Patrick Creek Campground
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 21 mi
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:56 UTC
- A night
- $14When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 13In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Patrick Creek Campground sits at the confluence of Patrick Creek and the middle fork of Smith River in the vast Six Rivers National Forest of northern California. The campground has a special charm, with steps, rock walls, restrooms and sunken campfire circles built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Keep reading
Recreation
Popular activities include swimming, sunbathing, rafting and fishing in the Smith River, which is just adjacent to the campground. Anglers can expect healthy fishing populations of salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout. Visitors also enjoy hiking, horseback riding and biking in the area. There are no trailheads in the campground, but Elk Camp Ridge, High Dome and French Hill trailheads are all within 10 miles of the site.
Facilities
The campground offers multiple single-family accessible campsites, available for tent and RV camping. Tables and campfire rings with grills are provided. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are also available.
Natural Features
Patrick Creek is located in a mature forest of Douglas firs in the northernmost part of California. A popular historic lodge and restaurant lie just across the highway from the campground. 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.
What the agency tells you
Additional fees will be collected at the campground for more than one vehicle; A limit of one extra vehicle is allowed
There are no electricity, water or sewer hookups at the campground
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
- 13
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…with grills are provided. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are also available. Natural…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…provided. Accessible flush toilets and drinking water are also available. Natural Features Patrick Creek…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Swimming
- Night sky · 179th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 2
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:56 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
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.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 10
What you actually pay
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Patrick Creek Campground closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Jedediah Smith Campground - Jedediah Smith Redwoods State ParkRedwood National and State Parks · 13 mi · walk-up · 86 sites
- Gold Bluffs Beach Campground - Prairie Creek Redwoods State ParkRedwood National and State Parks · 36 mi · walk-up · 26 sites
- Harr Point CampgroundRogue River National Forest · 39 mi · walk-up
- Acorn Woman Lakes CampgroundRogue River National Forest · 44 mi
recreation.gov availability, read 15:56 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 12 mapped sitesAll 13 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 12 of the 13 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. 13 of the 13 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| PATR | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 175 ft | 324 ft | 243 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 129 ft | 282 ft | 402 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 003 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 78 ft | 266 ft | 593 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 004 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 67 ft | 203 ft | 743 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 143 ft | 182 ft | 986 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 27 ft | 167 ft | 846 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 007 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 27 ft | 141 ft | 844 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 67 ft | 136 ft | 749 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 75 ft | 153 ft | 627 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 49 ft | 197 ft | 560 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 45 ft | 176 ft | 516 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 012 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 45 ft | 220 ft | 509 ft | $14 |
| PATR | 013 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $14 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Panther Flat CampgroundSmith River National Recreation Area · 4.8 mi
Bear Basin Lookout and CabinSmith River National Recreation Area · 7.0 miNorth Fork CampgroundSmith River National Recreation Area · 9.4 mi
Big Flat CampgroundSmith River National Recreation Area · 13 mi
Jedediah Smith Campground - Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park13 miFrom Highway 101, north of Crescent City, California, travel east on Highway 199 for 22 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Gasquet, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 39°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Patrick Creek 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 →