Tuesday Night
60°F
Mostly Clear
Published · National Weather Service forecast
- USFS PUBLIC
- Tent only · Boat-in
Gooseneck Cove Boat-In Campground
Sacramento Arm · Shasta Lake Corridor · 40.82861, -122.42452
Free
Quick specs
Length limit
Not published
Cell signal
No service
Boat launch
No ramp — boat access only, and the ramp you use depends on the lake level. Sugarloaf is nearest at roughly 2.4 miles straight-line and serves low water (two lanes, 71 to 140 ft of drawdown). Antlers is about 4.5 miles and serves high water — the ramp page says four lanes until 75 ft of drawdown, after which launching moves to Sugarloaf. Packers Bay is 5.9 miles and Centimudi 7.8. All $18 per vehicle per day. Antlers has flush toilets and potable water; Sugarloaf has vault toilets, no water and no dawn or dusk lighting.
Shade score
3 / 5
Season
Open year-round
Elevation
1050 ft
- Hookups
- Dry Camping (no hookups)
- Amenities
- Shade canopy, Dog friendly, Vault toilets, Swimming, Fishing, Picnic tables, Fire rings, Food storage required
- Booking
- Not reservable
The facts that decide your trip
- Max rig length
- Not published
- Sites
- 12
- Hookups
- Dry Camping (no hookups)
- Access
- Boat-in
- Nightly rate
- Free
- Season
- Open year-round
- Elevation
- 1050 ft
- Dump station
- No
- Potable water
- No
What is actually on site
- Shade canopy
- Dog friendly
- Vault toilets
- Swimming
- Fishing
- Picnic tables
- Fire rings
- Food storage required
Weather, alerts and fire activity at this campground
Keyed to this campground's own coordinates, not to the lake. Each item carries the timestamp its source published.
Active weather alerts
No active National Weather Service alert covers this campground right now.
Forecast
Wednesday
80°F
Slight Chance Light Rain then Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms
Published · National Weather Service forecast
Wednesday Night
56°F
Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms then Mostly Clear
Published · National Weather Service forecast
Thursday
74°F
Slight Chance Light Rain
Published · National Weather Service forecast
Fire activity within 45 miles
CAL FIRE lists no active incident within 45 miles of this campground.
Fire restrictions
Campfire and stove rules change through the season. Read the current forest order before you pack a fire pan — we link it rather than paraphrase it.
Published · USDA Forest Service, Shasta-Trinity National Forest alerts
Shasta Lake: live conditions
Readings belong to the water body, not to one campground, and each one carries the timestamp its own source published.
Boat ramps
| Ramp | Observed status | Usable above | Calculated from lake level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antlers Public Boat Ramp | unknownobserved | 1017 ft | below its usable floorcalculated from the 984.7 ft lake level read — not an on-site observation |
| Bailey Cove Public Boat Ramp | unknownobserved | 1017 ft | below its usable floorcalculated from the 984.7 ft lake level read — not an on-site observation |
| Centimudi Public Boat Ramp | unknownobserved | 857 ft | usablecalculated from the 984.7 ft lake level read — not an on-site observation |
| Hirz Bay Public Boat Ramp | unknownobserved | 972 ft | usablecalculated from the 984.7 ft lake level read — not an on-site observation |
| Jones Valley Public Boat Ramp | unknownobserved | 857 ft | usablecalculated from the 984.7 ft lake level read — not an on-site observation |
| Packers Bay Public Boat Ramp | unknownobserved | 972 ft | usablecalculated from the 984.7 ft lake level read — not an on-site observation |
| Sugarloaf Public Boat Ramp | unknownobserved | 927 ft | usablecalculated from the 984.7 ft lake level read — not an on-site observation |
See every lake level, ramp and camera on the conditions dashboard
Nearest public camera
Sacramento Hill · I-5 — about 4.2 mi from the campground
Camera operated by Caltrans District 2
Frame refreshes about every 5 min · feed last verified
Useful for road surface, smoke and haze — not for checking your site.
Facility info
| Facility type | Tent only · Boat-in |
|---|---|
| Sites | 12 |
| Max rig | Not published |
| Where to book | Not reservable |
| Rate | Free |
| Season | Open year-round |
Boat launch
No ramp — boat access only, and the ramp you use depends on the lake level. Sugarloaf is nearest at roughly 2.4 miles straight-line and serves low water (two lanes, 71 to 140 ft of drawdown). Antlers is about 4.5 miles and serves high water — the ramp page says four lanes until 75 ft of drawdown, after which launching moves to Sugarloaf. Packers Bay is 5.9 miles and Centimudi 7.8. All $18 per vehicle per day. Antlers has flush toilets and potable water; Sugarloaf has vault toilets, no water and no dawn or dusk lighting.
Twelve boat-in units in a side cove on the upper Sacramento Arm of Shasta Lake, between Elmore Bay and Antlers, reachable only by water. The Forest Service describes it simply as very popular. Vault toilets and picnic tables, plus campfire rings per the Shasta Unit recreation map; no piped water and no trash service, so it is a pack it in, pack it out facility. No fees, no reservations, no Recreation.gov listing. Open 24 hours a day, year-round. It is the most accessible of the lake's four boat-in campgrounds — around 2.4 miles from the Sugarloaf ramp — and the only one on the busiest arm.
Getting there
Boat access only, and which ramp you use is decided by the lake level rather than by preference. Sugarloaf is the closest at roughly 2.4 miles straight-line, and it is the low-water ramp — two lanes serving 71 to 140 feet of drawdown. It has vault toilets, no potable water, and no dawn or dusk lighting, so plan your return in daylight. Antlers is about 4.5 miles and is the high-water ramp: its page says four launching lanes until the lake drawdown reaches 75 feet, after which launching moves to Sugarloaf. Antlers has flush toilets, potable water and a drinking fountain. Both are off I-5 exit 702 and both are $18 per vehicle per day. Two more further out: Packers Bay at about 5.9 miles, off I-5 exit 695 northbound, four lanes to 50 feet of drawdown then two to 115; and Centimudi at about 7.8 miles, off exit 685, which keeps working to 210 feet. Note that the Forest Service's own pages and its ramp handout disagree on several of these drawdown thresholds — the handout gives Antlers 0 to 50 feet where the Antlers page says 75 — so check the ramp page for the one you intend to use. The distances above are our own straight-line calculations from published coordinates. No source publishes a water distance to Gooseneck Cove from any ramp, and the arm is sinuous, so the real run will be longer. Paddling: the Forest Service lists both motorized and non-motorized boating for the site, and 2.4 miles from Sugarloaf is within range. The constraint is not distance but wakes — this is the busiest arm on the lake in summer, and no source quantifies the traffic. Spring and autumn would be a different proposition. Bring everything. No potable water at the campground, and none at Sugarloaf, Packers Bay or Centimudi either — Antlers is the only nearby ramp with a tap. No trash service anywhere; the boating safety map is explicit that garbage is not collected at undeveloped sites including boat-in campgrounds, and that you never leave it at a floating restroom. No bear boxes are documented at any Shasta boat-in, so hang your food ten feet up and five feet out or bring a canister. And an invasive mussel-free certification for the boat.
40.82861, -122.42452 · Driving directions
Local deep dive
Gooseneck Cove is the easy one, and that is both the appeal and the catch. Of the four boat-in campgrounds on Shasta Lake, this is the shortest run from a ramp — roughly 2.4 straight-line miles from Sugarloaf by our own calculation, against five or six miles up the Pit Arm to Arbuckle Flat. It also sits on the arm the Forest Service itself calls the busiest and most developed on the lake, with four public ramps serving it across the full drawdown range. If you want a boat-in campsite without a serious expedition, this is the one. The trade is company. Read the four Forest Service descriptions side by side and a pattern appears. Greens Creek is "popular with those visitors who want to get away from the crowds." Arbuckle Flat is "very popular" with the same crowd-avoiding qualifier. Ski Island is "very popular during the summer months." Gooseneck Cove is simply "very popular" — no qualifier, no season, no suggestion of solitude. It is the only one of the four described that way, on the only arm the Forest Service singles out as busy. Now the number that will confuse you if you go looking. The Forest Service's Recreation Facilities Guide lists Gooseneck Cove at 1,050 feet — below Shasta's spillway crest of 1,067 feet, which would put the campsites underwater at full pool. Do not read it that way. That elevation column carries only six round values across all twenty-one Shasta Lake facilities, and one of them, Beehive Point, is assigned exactly the spillway elevation — it is a lake-referenced approximation, not a survey. Separately, the coordinate the Forest Service publishes for Gooseneck Cove falls inside the reservoir's mapped water surface in the USGS elevation model, meaning it marks the cove rather than the camp. No source anywhere describes this campground flooding, submerging or closing at high water, and the Forest Service lists it open year-round with vault toilets and tables installed. We now show the Forest Service's 1,050 feet rather than leaving the field blank, because it is a published figure and suppressing it was inconsistent with the fifteen other Shasta Lake campgrounds where we show the same guide's numbers. Read it as a lake-referenced band rather than a survey, and do not read it as a campground that floods. What the cove actually looks like, nobody has written down. The only descriptive line in any Forest Service publication is that from Gooseneck Cove north you start seeing red volcanic-looking rocks, called basalt, lining the shoreline. Terrain modelling shows ground rising from the waterline to about 1,200 feet within 200 metres, so this is a steep-sided cove rather than a gentle beach shelf — whatever bench holds the twelve units is a small one. That is derived, not sourced. There are no reviews of this campground. None on The Dyrt, no Campendium listing, nothing on freecampsites, no forum thread, no video, no photograph. Twelve sites and not one published account.
The Sacramento Arm is the front door to Shasta Lake — the Forest Service calls it the busiest and most developed arm, and it is the one Interstate 5 runs alongside. Gooseneck Cove is a side cove on its upper west side, between Elmore Bay and Antlers on the Forest Service's own upstream tour of the lake. Against the other three boat-in campgrounds it is the mid-sized and by far the most reachable: 12 units, against Ski Island's 29, Arbuckle Flat's 11 and Greens Creek's 7. The facilities are identical across all four — vault toilet, picnic tables, campfire rings, no water, no trash, no fee, no reservations, open year-round, and none of them on Recreation.gov. What differs is arm, size and character, and Gooseneck's character is defined by being close to everything. The 2026 fire restrictions order, running July through December 2026, lists Gooseneck in Exhibit A as a developed site where campfires remain permitted — outside listed sites they are prohibited outright. The order also states that a California Campfire Permit does not by itself exempt you from the prohibitions, though permit holders may use a portable gas or pressurized-liquid stove five feet clear of anything flammable, and may have a fire within ten feet of the lake and at least fifty feet from vegetation. Note separately that the Shasta Unit map describes campfire permits as required when using stoves, barbecues or campfires outside a designated campground — and this is a designated campground, so on a plain reading a permit is not required at the site itself. Get one anyway; it is free. On fire history, two recent fires burned near this arm and neither appears to have touched the cove. The 2018 Delta Fire burned 63,311 acres from an ignition about two miles north of Lakehead and crossed I-5 between Lakehead and Castella — roughly seven miles north of here, spreading away from it. The 2021 Salt Fire burned 12,660 acres starting three miles south of Lakehead on the east side of I-5, across the arm. No source names Gooseneck Cove as burned or closed in either. We could not obtain georeferenced fire perimeters, so that is reasoning from narrative geography rather than a map overlay — no source reports damage here, which is not quite the same as confirming there was none. Currently the Forest Service lists the site as open, and no closure order on the forest affects Gooseneck Cove, the Sacramento Arm or any Shasta Lake boat-in campground. Standing orders that do apply: a 30-day annual cap on camping in developed recreation sites, and the mussel prohibition covering Shasta Lake below the high-water mark.
Questions people ask
Which boat ramp do you use for Gooseneck Cove?
It depends on the lake level. Sugarloaf is nearest at roughly 2.4 miles straight-line and is the low-water ramp, two lanes serving 71 to 140 feet of drawdown. Antlers is about 4.5 miles and is the high-water ramp — its page says four lanes until 75 feet of drawdown, after which launching moves to Sugarloaf. Both are off I-5 exit 702 at $18 per vehicle per day. Packers Bay (5.9 mi) and Centimudi (7.8 mi) are the longer options, with Centimudi holding to 210 feet.
How far is Gooseneck Cove from the ramp?
No source publishes a water distance from any ramp — the figures on this page are our own straight-line calculations from published coordinates, and the arm is sinuous so the real run is longer. Sugarloaf is about 2.4 miles, Antlers 4.5, Packers Bay 5.9, Centimudi 7.8. Even so, Gooseneck is comfortably the most accessible of Shasta's four boat-in campgrounds; Arbuckle Flat is five or six miles up the Pit Arm past the last services.
Why does the Forest Service list Gooseneck Cove at 1,050 feet when full pool is 1,067?
It is a lake-referenced approximation, not a flooded campground — and it is genuinely the Forest Service's own published figure, which is why we show it. That elevation column carries only six round values across all twenty-one Shasta Lake facilities, and one of them — Beehive Point, a shoreline dispersed area — is assigned exactly the spillway elevation. It is a lake-referenced approximation rather than a survey. Separately, the coordinate the Forest Service publishes for Gooseneck falls inside the reservoir's mapped water surface in the USGS elevation model, so it marks the cove rather than the camp. No source describes this campground flooding or closing at high water, and it is listed open year-round. We have left our elevation field blank rather than publish a number we cannot stand behind.
Does Gooseneck Cove cost anything?
No. The Forest Service states that no fees are required and the page has no reservations field. It is not on Recreation.gov — worth noting because Recreation.gov does carry non-reservable point-of-interest pages for other Shasta sites, including the Ridgeville boat-in and three public ramps, so its absence here is real rather than a quirk of being unbookable. Your only cost is the $18 daily launch fee at whichever ramp you use.
Is Gooseneck Cove busy?
By the Forest Service's own wording, yes. Read the four boat-in descriptions together and the pattern is clear: Greens Creek is popular with visitors wanting to get away from the crowds, Arbuckle Flat very popular with the same qualifier, Ski Island very popular during the summer months — and Gooseneck Cove is simply very popular, with no qualifier and no season. It is the only one described that way, and it sits on the arm the Forest Service separately calls the busiest and most developed on the lake.
What facilities are at Gooseneck Cove?
Vault toilets and picnic tables per the Forest Service site page, plus campfire rings — the Shasta Unit recreation map states the four boat-only campgrounds have tables, campfire rings and vault toilet facilities. No potable water and no trash service. The boating safety map is explicit that garbage is not collected at undeveloped sites including boat-in campgrounds, and that you should never leave it at a floating restroom. No bear boxes are documented at any Shasta boat-in.
What does the cove actually look like?
Almost nobody has written it down. The only descriptive line in any Forest Service publication is that from Gooseneck Cove north you begin seeing red volcanic-looking rocks, called basalt, along the shoreline. Terrain modelling shows ground rising from the waterline to roughly 1,200 feet within 200 metres, so this is a steep-sided cove rather than a gentle beach shelf — that is derived from elevation data, not from a source, and no source describes shade, beaching or whether the sites sit at the water or above it.
Can you paddle to Gooseneck Cove?
The Forest Service lists both motorized and non-motorized boating for the site, and 2.4 miles from Sugarloaf is well within paddling range. The constraint is not distance but wakes: this is the busiest arm on Shasta Lake in summer, with heavy houseboat and ski-boat traffic, and no source quantifies it. Spring and autumn would be a very different trip from a July weekend.
Is there cell service at Gooseneck Cove?
No reliable data exists. The Dyrt lists no coverage on AT&T or T-Mobile and some Verizon LTE, but that page carries zero reviews so the figures are modelled rather than measured — and they are wildly inconsistent with what the same site reports for Ski Island in comparable terrain, which is itself a reason to distrust both. No Forest Service source addresses it. Assume none in the back of a steep cove.
Was Gooseneck Cove affected by the Delta or Salt fires?
No source says it was. The 2018 Delta Fire burned 63,311 acres from an ignition about two miles north of Lakehead and crossed I-5 between Lakehead and Castella, roughly seven miles north and spreading away. The 2021 Salt Fire burned 12,660 acres starting three miles south of Lakehead on the east side of I-5, across the arm from here. Neither names Gooseneck Cove as burned or closed. We could not obtain georeferenced fire perimeters, so that is narrative geography rather than a map — no reported damage is not quite the same as confirmed none.
Where these facts come from
- Shasta-Trinity National Forest — Gooseneck Cove Boat Campground · checked
- USFS — Recreation Facilities Guide, Shasta-Trinity NF (12 units; the 1,050 ft elevation column) · checked
- USFS — Shasta Unit recreation map (campfire rings, spillway elevation 1,067 ft, campfire permits, bear country) · checked
- USFS — Shasta Lake Boating Safety Map (no garbage collection at boat-in campgrounds) · checked
- USFS — Sightseeing on Shasta Lake (cove location between Elmore Bay and Antlers; basalt shoreline) · checked
- USFS — Boat Ramps at Shasta Lake, drawdown ranges by ramp · checked
- USFS — Antlers Public Boat Ramp, high-water launch · checked
- USFS — Sugarloaf Public Boat Ramp, low-water launch and nearest to the cove · checked
- USFS — 2026 Fire Restrictions Forest Order 14-26-07, Gooseneck named in Exhibit A · checked
- USFS — Forest-wide camping stay limits order 14-25-24 · checked
- USGS 3DEP Elevation Point Query Service — terrain gradient around the cove · checked
- California Data Exchange Center — Shasta Lake elevation, gauge SHA · checked