Best Cabin Camping near City of Rocks National Reserve

The relationship between City of Rocks National Preserve and Castle Rocks State Park is still not clear to me as this campground appears on the National Park Service website, although it is an Idaho State Park. That said, the park rangers seem to work cooperatively. This campground is delightful. Located about a 7-mile drive/walk to the entrance of City of Rocks, Smoky Mountain Campground is situated above the valley providing a wonderful view from many sites including space #19 where I parked my campervan.  I believe the walking distance to the reserve could be shorter by taking any of the hiking trails from the campgrounds rather than going along the paved roads which first go away from the City of Rocks then back up again, making a big "U". 

During my one-night stay in February, water, showers and bathrooms in the campground were closed for the winter season. A very clean, pit toilet is located in the equestrian parking lot across from the campground entrance. The distance from the campsites to the bathroom will vary from quite close to about 1/4 mile max. And during the winter season, there won't be much competition for the spaces close to the bathroom, as I was the sole user during my time there. 

In addition to the breathtaking views, the sites offer privacy from 3 sides though all face the loop access road. There are picnic tables, fire rings and electrical power. I did not note if water was available as it would have been shut off in February in any event.  There is a dump station about 1 mile down the road toward the exit. I do not know if it is open in the winter.

Check-in during the off-season is accomplished by envelope collected at the entrance or directly to the ranger who came by in the morning to check-in. The rate was $27 per night. Definitely worth the money to stay in this tranquil campground so close to the magnificent City of Rocks.

My daughter and son-in-law were visiting from out of state and wanted to go camping and bring the boats. We chose Lake Walcott mostly because of the campsites that were right on the lake. There is a dock although we didn't use it as we had the canoes and kayaks with us which we were able to just tie up at the campsite. The toilets were within walking distance and was clean and stocked. I noticed there were rental cabins as well but we were in tents. The only downside was a very rowdy group of teenagers that decided to camp right next door to us. Great lake for the boats. We had a blast!

Smoky Mountain campground is very close to the entrance of City of Rocks NR and just slightly further is Castle Rocks SP, however, the grounds are managed by the state park. There are some RV/equestrian sites that have 30/50 amp power and water hookups. There is a dump station on the road to the grounds but it was closed for repairs when we visited. There are plenty of pit toilets around the area and the ones we used were quite clean. Spots are mostly back-in but pretty easy access. The camp hosts were very friendly and the camp reservation includes a parking pass for the State Park ($10 value). The RV sites are very private and nicely spread out with pine trees in between. Great views of City of Rocks. Plenty of biking and hiking trails around and TONS of climbing. The visitor center is about 2 miles away and a general store another half mile beyond that. There’s opportunity for gas and food on the way to the grounds (both Albion and Almo have options) but best to get what you need before you leave the major highway. Having hookups at a State Park with such awesome views was sweet and the grounds are very well maintained. Reservations seem hard to come by during the high season.

We stayed here the end of September. Our Garmin RV GPS and Google Maps had us exit earlier than exit 216 off of Interstate 84 coming from the NE. The emailed state park instructions have you get off at exit 216. Since the roads looked RV-friendly on Google Maps, we took the earlier exit. It was fine, but exit 216 would have been more of a straight shot. The RV GPS and Google Maps eventually followed the brown Walcott SP signs all the way to the campground (CG). We had a couple of interesting turns at the far side of Rupert, but no big deal. When we arrived at the CG check-in building, it was unmanned. Since we had paid online, we paid the $7 vehicle fee per day via envelope and then proceeded to the CG. As a side note, the next morning, we got a call from the park office that our tow vehicle was included in the nightly camping fee, so they gave us our envelope back. We saw a right turn to the tent and boat ramp area and decided to go straight, and as we rounded a corner, we saw the RV campsite sign and proceeded to pull through site 5 with water and electric. The site was plenty big enough for our 40’ 5th wheel and our F-450. The water and electric were in the middle of the site, which was nice. There was decent water pressure, and we had a clear shot to the north sky for Starlink; however, to the south were mature trees. This site had decent spacing between the adjacent sites. We got 2 bars on Verizon. There are two tent areas, one that’s to the first right with the day-use area and another that’s adjacent to the RV CG and cabins. Most sites here will take larger rigs, and the center and north sites will give both north and south shots for satellite. There were a couple of interesting quirks with this state park. 1) The park’s sprinkler watering times were special, with our site getting an hour's worth at 1:00 PM with five rainbird sprinkler heads. However, the grass and trees were in good shape for this desert-ish area. 2) As we have seen with COEs, there’s a dam between the lake and the river, so when they open or close the floodgates, there’s a siren that goes off until the process is completed. We had this happen our first night at 1:00 AM. In the park’s defense, they have both of these activities posted in several locations. There are a ton of areas to walk your dog, and we saw deer during our walks. There’s a dump station located as you enter the CG area. We enjoyed our stay at this well-managed state park.