Mad River Campground
1Heads up1 fire 47 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 35All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Mad River Campground is located on banks of its namesake river, about two miles south of Ruth Lake in the thickly forested mountains of northern California. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing is a popular activity and anglers can expect to catch a variety of trout in the Mad River. Nearby Ruth Lake is open for boating, swimming and other water-related activities. A marina and boat ramp are available for easy lake access, and maps and directions to the marina are located on the information boards in the campground.
Facilities
The campground offers multiple single-family campsites, available for tent and RV camping. Some sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. A majority of the sites are adjacent to the Mad River. Tables and campfire rings are available at each site. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are also provided.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on a bluff overlooking the river among a forested area of oak trees and evergreen shrubs. Portions of the campground are capped with tall Douglas fir trees, providing ample shade. 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.
Nearby Attractions
The 13,800-acre Ruth Lake is about three miles south of the campground.
What the agency tells you
First come, first serve
Watch for poison oak
Boat inspections for quagga mussels and other aquatic invasive species are required at the Ruth Lake 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
- 35
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- 7
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…are available at each site. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are also provided. Natural…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…each site. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are also provided. Natural Features The campground…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Hiking
- Night sky · 45th 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
35 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 35 mapped sitesAll 35 sites
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.
| Loop A | 09 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 73 ft | 208 ft | |
| Loop A | 10 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 73 ft | 191 ft | |
| Loop A | 11 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 130 ft | 282 ft | |
| Loop A | 12 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 84 ft | 259 ft | |
| Loop A | 13 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 84 ft | 279 ft | |
| Loop A | 14 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 93 ft | 260 ft | |
| Loop A | 15 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 31 ft | 296 ft |
| Loop A | 16 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 31 ft | 280 ft | |
| Loop A | 17 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 75 ft | 364 ft | |
| Loop A | 18 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 63 ft | 392 ft |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 06 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 45 ft | 107 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 07 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 45 ft | 151 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 08 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 66 ft | 140 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 19 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | yes | 63 ft | 446 ft |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 20 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 104 ft | 526 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 21 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 86 ft | 545 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 22 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 86 ft | 462 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 23 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 80 ft | 499 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 24 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 75 ft | 451 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 25 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 75 ft | 520 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 26 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | yes | 66 ft | 122 ft |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 27 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 121 ft | 94 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 28 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | yes | 73 ft | 154 ft |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 29 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 73 ft | 86 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 30 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 70 ft | 164 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 31 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 70 ft | 95 ft |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 32 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 87 ft | 202 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 33 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 87 ft | 140 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 34 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 72 ft | 150 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 35 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 95 ft | 81 ft |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 36 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 72 ft | 84 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 37 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 85 ft | 161 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 38 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 36 ft | 278 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 39 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 84 ft | 216 ft | |
| MAD RIVER CAMPGROUND | 40 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 36 ft | 314 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.
25 of 35 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Fir Cove CampgroundSix Rivers National Forest · 5.3 miBailey Canyon CampgroundSix Rivers National Forest · 5.6 miForest Glen CampgroundTrinity National Forest · 7.6 mi
Forest Glen Guard StationTrinity National Forest · 8.3 miHell Gate CampgroundTrinity National Forest · 8.4 miScott Flat CampgroundTrinity National Forest · 8.7 miWhen traveling north on Hwy 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. Turn right, heading 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 10 minutes to reach the Mad River Campground.
If traveling on Interstate 5, turn at Hwy 36 at Red Bluff and head west 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 Mad River, 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
Mad River 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 →