Sundew Campground (CA)
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 2221 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sundew campground is located at Bucks Lake in the northern Sierra Mountains on the Plumas National Forest. The Bucks Lake area offers year-round recreation activities including fishing, hiking, snowmobiling, skiing,snowshoeing and horseback riding. Keep reading
Recreation
The greater Bucks Lake area provides ample opportunities for fishing, boating, and canoeing. The boat ramp at Shady Point provides a boat dock to launch boats, showers, and day use picnicing. Hiking trails are only a short drive away with trailheads located in the Mill Creek Campground, Mill Creek Trailhead on the way to Bucks Summit, and at Bucks Summit where the PCT or Bucks Creek Loop trail are located.
Facilities
Sundew is nestled within a fir and pine tree forest offering shade during the hot summer days, and cooling things off as night falls. Situated at 5,500 feet in elevation, the campground is located along the western shore of Bucks Lake, thus providing easy access to water recreation activities.
Natural Features
Sundew is nestled within a fir and pine tree forest offering shade during the hot summer days, and cooling things off as night falls. Situated at 5,500 feet in elevation, the campground is located along the western shore of Bucks Lake, thus providing easy access to water recreation activities. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (916) 386-5164.
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. Caution! Bears frequent the area; food must be kept in appropriate containers. Do not 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 may be purchased from a Campground Host. A per Day, per Vehicle fee will be collected onsite for extra vehicles. America the Beautiful, Senior Passes, and Access Passes are accepted for single campsites only. They are not accepted for double or group campsites. Cell phone service is unreliable. American Land & Leisure is the concession operator under agreement with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company who are currently managing most Forest Service campgrounds at Bucks Lake. Check- In is 2:00pm and Check-Out is 11 a.m.
Campground Map
There is no current burn damage at this location.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 22
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:23 UTC
recreation.gov lists 21 of the 22 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $30 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:23 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
22 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 20 mapped sitesAll 22 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 22 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. 21 of the 22 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.
| 000 | type not stated | ||||
| 001 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 163 ft | $30 | |
| 002 | standard nonelectric | 69 ft | 58 ft | $30 | |
| 003 | standard nonelectric | 103 ft | 156 ft | $30 | |
| 004 | standard nonelectric | 69 ft | 51 ft | $30 | |
| 005 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 32 ft | $30 | |
| 006 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 64 ft | $30 | |
| 007 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 108 ft | $30 | |
| 008 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 43 ft | $30 | |
| 009 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 44 ft | $30 | |
| 010 | standard nonelectric | 107 ft | 167 ft | $30 | |
| 011 | standard nonelectric | 107 ft | 194 ft | $30 | |
| 012 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 238 ft | $30 | |
| 013 | standard nonelectric | 87 ft | 84 ft | $30 | |
| 014 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 169 ft | $30 | |
| 015 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 149 ft | $30 | |
| 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 60 ft | $30 | |
| 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 44 ft | $30 | |
| 018 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 64 ft | $30 | |
| 019 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 133 ft | $30 | |
| 020 | standard nonelectric | 127 ft | 102 ft | 3,233 ft | $30 |
| 021 | standard nonelectric | $30 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
Mill Creek Campground (Plumas)Plumas National Forest · 1.2 mi
HutchinsPlumas National Forest · 1.2 mi
Grizzly Creek Campground (CA)Plumas National Forest · 2.3 mi
Whitehorse CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 3.4 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bucks Lake, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 66°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 25°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
Sundew Campground (CA) 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 →