Patterson Guard Station
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 3 of the next 3 nights read 15:33 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Overview *Altitude is 7,080 feet above sea level* Set on the edge of a meadow surrounded by Aspen, Fir and Pine trees, Patterson Guard Station has stood since 1921. It served the Modoc National Forest as a fully staffed fire office and guard station until 1981. Just a few footsteps from the Summit Trail and one-quarter mile from the wilderness boundary, Patterson Guard Station can be your basecamp for trips into the South Warner Wilderness or the perfect place to disconnect and relax. The cabin only has one set of bunkbeds (two mattresses). Keep reading
There is a large turn-around parking area directly adjacent to the cabin which can accommodate camper trailers, smaller RVs and gooseneck horse trailers. No hook-ups . If your party exceeds 8 persons, the adjacent Patterson Campground offers 6 developed campsites for $15/night. Click here to view the full reservation calander and additional details not included on this page.
Recreation
Hiking & Horseback Riding The nearby trails within the South Warner Wilderness offer wild landscapes and solitude for hikers and horseback riders. The Wilderness Act of 1964 prohibits the use of motorized and/or mechanized equipment within the Wilderness area (limited exceptions are provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act). South Warner WIlderness maps are advised and always available at the Modoc National Forest Supervisor's Office in Alturas, Calif. Maps may also be available at the Likely General Store in Likely, Calif. Off-Highway Vehicles Many of the roads near Patterson Guard Station, outside of the wilderness area, are open to Off-Highway Vehicles. Motor Vehicle Use Maps are available online and at the Modoc National Forest Supervisor's Office in Alturas, Calif. Boating Blue Lake, 9 miles west, features a boat ramp and dock for motorized and non-motorized watercraft. Help keep this lake clean by following the California Invasive Species Prevention Program Please respect the 10 mph speed limit on the lake. If speed-boating is your thing, consider launching your boat at West Valley Reservoir instead.
Facilities
Patterson Guard Station was restored in 2022 thanks to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The guard station is currently equiped with one bunk bed (two matresses). There will also be two chairs that each convert to a single bed. Pots and pans will be provided. Pets are allowed. The guard station features a new refrigerator and oven/range fueled by propane (provided). New floors and a wood-burning stove (firewood provided) make this facility almost as cozy as your own home. Potable water is not available on-site. Non-potable water may be available but visitors should bring all the water needed for drinking and washing. An outhouse stands roughly 100 feet from the front door, across the driveway. Entering this facility requires walking up at least two stairs to enter the back door, three stairs up to the front porch and door. As your reservation approaches, you will be instructed on how to obtain codes/keys to the entry gate and guard station doors. THINGS YOU MUST BRING WITH YOU: DRINKING WATER AND WATER FOR WASHING BATTERY POWERED LANTERNS AND LIGHTS FOR INDOOR USE BUG SPRAY AND FIRST AID KITS BEDDING (SLEEPING BAGS, BLANKETS, SHEETS, PILLOWS) Check-in is 2pm and check-out is 11am. Maximum occupancy is listed at eight (8) but when it comes to sleeping arrangments, the guard station will only accomdate four (4) persons.
Natural Features
The Warner Mountains form a prominent Northwestern boundary of the basin and range geologic province that envelops the entire state of Nevada. This range was once a sedimentary basin between volcanoes of the ancestral Cascade Range until the Warners went through their own phases of active volcanism between ~28 million years ago until as recently as 2 to 3 million years ago. Dramatic uplift on the eastern side of this range provides breathtaking views, best seen from Surprise Valley, east of the Warners. South-facing slopes in the Warner Mountains are often dry and host Lodgepole and Ponderosa Pine, Juniper trees and Sagebrush. North facing slopes are wetter and host Fir trees. Aspen trees are found along streams and boggy areas beside Corn Lillies that can grow up to 5 feet tall before drying up by mid-summer.
Nearby Attractions
Blue Lake, 9 miles West, offers a boat ramp and dock with a kayak launcher, fishing platform, day use area with grills and picnic tables and a developed campground with 40+ developed campsites at $15/night. Cedarville, California, is a historic western town offering restuarants, a grocery store, and shopping oppourtunities. 31 miles North along County Road 1. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (530) 233-5811.
What the agency tells you
This facility is located in a remote area far from any services; before arriving for your reservation, become familiar with the nearest services (i.e., hospitals and gas stations) and seek local weather predictions from the National Weather Service, especially if visiting during the Spring or Fall.
This is a remote location. Access to the cabin is variable and the road is not maintained for winter use
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Picnicking
- Stargazing
Full this Saturdayread 15:33 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on the one midweek night after it that the agency has released as well. read 15:33 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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
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 15:33 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Patterson Guard Station | Patterson Guard Station | cabin nonelectric | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Blue Lake Campground Group Site - Modoc NF (CA)Modoc National Forest · 6.1 miMill Creek Falls CampgroundModoc National Forest · 7.5 mi
Dodge Reservoir CampgroundEagle Lake Field Office · 16 miPepperdine CampgroundModoc National Forest · 18 miFrom Alturas, California, travel South on U.S. Highway 395 for 18 miles to the town of Likely and Turn left (East) onto County Rd 64. Continue for 9 miles toward Jess Valley and stay right at the fork toward Blue Lake (Blue Lake Road), this road is not maintained for winter travel. The pavement ends in approximately 6.5 miles, and the road becomes Forest Road 39N01 (South Warner Road). Continue 7.5 miles and turn left (North) at the sign for Patterson Campground (Forest Road 39N28), stay left to reach Patterson Guard Station.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Eagleville, CA
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
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
Patterson Guard Station 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.
Who can change it · 2
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAdam B. SchiffU.S. Senator · California
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlex PadillaU.S. Senator · California
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Patterson Guard Station, Modoc National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Patterson Guard Station, Modoc National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Patterson Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Patterson Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Patterson Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Patterson Guard Station (Modoc National Forest, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Patterson Guard Station, Modoc National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Patterson Guard Station, Modoc National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Patterson Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Patterson Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Patterson Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Patterson Guard Station (Modoc National Forest, California) via campanac.com