Spring Creek
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $38From, per site
- Sites
- 5034 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Spring Creek Campground (5,800 feet) is just minutes away from the clear waters of the Frenchman Lake. The landscape provides a magnificent backdrop for a variety of recreational activities. The campground offers 35 camp sites with 12 sites available for reservation. Keep reading
Recreation
During summer, the campground offers a variety of outdoor experiences including hiking, biking, picnicking and hunting. The nearby lake provides ample opportunities for swimming, boating, water skiing and jet skiing. The expansive road system in Plumas National Forest is a great location for exploration and sightseeing.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family campsites for tent and RV camping, including one accessible site (#23). The campground has paved roads and paved parking pads. Host, water and garbage service are provided during peak camping season. Two group campsites are available. All campsites are equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Bear resistant lockers are not provided. Campground host, paved roads Vault toilets and drinking water are provided.
Natural Features
This campground is at the interface between mountains and high desert and between the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges. Ancient lava that flowed across the land has been eroded by creeks forming interesting landscapes. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 836-2575.
Nearby Attractions
Little Last Chance Canyon Scenic Area Sierra Valley - Largest valley in the Sierra Nevada Stores and services in the towns of Chilcoot and Loyalton
What the agency tells you
Generally, campsites will accommodate 2 vehicles. The first vehicle is included in the site fee, the second vehicle fee will be collected onsite at the daily rate posted on the fee sign.
Electric hookups are not available.
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers.
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Click here to learn more about the Plumas National Forest
A variety of wildlife live in this area, including black bears. Before making a reservation, become aware of bear safety.
Please go to the following link for more information:http://www.centerforwildlifeinformation.org/BeBearAware/Hiking_and_Camping/hiking_and_camping.html
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.
Firewood Bundles are available for purchased from the campground host. Firewood collection is allowed.
Off road vehicles are not allowed on campground road
Bear resistant lockers have been installed for the 2024 season
Check- In is 2:00pm and Check-Out is Noon
Campground Map
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 50
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 1 ft
- Paved pads
- 35 of 50
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…provided. Campground host, paved roads Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…host, paved roads Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features This campground is…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 642nd darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 34 of the 50 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $38 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
56 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 34 mapped sitesAll 56 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 30 of the 56 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. 50 of the 56 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 001 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 110 ft | 257 ft | 2,568 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 002 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 50 ft | 152 ft | 2,550 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 003 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 50 ft | 124 ft | 2,594 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 004 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 109 ft | 216 ft | 2,681 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 005 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 81 ft | 115 ft | 2,705 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 006 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 81 ft | 102 ft | 2,778 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 007 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 92 ft | 311 ft | 2,856 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 008 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 78 ft | 369 ft | 2,900 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 009 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 78 ft | 299 ft | 2,950 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 010 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 89 ft | 319 ft | 3,019 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 011 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 80 ft | 405 ft | 2,978 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 012 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 69 ft | 408 ft | 3,037 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 013 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 69 ft | 356 ft | 3,102 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 014 | type not stated | 1 ft | 322 ft | 3,215 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 015 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 37 ft | 161 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 016 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 71 ft | 232 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 017 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 103 ft | 198 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 018 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 72 ft | 267 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 019 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 56 ft | 339 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 020 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 56 ft | 350 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 021 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 56 ft | 406 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 022 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 56 ft | 446 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 023 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | yes | 50 ft | 403 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 024 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 50 ft | 402 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 025 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 57 ft | 347 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 026 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 47 ft | 286 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 027 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 47 ft | 246 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 028 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 48 ft | 205 ft | 3,224 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 029 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 37 ft | 135 ft | $38 | ||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 030 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 45 ft | 111 ft | 3,268 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 031 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 48 ft | 159 ft | 3,226 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 032 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 99 ft | 127 ft | 3,106 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 033 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 99 ft | 206 ft | 3,054 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 034 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 98 ft | 178 ft | 2,956 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 035 | standard nonelectric | 1 ft | 98 ft | 116 ft | 2,920 ft | $38 | |
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 1 | type not stated | 257 ft | 2,568 ft | $38 | |||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 11 | type not stated | 405 ft | 2,978 ft | $38 | |||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 12 | type not stated | 408 ft | 3,037 ft | $38 | |||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 13 | type not stated | 356 ft | 3,102 ft | $38 | |||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 15 | type not stated | 281 ft | $38 | ||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 16 | type not stated | 349 ft | $38 | ||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 17 | type not stated | 256 ft | $38 | ||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 18 | type not stated | 278 ft | $38 | ||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 19 | type not stated | 363 ft | $38 | ||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 2 | type not stated | 152 ft | 2,550 ft | $38 | |||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 20 | type not stated | 415 ft | $38 | ||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 3 | type not stated | 124 ft | 2,594 ft | $38 | |||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 4 | type not stated | 216 ft | 2,681 ft | $38 | |||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 5 | type not stated | 115 ft | 2,705 ft | $38 | |||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | 6 | type not stated | 102 ft | 2,778 ft | $38 | |||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | XXX | unnamed record | 1 ft | $38 | ||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | XXX10 | unnamed record | $38 | |||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | XXX14 | unnamed record | $38 | |||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | XXX7 | unnamed record | $38 | |||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | XXX8 | unnamed record | $38 | |||||
| AREA SPRING CREEK | XXX9 | unnamed record | $38 |
The agency files 6 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It types every one of them MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 56 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Big Cove (Plumas National Forest, CA)Plumas National Forest · 0.5 mi
FrenchmanPlumas National Forest · 0.6 miBig Cove CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 0.6 miBig Cove OverflowPlumas National Forest · 0.7 miCottonwood Springs CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 2.0 mi
ChilcootPlumas National Forest · 2.2 miFrom Reno, travel north on Highway 395. Turn west on Highway 70 and travel 5 miles to Chilcoot. Turn north on Highway 284, travel 8 miles to the Frenchman Lake Reservoir, turn right, cross the dam, and travel 2 miles to the Spring Creek Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Chilcoot-Vinton, 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
Spring Creek 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 →