Best Cabin Camping near Kaniksu National Forest

There are 3 campgrounds. One is a group camp that sells out quick. Reservations are 9 months in advance and it is a phone call of luck that will get you this prime area. The group camp has its own private dock and beach. The cabin has multiple bunk beds and a kitchen with fridge and range/oven. Also a microwave. 2 showers and 2 restrooms. There are RV slots available here. We love the privacy and ability to not worry about any unlocked vehicles or items left in the beach The other two sites are Lionhead and Indian Creek. Indian Creek as a store and laundry facilities. They also have a few cabins to rent. Showers and rv slots available. Lionhead is further up the road (just north of the group camp) and is a little smaller.

I worked at Priest Lake State Park as a residential biologist for the summer of 2016. It was an amazing experience! I had access to parts of the park not allowed to campers. The staff are all very friendly and nice to work with. The hand- scooped homemade ice cream is worth it alone! Kayaking up the thoroughfare to the upper lake is a great workout with some amazing and beautiful scenery and animals along the way. You will see lots of moose, and sometimes black bears. If you take the short hike to Moose lake, there is excellent rainbow trout fishing, and gorgeous scenery as well. Hunt lake trail is a beautiful trail to hike, but not for beginners. Priest Lake itself is a little chilly when first getting in to swim, but is very refreshing in the mountain heat. There are many good places to pick huckleberries all over the area! The campgrounds at the Indian Creek unit, which is where the headquarters and store are located, are very clean. There are plenty of RV and tent camping sites and 5 cabins available to rent. All cabins sleep different numbers of people, ranging from 5 to 9, the moose cabin being the largest and nicest. The cabins have no bathrooms or kitchens but boast fire rings and are right across from communal park bathrooms and showers. The lion head unit on the upper lake is about 12 miles up the road from Indian Creek turning into gravel about 8 miles up right before moose lake. It has a few smaller camper sites and many tent sites available. There is a maintenance shed along with a small ranger booth which also serves as a small store with ice and other foods and small supplies. There are first aid kits and radios available at all campground ranger booths. Priest lake has amazing fishing for rainbow trout, Mackinaw (lake trout), smallmouth bass, and Pike minnow (as the main species). The nearest town, Coolin, UD, is about 12 miles down the road. It is a small town with a store, a diner and a bar/ restaurant. The diner and restaurant have decent staple foods for what they have to offer. The store is fairly small but generally has most of the foods and supplies needed for restocking your camping food or obtaining the odds and ends you may have forgotten or overlooked at home. All around it is a beautiful place to visit with friendly staff and locals and I would highly recommend it to anyone seeking an unforgettable family camping experience.

We stayed one night in a deluxe cabin. It was spacious enough, with a partial kitchen, AC, and full bath. The grounds are well-kept but older. The cabin was tired—cabinets with loose hinges, squeaky bed, tub drain was slow, WiFi wasn’t working. Each cabin has a propane grill and the one by ours was too dirty to use. There is no shade on the cabins or many of the tent sites and it’s often so hot here in the summer that the AC can’t cool very well. It was 82 in our cabin despite running the AC and keeping all the blinds closed. The pool is clean but very cold and there is no shade on the playground so go in the morning or evening if you don’t want to get burned. Nothing nearly except a Wendy’s and a convenience store. Trains going by all night nearby.
Fine for one night, but don’t recommend an extended stay Note: they do not allow EV charging but there is no written policy anywhere on the website or in any of the registration emails.

Pros: most sites are large and well appointed with paved driveways and gravel pad for picnic table, fire pit, and tents if you have them. Water and electricity at site. Plenty of trails to walk. Three dump and water stations. Cons: check in is way too late (2 pm), they require you to check in at visitor center, and the parking lot is not large enough to accommodate all the rvs checking in at 2 pm. Other con is no campsites on the water. The shoreline is very scenic but the camp and surroundings not so much. Just overstocked young forest. Also our electric post was damaged so cord kept coming unhooked. Had to bungee cord it.