Chilcoot
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $34From, per site
- Sites
- 4035 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Chilcoot Campground (5,100 feet) is located just downstream from Frenchman Lake alongside Last Chance Creek. The sound of flowing water along with shade from the surrounding pine and cottonwood forest are key features making this a great place to relax and enjoy the outdoors. Chilcoot Campground is one of five campgrounds in the popular Frenchman Lake Recreation Area of Northeastern California's Plumas National Forest. The campground is far enough away from the lake that visitors can experience the serene sense of solitude that the remote mountain setting provides. Keep reading
Recreation
Frenchman Recreation Area offers a wide variety of recreational opportunities. Water sports including fishing, skiing, jet skiing, swimming are readily available supported by two boat launch facilities, several fishing access points and day use areas. Camping, picnicking hiking and exploring forest roads can each provide the type of adventure you are looking for. Dispersed camping (camping outside developed campgrounds) is not allowed in the recreation area. Winter activities range from snowmobiling to ice fishing and cross-country skiing.
Facilities
The campground has 40 single-family tent and RV camp sites. Some sites are available for tent camping only. Fifteen campsites are available for reservations during peak camping season. All other campsites are available as 'First Come' sites as long as the campground is open. Paved roads, paved campsite parking, water, flush toilets, host, firewood and trash service are available during peak camping season. Tables, campfire rings and recently added bear resistant containers are provided at each campsite Natural Features This campground is situated at the southern end of Last Chance Scenic Area. The scenic area is the result of Little Last Chance Creek cutting through ancient lava flows. This is the interface of desert and mountain climates characterized by less precipitation than areas to the west and more than areas to the east. Desert scrub grows alongside pine forest. A variety of wildlife make this area home.
Nearby Attractions
Chilcoot Campground is one of five campgrounds in the Frenchman Recreation Area. Little Last Chance Scenic Area Frenchman Lake is less than three miles from the campground. Sierra Valley - Largest valley in the Sierra Nevada. Stores and services in the towns of Chilcoot and Loyalton. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 836-2575.
What the agency tells you
This is not the same campground as Chilkoot in the Sierra National Forest
Generally, campsites will accommodate 2 vehicles. The first vehicle is included in the site fee, the second vehicle fee will be collected onsite at the daily rate posted on the fee sign.
America the Beautiful, Senior Passes, and Access Passes are accepted for single campsites only. They are not accepted for double or group campsites.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Off-road vehicles not permitted in the campground
A variety of wildlife live in this area, including black bears. Before making a reservation, become aware of bear safety.
Please go to the following link for more information:http://www.centerforwildlifeinformation.org/BeBearAware/Hiking_and_Camping/hiking_and_camping.html
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.
Firewood Bundles are for sale by Campground Hosts.
Check- In is 2:00pm and Check-Out is Noon
Campground Map
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 40 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 39 of 40
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…roads, paved campsite parking, water, flush toilets, host, firewood and trash service are available…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 711th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 35 of the 40 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $34 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
40 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 35 mapped sitesAll 40 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. 40 of the 40 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA CHILCOOT | 001 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 53 ft | 211 ft | $34 | |
| AREA CHILCOOT | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 52 ft | 226 ft | $34 | |
| AREA CHILCOOT | 003 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 52 ft | 176 ft | $34 |
| AREA CHILCOOT | 004 | type not stated | 35 ft | 128 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 48 ft | 121 ft | $34 | |
| AREA CHILCOOT | 006 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 158 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 007 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 120 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 008 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 163 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 009 | standard nonelectric | 101 ft | 127 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 010 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 143 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 011 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 205 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 012 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 178 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 39 ft | 242 ft | $34 | |
| AREA CHILCOOT | 014 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 290 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 015 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 323 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 016 | standard nonelectric | 86 ft | 315 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 017 | standard nonelectric | 73 ft | 307 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 018 | standard nonelectric | 73 ft | 239 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 019 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 213 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 020 | standard nonelectric | 126 ft | 102 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 021 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 93 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 022 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 132 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 023 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 79 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 024 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 146 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 025 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 84 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 026 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 142 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 027 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 112 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 028 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 153 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 029 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 207 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 030 | standard nonelectric | 103 ft | 279 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 031 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 323 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 032 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 314 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 033 | standard nonelectric | 77 ft | 332 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 034 | standard nonelectric | 77 ft | 347 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 035 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 331 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 038 | type not stated | 40 ft | 263 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA CHILCOOT | 040 | type not stated | 40 ft | 297 ft | $34 | ||
| tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 518 ft | 423 ft | $34 | |||
| type not stated | 35 ft | 442 ft | $34 | ||||
| type not stated | 35 ft | 460 ft | $34 |
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.
25 of 40 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Spring CreekPlumas National Forest · 2.2 mi
Big Cove (Plumas National Forest, CA)Plumas National Forest · 2.5 mi
FrenchmanPlumas National Forest · 2.6 miBig Cove CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 2.7 miBig Cove OverflowPlumas National Forest · 2.8 miCottonwood Springs CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 3.0 miFrom Reno, Nevada, travel north on Highway 395. Merge onto Highway 70 west and continue 5 miles to Chilcoot. Turn north on Highway 284 and continue 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 Chilcoot-Vinton, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 67°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°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
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
Chilcoot is in California’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Kevin Kiley (I), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →