Bushytail
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:56 UTC
- A night
- $30–$75When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 11In the agency’s record
- Season
- May 18 – October 31Open May 18 through October 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bushytail Campground is nestled in a grove of tall Douglas firs and Ponderosa Pines, just a short distance from Trinity Lake. This campground makes an excellent base for enjoying a variety of water sports, sightseeing and other activities and is ideal for single families and small groups. Keep reading
Recreation
Trinity Lake offers a variety of recreational opportunities, including boating, water skiing, sailing, swimming and fishing. Anglers can catch catfish, in addition to a variety of salmon, trout and bass. The Clark Springs Public Boat Ramp is less than a mile from Bushytail Campground. Hikers may be interested in the 4-mile Trinity Lakeshore Trail, which starts at the nearby Clark Springs Campground.
Facilities
Bushytail offers single, double, triple and quad sites. All sites have grills, bear-proof food lockers, campfire rings and picnic tables. This campground has electric and water hookups in most sites and paved parking spurs. Flush toilets and drinking water are available. There are 2 coin-operated showers.
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. Bushytail Campground is part of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area. Nearby Trinity Lake sits at an elevation of 2,370 feet and is surrounded by the Trinity Alps. Black bears are frequently spotted in the area, as well as bobcats, mountain lions and a variety of bird species.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby town of Weaverville is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This former mining town offers restaurants, shopping and self-guided walking tours.
What the agency tells you
Due to bears in the area, all food must be kept in approved containers
There is no septic tank or dump station
Click here for more information on this campground
Everything else this campground posts · 5
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.
Extra Vehicle fee of $12 per night
Boat Ramp is $12 for parking/launching
Check-in time 3 P.M. and Check-out time 2 P.M.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11
- Hookups
- 9 electric, 9 water
- Longest rig
- 99 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…in most sites and paved parking spurs. Flush toilets and drinking water are available. There are 2…”
- Showers
- Coin Showers
- “There are 2 coin-operated showers.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…paved parking spurs. Flush toilets and drinking water are available. There are 2 coin-operated showers.…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 283rd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:56 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
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.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 28
What you actually pay
“Extra Vehicle fee of $12 per night” · the U.S. Forest Service’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 · 5
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Bushytail closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Clark Springs CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 0.3 mi · walk-up
- Minersville CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 0.5 mi · 14 sites
- Bridge Camp (CA)Trinity National Forest · 5.2 mi · 11 sites
- Ackerman CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 5.4 mi · 51 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 15:56 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 12 mapped sitesAll 12 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 11 of the 12 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BUSH | 001 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 150 ft | 1,401 ft | $38–$75 |
| BUSH | 002 | standard electric | 33 ft | 30 amp | 76 ft | 1,280 ft | $38–$75 |
| BUSH | 003 | standard electric | 99 ft | 30 amp | 76 ft | 1,266 ft | $38–$75 |
| BUSH | 004 | standard electric | 66 ft | 30 amp | 120 ft | 1,209 ft | $38–$75 |
| BUSH | 005 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 120 ft | 1,183 ft | $38–$75 |
| BUSH | 006 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 162 ft | 1,107 ft | $30 | |
| BUSH | 007 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 107 ft | 1,190 ft | $30 | |
| BUSH | 008 | standard electric | 47 ft | 30 amp | 82 ft | 1,238 ft | $38–$75 |
| BUSH | 009 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 82 ft | 1,300 ft | $38–$75 |
| BUSH | 010 | standard electric | 39 ft | 30 amp | 78 ft | 1,382 ft | $38–$75 |
| BUSH | 011 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 78 ft | 1,455 ft | $38–$75 |
| BUSH | 012 HOST | host pad | 45 ft | 15 amp | 88 ft | 1,542 ft | $38–$75 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Minersville CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 0.5 miRidgeville Boat-In CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 1.2 miFawn Group CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 1.4 mi
FawnWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 1.5 miStoney Creek Group CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 1.6 miFrom I-5, take 299 west to Weaverville. Then take State Highway 3 north for 16 miles. Turn right at Minersville/Bushytail, then turn left into campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Weaverville, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 76°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 39°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
Bushytail is in California’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Jared Huffman (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →