Oak Bottom Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 25All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND AT WHISKEYTOWN LAKE. FOR THAT SITE NEAR REDDING, CALL 530-359-2269 Open from mid-May through mid-October, this Oak Bottom Campground is on the Salmon River at Somes Bar, California. It is situated on a shaded and gently sloping hillside in the expansive Six Rivers and Klamath National Forests, far from highway noise and city distractions. NEW: Each reservable campsite now has its own bear-resistant food storage locker, as do most of the first-come first-served campsites. Campsite List calendar starts at the next available reservation dates. Keep reading
Recreation
Located near California's Salmon River, the campground is popular with whitewater enthusiasts in the spring. Many challenging rapids ranging from class 3 to 5 are available. Swimming is also popular in the summer and numerous river access areas are a short drive or walk from the campground. In the fall, salmon and steelhead trout fishing in the nearby Klamath River is known to be some of the best in the state.
Facilities
The campground offers 25 single-family sites. Each site is equipped with a bear-resistant food storage locker, picnic table, and fire ring with grill. Some sites have vintage rock stoves as well. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A campground host may be available.
Natural Features
The campground loops around a forested hillside of mixed Douglas fir and hardwood forest at a 700-foot elevation. Large deciduous trees provide ample shading for multiple sites within the campground, and a variety of wildlife makes its home in the area.
Nearby Attractions
The small town of Somes Bar is 2.5 miles from the campground. Propane, groceries, and tackle are available at a general store.
What the agency tells you
There are no electric, water or sewer hookups
Some sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis
Fees will be collected for additional vehicles
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Extra parking is available a short walking distance from the campground
Never leave food items unattended or in your tent or sleeping bag
Please keep all food and toiletries stored in airtight containers
Store food and scented items in your site's bear-resistant food storage locker.
Properly dispose all garbage in provided bear-proof trash and recycling bins
Do not feed the bears
Click here to learn more about the 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
- 25
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 25
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…sites have vintage rock stoves as well. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A campground host…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…rock stoves as well. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A campground host may be available.…”
- Store
- Nearby
- Bear boxes
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 23rd 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.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
25 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 25 mapped sitesAll 25 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 9 of the 25 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. 25 of the 25 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 146 ft | 865 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 79 ft | 873 ft | 3,081 ft | $10 | |
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 23 ft | 79 ft | 933 ft | 3,156 ft | $10 | |
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 76 ft | 1,014 ft | 3,188 ft | $10 | |
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 103 ft | 1,016 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 59 ft | 920 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 59 ft | 965 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 66 ft | 896 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 65 ft | 885 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 65 ft | 825 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 996 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 63 ft | 1,037 ft | $10 | |
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 63 ft | 1,081 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 59 ft | 1,116 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 75 ft | 1,108 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 54 ft | 1,159 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 40 ft | 1,195 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 40 ft | 1,229 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 020 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 80 ft | 1,269 ft | $10 | ||
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 021 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 100 ft | 1,181 ft | 3,272 ft | $10 | |
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 022 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 87 ft | 1,110 ft | 3,154 ft | $10 | |
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 023 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 87 ft | 1,104 ft | 3,077 ft | $10 | |
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 024 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 74 ft | 993 ft | 3,018 ft | $10 | |
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 025 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 66 ft | 950 ft | 3,048 ft | $10 | |
| AREA OAK BOTTOM CAMPGROUND | 026 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 992 ft | 3,114 ft | $10 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Pearch Creek CampgroundSix Rivers National Forest · 5.9 mi
Nordheimer Group SitesKlamath National Forest · 7.1 miNordheimer Main CampgroundKlamath National Forest · 7.2 miRed Bank CampgroundKlamath National Forest · 13 miHotelling CampgroundKlamath National Forest · 13 mi
Dillon Creek CampgroundKlamath National Forest · 14 miFrom Highway 96, take Salmon River Road/Forest Highway 93 for 2.3 miles to Oak Bottom Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Weitchpec, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 71°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 37°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
Oak Bottom 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.