Post Creek Guard Station
1Heads up1 fire 35 mi away
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 25 of the next 26 nights read 16:38 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Post Creek Guard Station was built in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps for use as a wildfire lookout. It is now available for recreational use. This historic guard station is eligible for inclusion to the National Register of Historic Places. Guests can drive to Post Creek Guard Station, though much of the trip is on gravel Forest roads, depending upon which route is chosen. This charming cabin offers beautiful views of the nearby mountains and forest. Some amenities are provided, but guests will have to bring supplies and gear. Post Creek Guard Station offers the chance to relish the peace and quiet in a beautiful, secluded location. Keep reading
Recreation
Post Creek Guard Station is an ideal location to relax and enjoy the view. Guests who want to do something a bit more active can find hiking and other recreational activities in the nearby wilderness. On hot days guests can take a dip in the swimming hole at Post Creek, located a quarter mile from the guard station.
Facilities
This 19x30 cabin accommodates up to four people comfortably and has two rooms. The kitchen is equipped with a table and chairs and is fully stocked with pots, pans, dishes, and utensils. There are two-barrel chairs and a coffee table in the living area. Sleeping accommodations include a queen bed, a twin bed, and a futon bed on which guests can pullout and sleeping bags can be placed on the floor to accommodate a total of six people in the cabin. There is a flushing toilet and water for dishes inside the cabin. A fire pit and picnic table are located outside. The cabin does not have electricity, heat, a stove or refrigerator. Guests should bring their own potable water for drinking, cooking and washing; all linens including sheets, blankets, sleeping bags and/or blankets, and pillows; kitchen linens; and a camp cook stove with fuel. The use of portable stoves using gas, jellied petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel are allowed outside with a valid California Campfire Permit.
Natural Features
The guard station is located in the Hayfork area of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest on a ridgeline above Beegum Gorge. Beegum Creek, which is just to the north of the cabin, is a major waterway in this area. The Yolla Bolly Mountains in the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness are to the south.
Nearby Attractions
Guests may wish to explore the many hiking trails and mountain lakes in the nearby Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness or dip in the cold water at Beegum Creek.
What the agency tells you
Please call the Weaverville Ranger Station at (530) 623-2121to confirm lock combination 4 days prior to arrival.
Guests should bring their own water for drinking, cooking and washing; there is no water inside or outside the cabin. Guests should be their own camp cooking stove. We are in the process of getting the required permits to install a permanent cooktop for guests, but it is not ready for use at this time.
Post Creek Lookout is very remote with no cell phone service. Visitors should be familiar with directions and carry a Shasta-Trinity National Forest map with them. Do not rely on GPS devices as they are not accurate. Please call the ranger station for more information.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
NO SMOKING INSIDE LOOKOUT. All smoking must be done outside of the building; during extreme fire conditions, smoking must be done within enclosed vehicles.
Please keep lookout clean. Due to the remote location we are not able to service the lookout between every guest.
Guests should fuel up and purchase any needed food, water, and other supplies (including wood) on the way to the cabin as accessibility to stores and fuel is severely limited nearby the cabin. If coming from the east, supplies can be purchased in Red Bluff or the Redding area; if coming from the west, supplies can be purchased at Fortuna.
A California campfire permit can be obtained at any Forest Service or California Department of Forestry Office or online at California Campfire Permit.
Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to hantavirus when visiting remote buildings like this lookout.
Click here for more information 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.
The cabin may be closed at any time due to inclement weather; likewise, inclement weather may cause the cabin to open later and/or close earlier than the noted season dates.
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
- Flush Toilets
- “…of six people in the cabin. There is a flushing toilet and water for dishes inside the cabin. A fire pit…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Guests should bring their own potable water for drinking, cooking and washing; all linens including sheets, blankets, sleeping bags and/or blankets, and pillows; kitchen linens; and a camp cook stove with fuel.”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Backpacking
- Fire Lookouts/Cabins Overnight
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Swimming
- Wilderness access
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:38 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Wed, Oct 21. read 16:38 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 16:38 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
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.
| AREA POST CREEK GUARD STATION | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 3,663 ft | $75 |
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
From I-5, take California State Highway 36 West. From US-101 take California State Highway 36 East. Once on CA-36, there are two options. Option 1 is a bit longer but the majority of the trip is on paved Forest roads. Option 2 is shorter, but all of the trip is on gravel Forest roads. Call the Ranger Station before you go for more information on road conditions. DO NOT rely on any sort of GPS devices or online mapping programs to get you to Post Creek Guard Station. They are not accurate and may get you lost. There is no cell service at the cabin or on the roads leading to it. Make sure you have accurate directions before leaving home.
Option 1 - From CA-36, turn south (left if coming from the east; right if coming from the west) onto Forest Road 30 (29N30), also known as Wild Mad Road. Follow Forest Road 30 until it intersects with Forest Road 35 at Pine Root Saddle (approximately 8 miles). Turn left on Forest Road 35. Continue on Forest Road 35 until it intersects with Forest Road 28N10 (approximately 11 miles; if you get to Stuart Gap, you have gone just slightly too far). All roads are paved until this point where the roads become gravel. Turn left on Forest Road 28N10. Go less than a mile and turn right on Forest Road 28N36 - watch carefully for this junction and do not miss it! Continue on Forest Road 28N36 for approximately 4 miles). You will drive through private property and then over Post Creek about 1/4 mile from the cabin. Turn south at the green gate which states "Road Closed". Open gate, and drive through to the cabin.
Option 2 - From CA-36, turn south (left if coming from the east; right if coming from the west) onto Forest Road 45 (29N45), also known as Tedoc Road. This is a gravel road. Continue to the intersection with Forest Road 28N36 (approximately 12.5 miles). At the intersection of the 27N13, 28N05, and 29N45 roads, be sure to verr to the right to stay on the 29N45 road. Turn right on 28N36 and follow it until you see the green gate on the right (not quite 2 miles. Turn right at the green gate which states "Road Closed". Open gate, and drive through to the cabin.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Platina, 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
Post Creek 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 Post Creek Guard Station, Trinity National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Post Creek Guard Station, Trinity National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Post Creek 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Post Creek Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Post Creek 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 Post Creek Guard Station (Trinity 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 Post Creek Guard Station, Trinity National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Post Creek Guard Station, Trinity National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Post Creek 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Post Creek Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Post Creek 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 Post Creek Guard Station (Trinity National Forest, California) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Inside the McFarland Fire perimeter, 2021, 122,448 acres. Tree cover here read 50% in the 2021 product and 30% in the 2024 one.