Lightning Tree
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $38–$71Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 39All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lightning Tree Campground (5,800 feet) is one of three family-friendly campgrounds located in the Lake Davis Recreation Area. The lake was formed by damming Grizzly Creek in 1967. The purpose of the lake was to provide water for the town of Portola, improve area fishing and provide recreation opportunities. The 32 miles of shoreline has several boat launch facilities and fishing access points. Lightning Tree Campground is a great place to serve as hub for family fun and recreation. At the end of the day return to this home away from home to relax around the campfire. Keep reading
Recreation
In addition to camping, the area offers a wide variety of popular water-related activities, including fishing, boating and swimming. Numerous fishing access points are located around the perimeter of the lake and anglers will find rainbow and brown trout, bass and catfish. A boat ramp is located nearby. Mountain biking, hiking, hunting and wildlife viewing are also available in the area. During winter months, visitors enjoy ice fishing, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing.
Facilities
The campground offers more than three dozen single and double capacity campsites, available for tent and RV camping. Some accessible campsites are available. Most sites are available on a first come basis and the rest are open for reservation up to six months in advance. Coin-operated showers are available 4 miles away at Grasshopper Flat Campground.
Natural Features
Lake Davis is situated in the hills north of the town of Portola in the Plumas National Forest. Smith Peak State Game Refuge to the south and west of the lake is a great place for bird watching, nature viewing, photography and exploring. Large sheep herding ranches used this area before the dam was build. Today, cattle trek across the rangeland meadows. Get a panoramic view of Lake Davis, Sierra Valley and peaks of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges from Smith Peak Fire Lookout. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 836-2575.
Nearby Attractions
Restaraunts, stores and services are available in Portola, CA Visit the largest railroad museum in the Western United States located in Portola. The old Basque style sheepherder bread oven at Jenkins Point has been restored Visit Smith Peak Fire Lookout
What the agency tells you
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.
Some sites are available on a first-come, first serve basis.
Bears frequent the area; practice safe food storage techniques. Bear resistant lockers are not provided. Click here for more information.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Frequent strong winds can cause the lake to become very hazardous for small craft.
Water skiing and jet skiing are not permitted on the lake.
Click here for more information on the Plumas 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.
Of road vehicles are not allowed on any campground roads.
Check- In is 2:00pm and Check-Out is Noon
Campground Map
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 39
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- 11 of 39
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach, Meadow
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Night sky · 412th 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $38–$71 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 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 39 mapped sitesAll 40 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 39 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 LIGHTNING TREE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 1,077 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 002 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 1,086 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 003 | standard nonelectric | 115 ft | 972 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 004 | standard nonelectric | 123 ft | 859 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 005 | standard nonelectric | yes | 40 ft | 739 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 719 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 109 ft | 659 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 008 | standard nonelectric | 109 ft | 550 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 009 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 103 ft | 495 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 103 ft | 547 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 011 | standard nonelectric | 111 ft | 669 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 012 | standard nonelectric | yes | 111 ft | 774 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 013 | standard nonelectric | 131 ft | 881 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 014 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 78 ft | 886 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 015 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 78 ft | 923 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 016 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 1,051 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 017 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 78 ft | 1,119 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 018 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 109 ft | 1,050 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 019 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 1,182 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 020 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 102 ft | 1,228 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 021 | standard nonelectric | 98 ft | 1,534 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 023 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 117 ft | 1,439 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 024 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 147 ft | 1,312 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 025 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 130 ft | 1,351 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 026 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 107 ft | 1,288 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 027 | standard nonelectric | yes | 98 ft | 1,435 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 028 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 107 ft | 1,370 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 029 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 115 ft | 1,444 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 030 | standard nonelectric | 96 ft | 1,519 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 031 | standard nonelectric | yes | 72 ft | 1,530 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 032 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 1,573 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 033 | standard nonelectric | 114 ft | 1,615 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 034 | standard nonelectric | 89 ft | 1,720 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 035 | standard nonelectric | 89 ft | 1,641 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 036 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 1,755 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 037 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 91 ft | 1,671 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 038 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 108 ft | 1,792 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 039 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 97 ft | 1,740 ft | $38–$71 | |
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | 040 | standard nonelectric | 97 ft | 1,653 ft | $38–$71 | ||
| AREA LIGHTNING TREE | XXX5 | unnamed record | 45 ft | 783 ft | $38 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It types it MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
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
Where it is
Grasshopper FlatPlumas National Forest · 3.0 mi
GrizzlyPlumas National Forest · 3.3 mi
Crocker Guard StationPlumas National Forest · 5.1 miCrocker CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 5.3 miFrom Reno, travel north on Highway 395 to Highway 70 and turn west to Portola. From Portola, take County Road 126 north for 7 miles, then County Road 112 to the east side of Lake Davis. Continue approximately 5 miles to the campground, which is on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Beckwourth, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 66°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Lightning Tree 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 →