Madrone Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 33 mi
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- A night
- FreeNo camping fee
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Located east of Shasta Lake, these remote campsites offer the perfect spot to relax. Forested and shady, this is a perfect home base for your OHV adventures! Be aware, Fenders Ferry is a rough, unimproved dirt road. There is no lake access from this facility. This campground is very popular in the fall during hunting season. For more information and directions click this link
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and it costs nothing at all. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Moore CreekWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 7.0 mi
Ellery CreekWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 7.7 mi
McCloud BridgeWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 7.9 miPine Point Campground (group/family)Whiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 8.0 mi
Pine Point (Shasta Lake, CA)Whiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 8.0 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Big Bend, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 30°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
Madrone 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.