Camp 4 Group Campground
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 14 of the next 14 nights read 16:14 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
This group site is nestled in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest on the Upper McCloud River, popular for its three stunning waterfalls. Camp 4 is typically open from mid-spring through mid-fall, offering primitive accommodations near a variety of recreational activities and magnificent scenery. Note: This is not Camp 4 in Yosemite National Park. Learn more about the Camp 4 daily lottery in Yosemite National Park. Keep reading
Recreation
During the late spring, summer and early fall, the McCloud River is the most popular attraction in this area, offering fishing, swimming, camping, kayaking and plenty of photography opportunities. The Upper McCloud River, located from the point the river dumps into the McCloud Reservoir to its source, is a popular spot for trout fishing. Anglers can find rainbow, brook and McCloud River red band trout. The Lower McCloud River, which begins below the dam at the McCloud Reservoir, offers many additional angling opportunities as well. The nearby McCloud River Falls Trail offers hikers the opportunity to view all 3 of the waterfalls, as well as take in breathtaking views of Mt. Shasta. For hikers looking to cool off in the summer heat, the Middle Falls and Lower Falls both offer popular swimming holes, for those brave enough to take on the cool waters.
Facilities
Vehicle access to Camp 4 is mostly on paved roads, but the last 1/4 mile is gravel. The facility can accommodate 10 vehicles and up to 30 guests, with a maximum of 10 tents plus 5 RV or motor homes. The campground has no water or electricity, but there are picnic tables, vault toilets and campfire rings provided, as well as trash collection-visitors are expected to bring their own trash bags. Water is available at the McCloud Ranger Station.
Natural Features
The Shasta-Trinity encompasses 2.1 million acres with over 6,278 miles of streams and rivers. It ranges from 1,000 ft. in elevation at Shasta Lake, to the spectacular Mt. Shasta with an elevation of 14,179 feet. The Shasta-Trinity includes portions of 5 designated Wilderness Areas: Castle Crags, Chanchelulla, Mount Shasta, Trinity Alps and Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel. It also sits among 7 major geographic and botanic regions: the Coast Range, Klamath Mountains, Willamette Valley, te Cascade Mountains, the High Desert, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Central Valley. The Upper McCloud River features the Upper, Middle and Lower Falls, which cascade over basalt lava flows, impressing visitors and kayakers alike. Contact Info For local information, please call (530) 964-2184 or call (530) 440-4105 for general information.
Nearby Attractions
The nearest services and amenities are 9 miles from Camp 4 in McCloud, a historic mill town that offers opportunities for golfing, eating out, shopping and sightseeing. Throughout Shasta-Trinity National Forest, there are access points for the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,663-mile trail stretching from Mexico to Canada.
Charges & Cancellations
A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. Late cancellations are subject to additional fees. For full details see NRRS Reservation Policy
What the agency tells you
Pet owners must clean up after their pet.
No horses are allowed in campground.
Drinking water is not provided.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Click here for more information about 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.
Camping is only permitted within the established, posted campground boundary.
This is not Camp 4 in Yosemite National Park. Learn more about the Camp 4 daily lottery in Yosemite National Park.
Minimum group size: 12 persons. Maximum group size: 30 persons. 7 night maximum stay per group and person. No water. No electricity. No sewer.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…but there are picnic tables, vault toilets and campfire rings provided, as well as trash…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…expected to bring their own trash bags. Water is available at the McCloud Ranger Station. Natural Features The…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Coast
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 100th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 16:14 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:14 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.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
“A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:14 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| CAMP 4 GROUP CAMPGROUND | Camp 4 Group | group standard area nonelectric | 30 ft | 364 ft | $30 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Fowlers CampgroundShasta National Forest · 2.2 miCattle Camp CampgroundShasta National Forest · 2.9 miAlgoma CampgroundShasta National Forest · 5.5 miAhDiNa CampgroundShasta National Forest · 10 miDeadlun CampgroundShasta National Forest · 12 miFrom Redding or Mt. Shasta, take I-5 towards Hwy 89 McCloud. Get off I-5 at the McCloud/Hwy 89 Exit, from here the campground is approximately 20 miles over paved road. Head south on Hwy 89 past the town of McCloud towards Reno, Lassen Park. Turn right off hwy 89 onto the River Loop Rd. (Fowlers/Lower Falls exit). Travel approximately .5 miles and take a left towards Middle and Upper Falls (Forest Service Road Number 40N44). Continue on this road until you come to a stop sign. Go through the stop sign and travel 1.5 miles till you see a sign for Camp 4 on your right. Turn, and continue down this gravel road for .5 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for McCloud, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 27°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 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 · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Camp 4 Group Campground 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.
Who can change it · 2
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.
- 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 Camp 4 Group Campground, Shasta National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Camp 4 Group Campground, Shasta National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Camp 4 Group Campground are 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. Camp 4 Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Camp 4 Group Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service 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 Camp 4 Group Campground (Shasta National Forest, 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 Camp 4 Group Campground, Shasta National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Camp 4 Group Campground, Shasta National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Camp 4 Group Campground are 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. Camp 4 Group Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Camp 4 Group Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service 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 Camp 4 Group Campground (Shasta National Forest, California) via campanac.com