Hirz Bay Group 1
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1 – September 30Open April 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Hirz Bay Group 1 Campground sits on the McCloud Arm of Shasta Lake in a forest of oak and Manzanita. A variety of recreational activities are offered here, including a nearby boat ramp for water sports and a hiking trail. This camp is ideal for groups of up to 120 people. Keep reading
Recreation
The nearest boat launch is about 1 mile away at Hirz Bay. Hikers can access the 2-mile Hirz Bay Trail near the campground. Resorts on the lake have watercraft rentals and marinas with fuel. Popular water activities include power and non-motorized boating, fishing and water skiing. Lake Shasta offers excellent fishing for trout, catfish, Chinook salmon, crappie, bluegill, white sturgeon, brown bullhead and bass.
Facilities
The camp offers a picnic area, 2 large pedestal grills, 1 large fire ring, 2 large sinks with faucets and a paved parking lot with 21 spaces. The parking area is separate from the camping area. Vault toilets are provided.
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. Lake Shasta sits at an elevation of 1,067 feet, with 365 miles of shoreline punctuated by steep mountains blanketed in manzanita and evergreens. A snow-capped Mount Shasta, the second-tallest mountain in the Cascade Range, looms in the distance.
Nearby Attractions
Lake Shasta Caverns are also located on the McCloud Arm of Shasta Lake in an area know as the Grey Rocks. Tours are given daily at this privately owned facility. The nearby Hirz Mountain Lookout offers panoramic views of Mt. Shasta, Mt. Lassen and the surrounding area at an elevation of 3,500 feet.
What the agency tells you
Hirz Bay Group 1 Camp has a maximum capacity of 120 people
Reservation holders must contact Shasta Recreation Office at least 1 week prior to arrival for a combination code to access campground; failure to do so could lead toa locked facility without access for a night or longer and no refund
Average maximum trailer size is 30 feet
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Bears frequent the area; Keep food in bear-proof containers
Poison oak is abundant in the area
There is a $16 daily fee for the use of the Hirz Bay boat launch
Click here for further information on this campground
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.
Check-in time 3 P.M. and Check-out time 12 P.M.
No Amplified Sound!
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…area is separate from the camping area. Vault toilets are provided. Natural Features Shasta-Trinity is…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
- Night sky · 547th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
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.
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 · 25
What you actually pay
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
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.
| AREA HIRZ BAY GROUP 1 | 001 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 361 ft | $170 |
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
Where it is
Hirz BayWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 0.0 mi
Hirz Bay Group 2Whiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 0.0 mi
Dekkas RockWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 1.0 mi
Hirz CabinWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 1.0 mi
Moore CreekWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 2.2 mi
Hirz Mountain Lookout3.3 mi250 miles north of San Francisco. Take I-5 through Sacramento and Redding. Go 25 miles north of Redding and cross Shasta Lake. Remain on I-5 to Gilman Road. From the north, take Salt Creek exit to Gilman Road. Take Gilman Road east 11 miles to entrance of Hirz Bay on right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lakehead, CA
Typical weather
Typical April night 48°F, day 70°F.
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
Hirz Bay Group 1 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.