Horse Camp Primitive Campground
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- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
This campground is located in the southeast corner of Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, 15 miles west of Redding, California, and three and a half hours north of Sacramento. This is the only campground in the park that can accommodate camping with horses, but horseback riders must share the campground with visitors who may not have horses. The cool, clear waters of Whiskeytown Lake provide endless water activities. The picturesque mountain setting and extensive forested backcountry offer ample opportunities for horseback riding, hiking and biking. Keep reading
Recreation
During the summer heat, swimming, kayaking, sailing, paddle boarding and water skiing are popular on the 3,200 acre lake. Year round, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, gold panning, fishing and picnicking attract visitors. Hunting is allowed in the appropriate season.
Facilities
Horse Camp can accommodate any vehicle or combination of vehicles, including trailers, RVs and RVs pulling other vehicles. Overflow parking is available. Each campsite is equipped with two picnic tables, two large bear-resistant storage lockers, a metal fire pit with a swing-arm barbecue grill and a lamp pole. The two campsites share a vault toilet. A hand pump provides potable water when available. There is no electricity at the site. There are no corrals, hitching posts or troughs at the site. Horses must be high-lined or tethered to trailer.
Natural Features
Whiskeytown National Recreation Area is located where the Klamath Mountains, Cascade and Coast Mountain Ranges, and the Sacramento Valley meet, creating a wide variety of wildlife and landscapes. Foothill pines lightly shade Horse Camp. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 246-1225.
Nearby Attractions
Brandy Creek Beach is located five and a half miles from the campground and features sandy beaches, a large swimming area, picnicking and barbecuing facilities. From Memorial Day through Labor Day, there are showers, a store with food and supplies and rentals of paddle boards and kayaks.
What the agency tells you
Download your proof of payment for your campsite from recreation.gov onto your phone or other device. You must be able to show this to a park ranger if requested.
Entrance Pass Required - Whiskeytown is a National Park Service site and requires a vehicle entrance fee. You can purchase an entrance pass at the visitor center, or online by using your smart phone, tablet, or computer by going to the website. www.Recreation.Gov. If you already have a valid Interagency Annual, Senior, Access, Military, or Whiskeytown Annual pass, please display this pass in a hangtag or place it on the dashboard of your vehicle. Annual passes from Crater Lake National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park and Lava Beds National Monument are also valid here at Whiskeytown.
Check-in time is 1:00 p.m. and check-out time is 12 p.m. (noon).
Everything else this campground posts · 11
Maximum occupancy is 10 people and 3 vehicles.
Horse Camp may accommodate any vehicle or combination of vehicles, including trailers, RVs, and RVs pulling other vehicles.
Quiet hours are between 10 pm and 6 am.
Black bears frequent the area: all food, beverage containers, toiletries, cooking and eating utensils must be stored inside a bear-resistant locker or out of sight in your vehicle unless they are in immediate use.
Protect our natural resources. Gather only dead and down wood for firewood. Do not put nails in trees or damage or remove vegetation. Campfires must be attended at all times and completely extinguished (using water and dirt) when going to bed or leaving the campsite.
Pets must be kept on a leash or in a crate at all times. Pets may not be left unattended. Dispose of pet waste in trash cans.
Please be advised that because the Carr Fire of 2018 burned extensively through the park, post-fire hazards such as falling trees and branches remain. Stay alert while camping in Whiskeytown National Recreation Area.
You may stay a total of 14 days from May 15 through September 15 or a total of 30 days for the entire calendar year.
Click here for more information about Whiskeytown National Recreation Area www.nps.gov/whis
There is a 3 tent maximum per site for this campground.
Camping is limited to an aggregate of 14 days between April 1 and October 31 (inclusive) and no more than 30 days per person per calendar year. No period of stay of 30 days may be succeeded by any period of stay with less than a 7-day break. The 14 day between April 1 and October 31 is necessary to provide more equitable access to campsites. The maximum 30 window between November 1 and March 30 is necessary to prevent individuals from residing within Whiskeytown
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 30 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach, Coast
- Gold Panning
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Night sky · 983rd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:55 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 2 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 2 are free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:55 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
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 16:55 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites · the site map
All 2 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. 2 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Brandy Creek Primitive CampgroundWhiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 3.2 mi
Brandy Creek RVWhiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 3.6 mi
Sheep Camp Primitive CampgroundWhiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 3.7 mi
DRY CREEK GROUP CAMPGROUND (Whiskeytown NRA)Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 4.3 mi
Crystal Creek Primitive CampgroundWhiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 8.6 miFrom Interstate 5 in Redding, CA, drive 10 miles west on Highway 299. Turn left on Kennedy Memorial Drive at the visitor center and follow it for 1.6 miles until you reach a fork in the road at the dam. Turn left on Paige Bar Road and drive for two miles until you reach another fork in the road at the NEED Camp. Turn left onto the gravel road and proceed .5 miles to Horse Camp.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Shasta, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 52°F, day 78°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 39°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 · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Horse Camp Primitive 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 · 3
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.
- The office that runs itWhiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation AreaNational Park Service unit
- 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 the National Park Service to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up, and to post what that share is.
Subject Hold back a share of sites at Horse Camp Primitive Campground for campers who drive up
To the National Park Service, Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area: I tried to camp at Horse Camp Primitive Campground in California and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Horse Camp Primitive Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Horse Camp Primitive Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m asking for one specific thing: set aside a published share of the sites at Horse Camp Primitive Campground as first-come, first-served, and post what that share is so it can be checked. Somebody who drives up has no way in, and no way to find out whether they might have had one. Sent about Horse Camp Primitive Campground (Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, 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 Horse Camp Primitive Campground, Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Horse Camp Primitive Campground, Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, California, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Horse Camp Primitive Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Horse Camp Primitive Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Horse Camp Primitive Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park 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 Horse Camp Primitive Campground (Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, 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 Horse Camp Primitive Campground, Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Horse Camp Primitive Campground, Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, California, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Horse Camp Primitive Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 2 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Horse Camp Primitive Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Horse Camp Primitive Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park 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 Horse Camp Primitive Campground (Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, California) via campanac.com