U.S. Forest Service · Modoc National Forest · CA

Schonchin Springs Campground

First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Right now
Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
A night
$10From, per site
Drawn from the record · 6,720 ft · 46% tree cover · Little Medicine Lake within reach · Bortle 2 sky
6,720 ftElevation
1,576 ftWater · Little Medicine Lake
38 miSE of Keno, OR
46%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 32nd darkest of 1,201 in CA

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

This little campground is approximately 1 mile from the Headquarters Campground and gets most of its use when the four other Medicine Lake Campgrounds are full. If you are looking for close proximity to the lake but would prefer a quiet, more secluded environment, try Schonchin Springs Campground. Map of the campground

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Lake
Source: Stated in the agency description

Nothing to book, just show up

One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and a night costs $10 with nothing added. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.

recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
A night$10Per site, fromthe agency’s fee record
A weekend$20DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 5

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night, from$10
Single campsite per night .$10
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
One night, fromDerived$10
A weekend, Friday and Saturday, fromDerived$20

Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($10), and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.

How we know this receipt · 5
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate

The weather

the next four days

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight34°Mostly Clear
Saturday63°Sunny
Saturday Night30°Mostly Clear
Sunday58°Sunny

NWS forecast for Tennant, CA

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Mt. Hoffman802 acres · 2 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Mt. Hoffman9,780 acres · 5 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Burnt Lava Flow8,387 acres · 8 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Schonchin Springs 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.

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service’s own recreation database flags it not open and publishes no reason and no date. That’s a flag, not a notice.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Tennant, CA, 15 mi E (a census designated place). Straight line.