1963 with the completion of the Black Butte Dam on Stony Creek. The lake's surface area measures 4,460 acres when water levels are high. Black basalt buttes and blue oak woodland hug the lake's 40 miles of shoreline.
Nearby Attractions
A 18 hole disc golf course can be accessed across from the Orland Buttes Campground. Horeseback riders can make use of the horse trails at Grizzly Flat and Burris Creek. Drive east to visit the Mendocino National Forest.
What the agency tells you
Limited Sanitation Facilities Due to ongoing sanitation infrastructure issues, flushing toilets and showers will not be available. Portable restrooms and handwashing stations will be in place to support public health and safety. These facilities will be located near existing restroom areas. Potable water and dump stations will remain available for visitor use.
Vehicle Pass Info: Each campsite allows up to 4 vehicles* (up to 40 vehicles for group use area). Please print your reservation or write your reservation # and the reserved camper’s last name, and place it on the dashboard of each vehicle while in the recreation area. (*Please note: 4 vehicles may not fit within each campsite’s parking area.)
Please adhere to all road signs. Traffic for sites 1 through 22 is one way in, one way out. All vehicles must face with the flow of traffic in case of an emergency.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
There are no electric/water/sewer hookups. A dump station and water filling station is available.
No fireworks allowed
No off-road vehicles
Entrance gates close at 10 pm from April 1 through Sept. 30th. Quiet hours are from 10 pm to 6 am.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 93 · 5 walk-in, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 150 ft
- Paved pads
- 88 of 93
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- 63 of 90 sites
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 634th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
113 of 132 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:19 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $18–$20 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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:19 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
93 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 93 mapped sitesAll 93 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 93 of the 93 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| 1-22 | BH01 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 69 ft | 349 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH02 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 69 ft | 417 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH03 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 56 ft | 378 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH04 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 58 ft | 496 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH05 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 56 ft | 416 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH06 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 99 ft | 503 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH07 | standard nonelectric | 77 ft | 80 ft | 611 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH08 | standard nonelectric | 89 ft | 90 ft | 594 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH09 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 90 ft | 682 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH10 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 100 ft | 664 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH11 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 100 ft | 664 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH12 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 85 ft | 768 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH13 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 83 ft | 688 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH14 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 80 ft | 587 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH15 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 58 ft | 505 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH16 | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 77 ft | 505 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH17 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 88 ft | 759 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH18 | standard nonelectric | 73 ft | 68 ft | 661 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH19 | standard nonelectric | 69 ft | 48 ft | 671 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH20 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 48 ft | 657 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH21 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 78 ft | 612 ft | $18–$20 |
| 1-22 | BH22 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 105 ft | 518 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH23 | walk to | 50 ft | 108 ft | $18 | |
| 23-6 | BH24 | walk to | 50 ft | 76 ft | $18 | |
| 23-6 | BH25 | walk to | 60 ft | 85 ft | $18 | |
| 23-6 | BH26 | walk to | 55 ft | 149 ft | $18 | |
| 23-6 | BH27 | walk to | 63 ft | 194 ft | $18 | |
| 23-6 | BH28 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 92 ft | 227 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH29 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 127 ft | 131 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH30 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 86 ft | 264 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH31 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 86 ft | 267 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH32 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 183 ft | 223 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH33 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 50 ft | 94 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH34 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 50 ft | 93 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH35 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 78 ft | 282 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH36 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 127 ft | 131 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH37 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 127 ft | 140 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH38 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 224 ft | 124 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH39 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 83 ft | 151 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH40 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 83 ft | 125 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH41 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 58 ft | 193 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH42 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 58 ft | 226 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH43 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 94 ft | 282 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH44 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 85 ft | 311 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH45 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 85 ft | 380 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH46 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 119 ft | 381 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH47 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 155 ft | 162 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH48 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 157 ft | 85 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH49 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 85 ft | 55 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH50 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 39 ft | 114 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH51 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 39 ft | 109 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH52 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 43 ft | 158 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH53 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 43 ft | 155 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH54 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 53 ft | 237 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH55 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 91 ft | 176 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH56 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 87 ft | 223 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH57 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 53 ft | 267 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH58 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 73 ft | 333 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH59 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 73 ft | 279 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH60 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 97 ft | 280 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH61 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 109 ft | 301 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH62 | standard nonelectric | 150 ft | 109 ft | 406 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH63 | standard nonelectric | 135 ft | 115 ft | 384 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH64 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 78 ft | 336 ft | $18–$20 |
| 23-6 | BH65 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 104 ft | 357 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH66 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 14 ft | 496 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH67 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 14 ft | 491 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH68 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 17 ft | 477 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH69 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 14 ft | 459 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH70 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 14 ft | 445 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH71 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 429 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH72 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 17 ft | 411 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH73 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 17 ft | 395 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH74 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 14 ft | 380 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH75 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 14 ft | 370 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH76 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 345 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH77 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 338 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH78 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 14 ft | 336 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH79 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 14 ft | 334 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH80 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 328 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH81 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 313 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH82 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 298 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH83 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 18 ft | 281 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH84 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 20 ft | 261 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH85 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 17 ft | 225 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH86 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 209 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH87 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 193 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH88 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 177 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH89 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 162 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH90 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 147 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH91 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 16 ft | 132 ft | $18–$20 |
| 66-8 | BH92 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 17 ft | 116 ft | $18–$20 |
| BUCK | BHGUA | group standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 1507 ft | 645 ft | $200 |
25 of 93 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Orland Buttes2.9 mi
Pines Group Site - Stony Gorge Reservoir17 miWhitlock CampgroundMendocino National Forest · 19 miHorse Camp21 miKingsley Glade CampgroundMendocino National Forest · 22 miSugarfoot Glade CampgroundMendocino National Forest · 22 miFrom Interstate 5, take the Black Butte Lake exit at Orland, CA. Travel west on County Road 200/Newville Road for 12 miles. Turn left on Buckhorn Road and enter the Buckhorn Recreation area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Flournoy, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 51°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
Who answers for this land
Buckhorn 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.