Best Tent Camping near Caribou-Targhee National Forest

This is a small (less than 25 sites) campground in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest near the Snake River. The river is an attraction for fishermen.

Given the name, there must be a waterfall, right? Yes, if you come toward the campground from Rt 26, the waterfall is on your left just after the pavement ends. The waterfall is worth a stop on your way to or from the campground; the campground is about a mile past the falls.

This is a typical Forest Service campground with plenty of space between large sites. There are vault toilets, water spigots and a trash dumpster. You can use the dump station at the Palisades Reservoir during and at the end of your stay without paying $5 if you show a receipt validated by the campground host.

Double sites have 2 picnic tables and you must pay a double fee ($24) even if it's the last site in the campground. There is no discount for NPS Senior Pass holders for a double site. (This is standard at Forest Service campgrounds. Remember, hosts don't make the rules.)

Bringing an ATV? You can't ride one in the campground, but there is an ATV parking area.

Beautiful campground set high up in the Caribou National Forest. The campground is around 13 miles up a mountain from Pocatello- it took us roughly 30 minutes driving up curvy mountain roads to get up to the top. Be advised, our gps tried to route us off a dirt road half way up, but you just stay on the paved road all the way up. We got site 20, I’m not sure which loop, as the loops were kind of hard to determine. It was next to bathrooms and across from water and a group campsite which looked like it’d be awesome if you were in a group (site 19.) Beautiful in the pines and furs. You can’t see from the road but many of the tent pads are behind the tables and fire rings. The tent pads aren’t huge- Our tent pad wasn’t big enough for our 6 person REI tent so we pitched right behind our car on the parking pad, which was considerably larger. We were only staying for one night on a Thursday and it was very quiet with only a handful of other campers, but I saw reserve tags on most camp sites in our loop for the weekend. No showers, vault toilets. Drinking water. We tent camp so I didn’t see if there were any electric sites, ours was not. We saw cows, moose, birds and deer on the mountain. Wish we could have stayed an extra night to hike around the area.

Unfortunately it was raining the whole night we showed up. However there was a covered pavilion, with a fridge, and 2 walls. We were able to stay dry under the pavilion and cook our food on the stove we bought. We were tent camping which offers plenty of picnic tables and nice green grass. There are plenty of areas from for RV camping along with hookups. There's also a boat ramp.

Now the bad, as we were getting ready to go to bed, the sprinklers came on. Thankfully we had springbar tents that were able to take the rain as well as the sprinklers. We tried waking the camp host to turn them off. Didn't work. We just waited it out and we were fine.

The campsite firepits, and pavillions with fridges, basketball courts, a boat doc, and bathrooms (clean, with no nasty smell, and hand blower dryers).

This was our first attempt to find a place to land in the Idaho Falls Area. Located about 10 miles south of Idaho Falls, it is a relatively new 12-unit RV Park (although they list prices for tent sites). When we arrived, there were two open spots but no apparent host or staff on-site. Sites are close to each other in typical RV Park fashion. There were some nice shade trees but they really did not provide much privacy/ separation between sites. The office was closed and you needed a code to access the restroom which we could see no way of obtaining. There were only large RVs camped there even though there are supposedly tent sites (without a code to the bathroom and nowhere that I could see to pitch a tent, I don’t see tenters staying there). There was some road noise and a chain link fence surrounded the campground. Nothing scenic about it. We moved on.

Found this spot recently that had full hookups on most sites. Located just above a lake. They have bathrooms with showers. Loop A is reservations only loops B and C are first come first serve. Loop A has a mixture of 30 and a few 50 amp spots with sewer and water. Water pressure is good around 60 PSI. Site 10 & 12 are no hookups. Looks B and C are all full hookups with 30 & 50 AMP the host tells me. Lots of green grass and shade in most sites. The best part is the $25 a night with full hookups. No WIFI but good service with Verizon even 5G at times. Highly recommend this park!

Nice little gem of a bare bones city camp site next to Snake River. No hook ups. There is a dump site, fresh water and toilets. There is a small boat launch. A few back in sites but mostly just pull next to the side sites with picknick table and fire pit. 16 campsites. Some tent campers. No reservations, just first come first serve. No wifi. AT&T was LTE with 2 and sometimes 3 bars. Train tracks nearby with loud train noise twice during the night. Because it is a city open park there are people occasionally driving through. No security but there is a camp host. As of Sept 2024 the price is$18 per night.

We just discovered this campground because we drove by it. I have no idea why it never comes up when you do a Google search for campgrounds near Rexburg. We are so glad we found it. It's by far the most beautiful RV campground in the whole area. Each spot has a concrete pad, a fire ring and a picnic table. It has water and electric but no sewer or dump station. However, Lakeside RV a block away has a dump station for $5 and there is a Sinclair nearby that also has a dump station for $5 and they refill propane tanks and I hear they have the best prices around. It's 10 minutes south of Rexburg. You can stay as long as you want but you can only book for 6 nights in a row in one spot. Then you can book another 6 nights at a different spot. We stayed for 11 nights. They have pit toilets that are surprisingly clean and don't smell, but no shower or laundry. We stayed in sites 8 and 12 and both were wonderful with shade trees and a beautiful view. I loved waking up in the morning to see a beautiful lake out my bedroom window. The lake is actually an aquafer (underground spring) so it's super clear and clean unlike most lakes. One side of the lake has a beach and my kids and I swam in the lake and they especially loved the big slide in the middle of the lake. We floated with tubes and noodles. They have kayaks and paddleboats to rent for $15 an hour. There is a walking path around the campground and a lovely little river that travels alongside the walking path. Each year in September they have Buddies Not Bullies event on the beach. We happened to be her for the event. They had lots of old cars and cool cars and you can vote on your favorites. My boys loved the burnout contest. They had music, a free bounce house for kids, food trucks, free HotWheels for kids, and the radio station was here.  My kids thought it was fun. The campground closes for the winter in October but they leave the walking trail open. $30 a night was cheaper than any other place around and this campground is far more beautiful than any other one in the area. Definitely will be back.

By the time we arrived here, I was feeling a bit like Goldilocks, but we had pretty much decided we would stay unless it was truly horrible, which it was not. There are two entrances to the park; if approaching from the south, go to the second entrance, which is the main entrance. Although it is close to the Snake River, I do not know what the appeal would be to stay more than one night which is what we were doing while en-route to Grand Teton NP. Primitive campground (no water) with 31 sites, no reservations but no problem on a Sunday night in July. Each driveway is gravel; site T27 could accommodate an RV much larger than our 17-foot van. Large metal picnic table situated on a concrete pad, a garbage can, and a fire pit completed the site. Some of the sites were close together with no privacy to separate them; fortunately, there were many vacant spots so this was not an issue. Lots of road noise but there were sites tucked further back that would likely be quieter. Pit toilets only and they were reasonable. Hand sanitizer dispensers were a good idea but every single one was empty. Overflowing dumpster, due likely to the holiday weekend (we were there on Sunday after the 4th). Grass and weeds were a bit overgrown in the sites but not too terrible. Lots of cottonwood trees that were shedding their “snow” all around; thankfully we don’t have allergies. Interesting (and antiquated) payment system. Cash or check only. If paying cash, you must fold each individual bill into a tiny rectangle and then push it through the slot with the metal pusher that was attached. Might be fun for a kid to do! The price of$10 was just about right for this place.