Chekaka Recreation Area Lake Mendocino
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 26 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 221 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Chekaka Recreation Area is situated on Lake Mendocino in California's Mendocino Range, where redwood forests meet wine country. There is one reservable picnic pad in the Overlook Day-Use Area. Chekaka Campground has been permanently closed. The lake is formed by the Coyote Dam on the Russian River. A wide variety of recreational opportunities is available, including boating, swimming, water skiing, fishing, hiking and horseback riding. Keep reading
Recreation
The 1,822-acre lake provides abundant boating, swimming and water skiing opportunities. Anglers will find sunfish, smallmouth bass, striped bass, crappie, white and channel catfish, bluegill and perch. Several miles of trails wind around Lake Mendocino, including the 3-mile Shakota Trail that begins at the Overlook Day-Use Area and offers beautiful views of the lake. Lake Mendocino also offers two disc golf courses that can be found near the Overlook Day-Use Area on the south end and the Pomo A Day-Use Area parking lot on the north end. The rolling terrain is heavily wooded in some areas, making for challenging tunnel shots with obstacles around most pins.
Facilities
The old Chekaka Campground is permanently closed to camping. The Overlook Day-Use Area group picnic site in the Chekaka Recreation Area is available for reservations.
Natural Features
Lake Mendocino lies in the scenic rolling hills of Coyote Valley. Groves of oak mixed with manzanita and pines forest the area, offering limited shade and an excellent bird and wildlife habitat. Contact Info This location has limited staffing. Please call (707) 467-4200 for general information.
Nearby Attractions
The charming city of Ukiah, less than 15 minutes away, offers a variety of shopping and dining opportunities, museums and golf courses. The Ukiah Farmer's Market runs Saturday mornings throughout the summer, offering fresh produce, local wines, arts and crafts and live music.
What the agency tells you
Chekaka Recreation Area is open for day-use ONLY. Typical Day-Use hours are 8am - 5pm in the off-season and 8am - 8pm in the summer, however hours are subject to change. Please call Lake Mendocino's project office at (707) 467-4200 to confirm. Overnight parking is not permitted.
Certain activities conducted on Corps of Engineers project lands require a Special Use Permit in addition to a shelter reservation. For example, parties that expect to exceed shelter capacity (50 people) or have additional equipment, large decorations, mechanical devices, inflatable bounce houses, amplified sound, and/or live music must also obtain a Special Use Permit. Please call Lake Mendocino's project office at (707) 467-4200 and ask for the Special Use Coordinator for more details.
Pets must be penned or on a six-foot leash, and under the owner's control at all times. Do not leave pets unattended in vehicles. Please pick up after your pet.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 22
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 43 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 24 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 1 of 24 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 970th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:15 UTC
recreation.gov lists 1 of the 22 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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.
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.
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 rate for this season, $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 16:15 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
24 records · the site map
All 24 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 19 of the 24 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C001 | type not stated | 33 ft | 532 ft | 176 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C002 | type not stated | 42 ft | 456 ft | 210 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C003 | type not stated | 42 ft | 503 ft | 143 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C004 | type not stated | 33 ft | 415 ft | 177 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C005 | type not stated | 34 ft | 525 ft | 77 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C006 | type not stated | 37 ft | yes | ||||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C007 | type not stated | 35 ft | 559 ft | 127 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C008 | type not stated | 33 ft | 631 ft | 143 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C009 | type not stated | 35 ft | 589 ft | 137 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C010 | type not stated | 25 ft | 662 ft | 126 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C011 | type not stated | 32 ft | 703 ft | 170 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C012 | type not stated | 35 ft | yes | 672 ft | 161 ft | ||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C013 | type not stated | 28 ft | 712 ft | 177 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C014 | type not stated | 34 ft | |||||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C015 | type not stated | 30 ft | 732 ftLake Mendocino | 226 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C016 | type not stated | 32 ft | |||||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C017 | type not stated | 34 ft | 669 ftLake Mendocino | 180 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C018 | type not stated | 40 ft | |||||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C019 | type not stated | 40 ft | |||||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C021 | type not stated | 35 ft | 583 ftLake Mendocino | 42 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C022 | type not stated | 43 ft | 558 ft | 148 ft | |||
| CHE-KAKA CAMPGROUND | C023 | type not stated | 36 ft | 532 ft | 176 ft | |||
| JOE RILEY | JOE RILEY | day use | 20 ft | 116 ftLake Mendocino | 260 ft | |||
| OVERLOOK DAY-USE AREA | OVERLOOK GROUP PICNIC SITE | day use | 15 amp | 483 ftLake Mendocino | 305 ft | $40 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Kyen Campground and Oak Grove Day Use Area2.4 mi
Bushay Recreation Area2.5 miMayacmas CampgroundUkiah Field Office · 5.8 miRed Mountain CampgroundUkiah Field Office · 9.9 miMiddle Creek CampgroundMendocino National Forest · 13 miBuckhorn CampgroundUkiah Field Office · 14 miFrom the South (San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Ukiah): Follow Highway 101 North towards Ukiah. Approximately 2 miles north of Ukiah, take the Lake Mendocino Dr. exit and turn right. Turn left at North State St., then right again onto Lake Mendocino Dr. Chekaka Recreation Area is at the top of the hill. Take a slight left before reaching the Coyote Valley Dam to visit the Overlook Day-Use Area.
From the North (Eureka, Willits, Fort Bragg): Follow Highway 101 South. Approximately 17 miles south of Willits, take the Lake Mendocino Dr. exit and turn left. Turn left at North State St., then right onto Lake Mendocino Dr. Chekaka Recreation Area is at the top of the hill. Take a slight left before reaching the Coyote Valley Dam to visit the Overlook Day-Use Area.
From the East (Sacramento): From the city of Williams, take Highway 20 West. Continue on Highway 20 for approximately 2 hours or 80 miles traveling past Clearlake and Blue Lakes. Approximately 5 miles after the Potter Valley turn-off, continue onto Highway 101 South. Take the Lake Mendocino Dr. exit and turn left. Turn left at North State St., then right onto Lake Mendocino Dr. Chekaka Recreation Area is at the top of the hill. Take a slight left before reaching the Coyote Valley Dam to visit the Overlook Day-Use Area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Calpella, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 77°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 36°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
Chekaka Recreation Area Lake Mendocino 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 →