Fir Cove Campground
1Heads up1 fire 42 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 14All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Fir Cove Campground is located on beautiful eastern shore of Ruth Lake, a 13,800-acre jewel situated in the thickly forested mountains of northern California. A variety of recreational opportunities abound. Fir Cove is one of three Forest Service campgrounds in the area, and one of two on the lake. Bailey Canyon Campground is the companion to Fir Cove. It is located east of Fir Cove and is first-come, first-serve. Keep reading
Recreation
The lake provides boating, water skiing, fishing and countless other recreation opportunities. Anglers can enjoy a catch of small and largemouth bass, catfish, rainbow trout, Kokonee salmon, bluegill and crappie. Forested peaks and valleys offer ample opportunities for hunting, hiking and off-road vehicle use. The Bailey Vista and Lakeview Trailheads start from Fir Cove, and the Picket Peak Trailhead starts from Bailey Canyon.
Facilities
The campground offers several tent-only and multiple combined sites, many of them overlooking the lake. All sites are within a short walk from Ruth Lake. Sites 11 and 12 are companion sites. Tables and campfire rings with grills are provided, as well as accessible vault toilets and drinking water.
Natural Features
The campground straddles a seasonal creek that empties into Ruth Lake. It is nestled in a mixture of mature Douglas fir, oak, pine and cedar trees at an elevation of about 2,700 feet. The Six Rivers National Forest lies east of Eureka in northwestern California, stretching southward from the Oregon border for about 140 miles. U.S. 101, the famed "Redwood Highway," parallels the inland Forest along the coastline. The Forest is just east of the Redwood National Park.
What the agency tells you
2021 Season will be first come, first serve.
Extra vehicles are $5 per day
Boat inspections for quagga mussels and other aquatic invasive species are required at the marina; an additional fee applies
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Click here for more information about Six Rivers 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 14
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- 7
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…are provided, as well as accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features The campground…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…as well as accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features The campground straddles a…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 41st darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 11
What you actually pay
“Season Dates: 5/21/2021 - 9/13/2021 Daily rate $12/night Extra Vehicle $5/night Fee is due at entrance kiosk Cash or Check made payable to USDA (United States Department of Agriculture).” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($12), 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
14 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 14 mapped sitesAll 14 sites
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 05 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 73 ft | 789 ft | |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 06 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 61 ft | 716 ft | |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 07 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 53 ft | 654 ft | |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 08 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 53 ft | 601 ft | |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 09 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 110 ft | 400 ft |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 10 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 54 ft | 547 ft | |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 11 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | yes | 158 ft | 419 ft |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 12 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 139 ft | 190 ft |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 13 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 73 ft | 294 ft |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 14 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 110 ft | 270 ft |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 15 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 73 ft | 365 ft |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 16 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 117 ft | 524 ft |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 17 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 117 ft | 640 ft | |
| FIR COVE CAMPGROUND | 18 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 107 ft | 804 ft |
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
Forest Glen Guard StationTrinity National Forest · 4.8 miHell Gate CampgroundTrinity National Forest · 5.1 miScott Flat CampgroundTrinity National Forest · 5.2 mi
Mad River CampgroundSix Rivers National Forest · 5.3 miFrom Highway 101
When traveling north on Highway 101, do not turn off at the Zenia Road exit at Garberville. This will result in a 2-hour delay driving on winding back roads. Instead, continue north until you reach the Hwy 36 exit near Fortuna. Head east for approximately an hour until you reach the town of Mad River. After you cross the bridge at the Mad River, look for the Mad River Road turn-off on the right. The sign will say Ruth Lake. Continue for 20 minutes to reach Fir Cove campground.
From Highway 5 Head west on Highway 36 at Red Bluff for 2 hours until you see the sign for Ruth Lake at Mad River Road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ruth, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 75°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 31°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
Fir Cove Campground 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 →