Mary Smith Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $30–$135Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2018 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Mary Smith Campground is located off County Road 105, two miles north of the town of Lewiston, CA. This campground offers excellent fishing and tent camping. This campground was picked as one of California's prettiest lake campgrounds in Sunset Magazine. Many of the sites have shore access to Lewiston Lake. Keep reading
Recreation
The area offers excellent opportunities for fishing, kayaking, hiking and wildlife viewing. Pine Cove boat ramp is within four miles, and Fairview launching area on Trinity Lake is nine miles north. Motorized boats are limited to ten miles per hour. Rainbow trout are abundant, and brown and brook trout are common. This is a good lake for a float tube and excellent fly fishing. The area offers wonderful wildlife viewing opportunities.
Facilities
There are six Glamping unit sites all with on-site fire pits and picnic tables. The sites offer fair to outstanding privacy. There are both flush and vault toilets, and drinking water is provided. With the exception of the large cluster of sites at the campground entrance (Glamping camping site #'s 2, 3, 4, 5a, 5b, and 9 ADA compliant), the remaining sites are arranged in small groups. No trailers are allowed and there are no parking spurs. Glamping Camping Unit & Site Amenities: Inside: over-sized queen beds with feather down comforters and pillows (linen service provided), two bed-side nightstands, over-sized rugs and a boot bench. Outside: front deck equipped with two armchairs and coffee table, fire pit and picnic table.
Natural Features
The campsites are tucked into a mixed forest of conifer and deciduous trees, surrounded by abundant wildflowers. Every site offers a view of Lewiston Lake and the surrounding Trinity Alps. Lewiston Lake is about five miles long, about 70 feet deep, and sits at an elevation of 1,902 feet. It is a favorite among anglers and paddlers.
What the agency tells you
This is a tent only campground; no trailers are allowed
There is a $12 day use fee charge at both Pine Cove and Fairview boat ramps
Extra vehicle fee is $12 per night
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Lewiston Lake offers annual boat launch passes
Learn more 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.
Glamping Units: Check-in time 3 P.M. and Check-out 12 P.M.
Campsites: Check-in time 3 P.M. and Check-out 2 P.M.
Dogs are not allowed in the Glamping units, but can be in a kennel on the porch.
This campground has smaller tent sites which approximately will only allow 1-2 3 person tents.
Inside Glamping Tents: over-sized queen beds with feather down comforters and pillows (linen service provided), two bed-side nightstands, over-sized rugs and a boot bench. The occupancy inside the unit is 3, but you can put up a tent to allow for additional camping space.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 20 · 12 tent-only, 6 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…privacy. There are both flush and vault toilets, and drinking water is provided. With the exception…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are both flush and vault toilets, and drinking water is provided. With the exception of the large…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 18 of the 20 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 27
What you actually pay
“Extra vehicle fee is $12 per night” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $30–$135 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
20 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 20 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. 14 of the 20 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 01 | tent only nonelectric | 269 ft | 364 ft | $30–$135 | |
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 06 | tent only nonelectric | 42 ft | under 10 ft | $30–$135 | |
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 07 | tent only nonelectric | 41 ft | 42 ft | $30–$135 | |
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 08 | tent only nonelectric | 62 ft | 88 ft | $30–$135 | |
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 10 | tent only nonelectric | 38 ft | 198 ft | $30–$135 | |
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 11 | tent only nonelectric | 38 ft | 187 ft | $30–$135 | |
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 12 | tent only nonelectric | 41 ft | 181 ft | $30–$135 | |
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 13 | tent only nonelectric | 41 ft | 176 ft | $30–$135 | |
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 14 | tent only nonelectric | 60 ft | 172 ft | $30–$135 | |
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 15 | tent only nonelectric | $30–$135 | |||
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 16 | tent only nonelectric | 50 ft | 60 ft | $30–$135 | |
| MARY SMITH CAMPGROUND | 17 | tent only nonelectric | 50 ft | 74 ft | $30–$135 | |
| S&P | Glamping S&P | type not stated | $30–$135 | |||
| S&P | Single S&P | type not stated | $30–$135 | |||
| Tent Glamping Units | 02 | yurt | 64 ft | 124 ft | ||
| Tent Glamping Units | 03 | yurt | 56 ft | 100 ft | ||
| Tent Glamping Units | 04 | yurt | 49 ft | 106 ft | ||
| Tent Glamping Units | 05a | yurt | 42 ft | 37 ft | ||
| Tent Glamping Units | 05b | yurt | 49 ft | 108 ft | ||
| Tent Glamping Units | 09 | yurt | yes | 41 ft | 25 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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cooper Gulch CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 1.1 miTunnel Rock CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 3.3 mi
Ackerman CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 4.2 mi
East Weaver Group CampgroundTrinity National Forest · 6.7 miSteel BridgeRedding Field Office · 6.8 miTannery Gulch CampgroundWhiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area · 7.5 miFrom Weaverville: Take Highway 3 north for 7 miles. Turn right on Rush Creek Road for 9 miles. Turn left on Trinity Dam Blvd for 3/4 mile. Turn right on Lewiston Vista/Mary Smith exit. Campground is 1/4 mile from exit on County Road 105, 2 miles north of Lewiston.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lewiston, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 76°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 32°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
Mary Smith 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 →