Sierra
1Heads up1 fire 41 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 16All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sierra Campground is located on the north bank of the North Yuba River between Sierra City and Yuba Pass. Visitors enjoy a wide variety of recreational activities in the area, including hiking, hunting, fishing, canoeing and gold panning. Keep reading
Recreation
A large network of trails is available in the area, including the Pacific Crest Trail. Boating, fishing, and swimming are available at nearby Sardine Lakes, about 5 miles from the campground. Sardine Lakes Resort offers boat rentals.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family tent-only sites. Each site has a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets are provided.
Natural Features
The campground is situated between the highway and the creek-sized North Yuba River in a forest of mature fir trees. Many sites overlook the river. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (530) 265-4531.
Nearby Attractions
Lakes Basin offers many opportunities for boating, fishing, swimming, and hiking. Sardine Lakes Resort offers boat rentals, lodging, and a restaurant. Anglers will find rainbow and brook trout in many of the lakes, streams, and rivers throughout the basin. A developed boat ramp is located at Gold Lake and accomodates launching of larger boats. Over 30 miles of maintained trails for hiking, mountain biking, and motorcycle singletrack branch out across the area and the Pacific Crest Trail can be accessed at a few spots in the Lakes Basin area. The historic towns of Sierra City and Downieville offer historic and cultural attractions, restaurants, shops, churches, and vistor information.
Charges & Cancellations
No Show Policy A no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date (or for day-use facilities, by check-in time the day of arrival). * No-show customers are only recorded at staffed facilities. At most remote facilities, all customers are noted as automatically checked-in on the date of arrival. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold group day-use facilities until check-in time on the arrival date. There is no change fee if a customer extends or shortens a reservation if the change includes dates from the original reservation. If they choose to depart early, they may forfeit some or all of the recreation fees. There is no change fee if the customer changes campsites that are the same price and on the same reservation dates in the same campground. If the campsite the customer is changing to has a price difference, the customer will be responsible for any additional fees or be provided with a refund, based on the price difference. Where recorded, no-show customers are assessed a $20.00 no-show fee and forfeit the first night's recreation fee for a campsite or forfeit the entire day-use recreation fee for a day-use facility. We recommend customers contact the facility if they are en route to their reservation but cannot make it by the check-in date. In these cases, no refund will be issued, but the facility can ensure that a "no-show" fee is not assessed.
What the agency tells you
In accordance with standard industry practices, we will be assessing a $5 additional vehicle fee on the 'second vehicle' in each single family campsite, and on the 'third and fourth vehicle' in any double family campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the first vehicle by a hitch and towed onto the site. In the case of motorcycles, the first two are considered to be one vehicle and the third and fourth are also considered to be one vehicle. No additional vehicle fees are collected for bicycles.
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers
RVs are not recommended because there is limited turnaround space
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Utility hookups and showers are not available
Click here for more information on the Tahoe National Forest
Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed. For current fire conditions or weather closures contact the Yuba River Ranger District (530) 288-3231(voice), (530) 288-3656 (TDD).
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.
No Show Policy A no-show customer is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date (or for day-use facilities, by check-in time the day of arrival). * No-show customers are only recorded at staffed facilities. At most remote facilities, all customers are noted as automatically checked-in on the date of arrival. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. * It is recommended that staffed facilities hold group day-use facilities until check-in time on the arrival date. There is no change fee if a customer extends or shortens a reservation if the change includes dates from the original reservation. If they choose to depart early, they may forfeit some or all of the recreation fees. There is no change fee if the customer changes campsites that are the same price and on the same reservation dates in the same campground. If the campsite the customer is changing to has a price difference, the customer will be responsible for any additional fees or be provided with a refund, based on the price difference. Where recorded, no-show customers are assessed a $20.00 no-show fee and forfeit the first night's recreation fee for a campsite or forfeit the entire day-use recreation fee for a day-use facility. We recommend customers contact the facility if they are en route to their reservation but cannot make it by the check-in date. In these cases, no refund will be issued, but the facility can ensure that a "no-show" fee is not assessed.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 16 · 16 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 80 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…has a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets are provided. Natural Features The campground is…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Gold Panning
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Scenic drives
- Water access
- Night sky · 528th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 10
What you actually pay
“In accordance with standard industry practices, we will be assessing a $5 additional vehicle fee on the 'second vehicle' in each single family campsite, and on the 'third and fourth vehicle' in any double family camps…” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
“Where recorded, no-show customers are assessed a $20.00 no-show fee and forfeit the first night's recreation fee for a campsite or forfeit the entire day-use recreation fee for a day-use facility.” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
16 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 16 sites
| AREA SIERRA | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 80 ft | 51 ft | 121 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 51 ft | 72 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 38 ft | 68 ft | 49 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 16 ft | 61 ft | 70 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 47 ft | 144 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 47 ft | 166 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 55 ft | 99 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 55 ft | 83 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 63 ft | 97 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 54 ft | 92 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 011 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 53 ft | 178 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 33 ft | 54 ft | 82 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 33 ft | 53 ft | 149 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 54 ft | 119 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 35 ft | 63 ft | 55 ft |
| AREA SIERRA | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 54 ft | 92 ft |
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
ChapmanTahoe National Forest · 0.7 miChapman Creek CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 0.8 mi
Salmon CreekTahoe National Forest · 3.0 miSardine CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 3.2 mi
Sardine LakeTahoe National Forest · 3.3 mi
Yuba Pass CampgroundTahoe National Forest · 3.8 miFrom Sierra City travel north on Highway 49, for about 7 miles the campground is on the right side of the road.
From Sierraville travel south on Highway 49, for 15 miles the campground is on the left side of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sierra City, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 66°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
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
Sierra is in California’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Kevin Kiley (I), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →