Best Tent Camping near Leadore, ID

This place has it ALLLLL. Tent sites, RV sites w/electric and water, dry sites; boat ramp; playground, volleyball net, clothes lines, hot springs pools(2!); showers; camp store with ice; WiFi; wildlife(two mountain goats lead me in on the road); walking trail; shade trees(no hammocks allowed). And it is next to the Snake river. Seriously?? Ok, so the tent sites are really close to the RV sites, but with electric there aren’t any generators running. And the pools close at 9pm, which seems kinda early when the sun doesn’t set until almost 9:30. But I get it. And you are close to the town of Challis with two grocery stores and two gas stations and a Family Dollar. If you can’t find what you need, you probably don’t need it. Besides, you are going to spend all of your time in the water or playing land games. The bathrooms and showers are open 24hrs a day so you don’t even have to use the porta potties scattered around the property if you don’t want to.

Coordinartes: 44.16547,-112.90392. Beautiful views. Large dirt and gravel site, right along side to Skull Canyon Road, about a mile from ID Hwy 28. Canyon walls on each side. Rough narrow rocky track to the site from the highway; recommend high clearance. High humps on this track. Small rock fire ring. Grass and sagebrush all around site. Some leveling may be required. Tent camping possible. Very peaceful; can hardly hear road noise from highway. The only vehicle that drove by was a national forest truck. No cell service. There are several boondocking sites, some with vault toilets nearby, along Hwy 28 in the Birch Creek Recreation Area.

Stayed two nights at this campground in August. There was a camp host setup, but we didn’t see him at all while we stayed. He did not seem to be staying here. The toilets ran out of tp and many people could not get their questions answered. It’s also only about 20 feet from the highway, so expect a lot of traffic noise at all hours. There is a boat loading dock located here as well, so many people were driving in and out all day. Cell service was good if we needed it but there are several more remote areas only about 20 minutes in to the forest that actually feel like camping (Cougar Point and William’s Lake). Overall it’s decent but I recommend it more as a pit stop if you need to crash for a night. The tent sites are well maintained and running water was a plus.

A beautiful combination of the mountains and Big Sky of Montana!  This reservoir is quite large and even has a cool little island in the middle of it that you can cliff dive from when the waters are high enough!  There are boat docks, day-use areas, and campgrounds spread all around the reservoir.  The campground we featured in this review was an RV only site (because why would you tent camp there) that was right next to the Lewis & Clark Day-use area that has a giant canoe and flag pole.  It is an extended stay RV site with the option for paying for weeks if you plan on spending a good chunk of your summer here.  

Right along the road on the dam there is a sign showing you that you're halfway between the equator and the north pole!  Also nearby is the cute, cozy town of Dillon, where you can venture into the 1st Patagonia and Great Harvest stores in the world!  If you're here around Labor Day they also have a great rodeo and parade and the Patagonia Store has HUGE discounts!

Shoup Bridge  Campground is a small Campground surrounding cottonwood trees along the banks of the Salmon River. It is also right along the Highway.  We found this a pleasant campground to stay in, plenty of flat ground for our tents and only $5 a night.  A few sites are quite small, but still room for a tent. This was our Scouts jumping off point for a backpacking trip the next day.  While next to the highway we expected a lot of noise during the night, but that was not our experience, the only real road noise we had was in the early morning with worked out as it helped wake us up.  Each site has a picnic table and metal fire ring.  Water is available and the area has a vault toilet and trash cans.  Campground has a boat launch.

This private Hotsprings has two pools - ine about 97 degrees ( large and inviting), the second is smaller and hotter at 107!

located about 7 miles from Challis it has great lawn areas for tents, and shaded RV sites along the Salmon River. Playground. Showers.

bring your mountain bike or running shoes for a relaxing ride or run on the country access roads.

We stopped here to sleep on our way to Glacier NP. It was easy to find but off the main road and quiet. Very clean campsites with fire pits and trash cans. We drove around the campsite before we left, all the sites were camper trailer friendly and had grassy areas for tents. All for $5

We've stopped here in the past but this was the first time we've seen the area so green!  It is a great pit stop or last minute spot right along the interstate going towards Dillon, MT.  There are plenty of spaces to pull up your RV or to toss a tent into the big open grass yard.  The north side isnt very shaded but close to the amenities and the south side has plenty of cottonwood trees to hang out under.  Nearby is a great river to fish in and the Native American site known as Rattlesnake Rock that looms over the river and park to the east.  There are some good albeit "spicy" sport and trad routes on the rock but as the name implies keep an eye out for snakes!  Nearby is the large Clark Canyon Reservoir where you can cool off and do some exhilarating cliff diving as long as the reservoir pool is high.

Wow!  Absolutely the best spot to set up camp if you're looking at doing an alpine attempt on the roof of Idaho, Mt. Borah!  The campground sits right around 7200'  which is a decent bit cooler than the Big Lost River Valley to the west.  There is also a good bit of shade despite there being few large trees.  Its kind of a transition between the sage brush and juniper climate zones.  There are picnic tables and metal fire rings @ each site but there is absolutely no running water so be sure to fill your water bottles and camelbaks in Mackey which is the closest town.  There are vault toilets but no other amenities.  The perk of being fairly primitive is that the sites are only $5 a night!

If you're planning on summiting Borah it's a good idea to get an alpine start <6 AM so you don't get baked by the sun as there's no shade the last 2 miles and sparse shade the first 1.5.  It is a brutal hike if you're not prepared.  The trail ascends 5200' of elevation in just over 3.5 miles.  Your legs will probably burn, bring hiking poles for the descent!  If you don't feel like hiking there are plenty of rivers nearby in which to fish and great spots to check out the scarp of the 1980's Mt. Borah earthquake, which you drive across on the way to the campground/trailhead.