Best Tent Camping near Jerome, ID

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!

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 sits right off of Hwy 20 along the Big Wood River. It is a dispersed campground with varying degrees of levelness and sizes. No real privacy here despite being surrounded by trees, mostly aspens which were starting to change color in September and give the place a little bit of a peaceful atmosphere. There were a few campers there with trailers when we were there that seemed to keep to themselves and only one of the trailers looked a little rundown and sketchy. 

There is river access which is nice and easy. There is road noise as it sits fairly close to the highway. 

There are pit toilets and a few of the “sites” have stone pits but fire restrictions are in effect so no fires at this time. There are no garbage cans or dumpsters so pack in and pack out. Also there were no water spigots that we found, so filter from the river or bring water. Overall this is a dusty fairly noisy stop good for a night. I wouldn’t make it a destination but if you’re tired of driving and need a place to crash it’s free and easily accessed. 

There is a 10 day limit on camping within a 30 day period. Weak Verizon, good ATT and no TMobile cell reception.

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!