The best camping near
City of Rocks National Reserve, IDAHO

Beautiful sites with many areas to rock climb. Pit houses don’t stink too bad. Good tent sites.

This was a really really small camping area that's located along the creek road going through the south hills of Idaho.  There are absolutely no amenities here however so take care of business at one of the more developed campgrounds along the road!  It had wonderful shade everywhere but there wasn't any flat ground to be able to lay out a tent.  There were also only 2 maybe 3 campgrounds if you squeezed it in and it required a high clearance vehicle to get to 2 of them.  Good thing is if you get these sites you will have no one around you and personal access to a great hiking trail and in the winter snowshoeing back country skiing trail!

This is another great campsite on the road that heads up to Lake Cleveland and Mt Harrison.  It lies just before the turnoff to descend down to Lake Cleveland and is a great option just in case all the sites at Lake Cleveland are taken.  This should only happen on holidays and weekends though.  The campground itself is pretty primitive with the only amenity being a vault toilet and some scattered corrals.  A large open area is where most of the RV's camp and if you drive along the outskirts of the trees you'll be able to find excellent tent campsites nestled within the trees.  Definitely one of the best sites for lounging around in a hammock all day!

This is one of the last campgrounds you come across before arriving at the turnoff for Lake Cleveland.  It has a ton a ton of spots but they are pretty close together so try to camp here during the weekday or if you have to come here on a weekend go to the campground immediately before Lake Cleveland as it is a little more secluded and the sites are more spaced out.  If you're planning on having a large get together or party in the mountains then this is the best campground to come to!

Each campsite has a minimum of a metal fire ring and BBQ grill, picnic tables and some even have a large metal BBQ pit thing.  The large sites also have massive fire rings where you could basically get a bonfire going!  There are trash cans and vault toilets scattered throughout the campground.  The only problem I had with the campground is that there isn't a map and the roads through it are narrow and confusing.  Other than that this is an amazing spot to spend the weekend or a few days during the week

This is a no frills campground located in the South Hills of Idaho about 20 miles south of Twin Falls.  Each site has its own fire ring and picnic table with most also giving you a shady spot to set up a tent if you want.  There is only 1 vault toilet though near the info sign.  The campsites are all lined up in a row next to the creek and trees.  There are not many sites so get here early if you plan on coming during the weekend.  It also seems like you could just park your RV in the giant dirt area to the east of the creek.  This area will be hot in the morning and shady in the afternoon as there are no shade trees to the east of the campsites.  A bonus of staying at this campground is that you have walking access to the Third Fork Trailhead!

A great campground in the South Hills of Idaho that feels like an oasis in the desert!  This is one of a few developed campgrounds that you encounter as you head up Rock Creek Rd.  Like the other sites in the canyon there are metal camp fire ring, picnic tables, and vault toilets.  There are not very many sites, around 5, so don't plan on getting a spot if you arrive after 3 on Friday through the weekend.  Any time during the week you should be fine to get a spot as I visited on a Wednesday around 6 and only saw 1 occupied site.  The fee per night is $5 and there is a wonderful stream right next to almost every campsite that you can fish in and hang your hammock over.  The creek was also low enough to cool off in the waters safely, even with smaller children.  Last thing I noticed was a ton of basalt cliffs and cracks that I'm pretty sure haven't been developed for climbing, so if anyone is feeling super ambitious, let me know and we can develop it together!

This is definitely the smallest campground that I encountered while traveling through the South Hills of Idaho that are about a half hour away from Twin Falls.  There were only 2 sites that I could find while driving along this narrow stretch of the river, but they were definitely some of the best sites in the canyon!  Each of the 2 sites had metal fire rings and picnic tables and a vault toilet right at the split between the 2 campsites.  Another bonus was the seclusion you get from the other campground but unfortunately not the road, which isn't too big of a problem as the traffic is pretty light in the canyon during the week.  At the campsite further to the south there were 2 little rocks pools that people had made in the stream that were perfect for cooling off in after a long hot day of hiking around in the hills.  There were also dozens of trout swimming in and around these pools that would make it super easy to fish from a chair within site of your campfire!

This campground is situated around Lake Cleveland as well but sits on the west side as the name implies.  You might think the campgrounds are similar but the west side is where you go if you want to get away from the RV's and trailers as the road is a good bit rougher going to the other side.  There are fewer sites on this side of the lake as a result, but they have all the same amenities as the east side.  The bonus is having less neighbors and just as many fish!  If you continue up the road that the lake road splits off of you'll eventually arrive at Mt. Harrison which will give you great 360 views!

Driving up to Lake Cleveland I realized that this was the same road we traveled in the winter to get to one of our local ski mountains.  I had never been up here in the summer so I never thought that the road went any further.  So, if you're passing by in the winter time definitely make a stop by Pommerelle and ski some turns!

As soon as you start to level out on the one lane road that leads to the lake you'll be able to see a board and a campsite on your left.  This is the first site for the east side and was one of our favorite sites that we encountered exploring the canyon.  At each of the sites there were metal fire rings with BBQ grills attached and picnic tables.  There were also a few vault toilets scattered around between the sites.  The lake itself was very beautiful and had crystal clear water!  We could see fish swimming among the rocks from 20' above on the road!  Walking down to the lake there were even more trout than we had initially seen, so it would be a shame not to bring a pole up here!

My wife and I lived here in an old RV for a year while we were working in the area. It's a pretty clean place, mostly residents but there were usually a few open RV sites as well as a few tent spaces. It is right on the highway, from our spot I could've thrown a rock and hit traffic on the I-84. The owners are nice and live on-site. They have a little gift shop that also has a salon in it. Not a bad place, not a great place, but good for what we needed it for.