Mill Creek Campground (Plumas)
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 1110 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Mill Creek campground is located at Bucks Lake in the northern Sierra Mountains on the Plumas National Forest. The Bucks Lake area offers year-round recreation activities including fishing, hiking, snowmobiling, skiing,snowshoeing and horseback riding. Keep reading
Recreation
The greater Bucks Lake area provides ample recreation opportunities for fishing, boating and hiking. The boat ramp at Shady Point provides several activies: a boat dock to launch boats, showers, and day use picnicking. In addition to the hiking trail that starts in the north part of the Mill Creek Campground, several trails are only a short drive away. Bucks Summit is a great way to access the PCT or the Bucks Summit Loop Trail.
Facilities
There are 11 total campsites suitable for RV and tent camping, standard non-electric sites. Each site has a fire ring, picnic table and food storage lockers. There are vault toilets and drinking water is available.
Natural Features
Situated at 5,500 feet in elevation, this 11 site campground is settled along Bucks Lake providing easy access to water activites. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (916) 386-5164.
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. Caution! Bears frequent the area; food must be kept in appropriate containers. Firewood bundles may be purchased from a Campground Host. A per Day, per Vehicle fee will be collected onsite for extra vehicles. America the Beautiful, Senior Passes, and Access Passes are accepted for single campsites only. They are not accepted for double or group campsites. Cell phone service is unreliable American Land & Leisure is the concession operator working for PG&E to service the campgrounds, boat ramps and day use areas that are owned by the USDA Forest Service. Check- In is 2:00pm and Check-Out 11 a.m.
American Land & Leisure is the concession operators working for PG&E to service the campgrounds, boat ramps and day use areas that are owned by the USDA Forest Service.
recinfo@pge.com is PG&E's email to inquire about camping
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Campground Site Map
There is moderate burn damage at this location.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and food storage lockers. There are vault toilets and drinking water is available. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…lockers. There are vault toilets and drinking water is available. Natural Features Situated at 5,500…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Bear boxes
- Yes
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:23 UTC
recreation.gov lists 10 of the 11 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $30 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 15:23 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
11 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 10 mapped sitesAll 11 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 11 of the 11 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 10 of the 11 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.
| 001 | type not stated | under 10 ft | 2,097 ft | ||
| 002 | standard nonelectric | 120 ft | under 10 ft | 2,137 ft | $30 |
| 003 | standard nonelectric | 120 ft | under 10 ft | 2,250 ft | $30 |
| 004 | standard nonelectric | 73 ft | under 10 ft | 2,623 ft | $30 |
| 005 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | under 10 ft | 2,696 ft | $30 |
| 006 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 11 ft | 2,722 ft | $30 |
| 007 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | under 10 ft | 2,753 ft | $30 |
| 008 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 16 ft | 2,816 ft | $30 |
| 009 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | under 10 ft | 2,892 ft | $30 |
| 010 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 70 ft | 2,885 ft | $30 |
| 011 | standard nonelectric | 106 ft | 158 ft | 2,812 ft | $30 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
Sundew Campground (CA)Plumas National Forest · 1.2 miBucks Lake Recreation AreaPlumas National Forest · 1.6 miLower Bucks CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 1.6 mi
HutchinsPlumas National Forest · 2.2 miRock Creek Campground (CA)Plumas National Forest · 2.9 mi
Whitehorse CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 3.1 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bucks Lake, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 66°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 25°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
Mill Creek Campground (Plumas) 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 →