Iron Mountain Campground — Mary Minerva McCroskey State Park

We drove in from the Washington side on a narrow unimproved road but only met one vehicle. Our views were into undulating hills of the Palouse farming region of Washington. We camped at the first campground in this Idaho state park close to the Washington border called Iron Mountain. There were two sites with a vault toilet. We chose site number two but both were very spacious. The road was right by our site but only one vehicle drove by, a dirt bike. It was so quiet there. You could see into both the forested hills of Idaho and the Palouse of Washington.

It was rough roads getting here and the terrain is fairly void of trees.

My car got scraped up a bit as it sits a bit low to justify coming back to this area.

Once I got up there I really enjoyed the views but it was hot and hard to find cool shady areas to cool off.

Instead of coming during the hottest time of year, I plan to come back during winter when I get a new truck this year and try out some free winter camping.

I was tantalizingly close to having cell service but none of my texts went through even though I had one bar of service on and off.

My campsite did have a table and a rock built fire circle that was on the smaller side.

We saw a moose in the distance which was very exciting and a bit scary, but it never came over to bother us.

There are a handful of spots, but they're all really exposed and you have no real privacy. There's one pit toilet at the very top, and sites scattered around the top of the mountain. I didn't end up sleeping there because it was too noisy from dirt bike traffic, I parked off the road further down where it was more quiet. The dirt bike noise should be considered if you're planning on staying there. But hey, it's free.