Mackay is an ideal place for camping adventures of all kinds. Mackay is filled with the activities, sights, and experiences to make everyone in your crew a happy camper. Find the best campgrounds near Mackay, ID. Read helpful reviews and tips to find the perfect camping option for you and your crew.
"Grear place by lake...some shade availablenice campground!"
"This is a great location. The owner of the property, Scar, is very generous in offering his property for free to stay at to complete strangers. This is dry camping, no water or sewer."
"He has 2 rules to stay on his property, you need to speak to him before you enter, and you need to come outside and join all the campers at dusk and stand for the Star Spangled Banner."
"The sites further up are away from the others and run along a stream. Still further in, you’ll hit a Y in the road."
"This forest service land is a quick drive down Lake Creek Rd from Hwy 75 just past the town of Ketchum in the Sawtooth National Forest."
"We made it up to the lower lake and thought we got there, but we actually didn't reach the real lake."
"The highlight of the area is the 2 mile hike to get to the lake above. Definitely worth it!"
"This is a smaller campground tucked back against the mountains. Good shade trees. Close to hiking, fishing and mountain biking. Campsites have a picnic table, fire ring with grill."
"The only downside is that the air quality is pretty bad due to fires in the surrounding areas."
"Pros: *Views for miles *Steps from the Salmon River *Boat launch for rafting,kayaking,fishing *Covered picnic table *Generous spacing between sites *Serious star gazing opportunities
- Easy drive to Challis"
" Though this campground sits along the highway it is easier to tolerate noise when its free!
The campground loop is gravel and has “pull next to” (bump out?)"
$5 - $10 / night
" This is a very well manicured campground that sits directly off of highway 75. It is very small and mostly sunny."
TravelerThis is a great location. The owner of the property, Scar, is very generous in offering his property for free to stay at to complete strangers. This is dry camping, no water or sewer. There’s a dump station with water close by off the main highway. He does have a few outlets we saw but didn’t use them. Owner is friendly and generous. We enjoyed the nightly campfire. Read his website before arriving, all he really asks for and be respectful. Craters of the Moon is not too far. We hope to stop by again one day. Idaho is beautiful.
GuideThe first part of the road allows for 3-day max camping, but a little further in, you’ll hit 16-day max stay! The sites further up are away from the others and run along a stream. Still further in, you’ll hit a Y in the road. The right side leads you to a small parking lot with bathrooms and access to a small pond, the left leads you up to more sites. Not too far past the pond, the dirt road is less smooth and has tall grass growing in the middle of the road. I scored a gorgeous site, with a campfire pit already established. The site overlooks the pond, with the Sun Valley Ski Resort seen in the distance and has a gorgeous Mountain View on the opposite side. Absolutely stunning! Plenty of ground squirrels and butterflies and have only seen 2 cars all day.
LegendThis is a very well manicured campground that sits directly off of highway 75. It is very small and mostly sunny. There are nice lush grass areas where the sprinklers were running and was very tempting to just lay there after a hot drive.
Sites are close together, lined up along the outer edge of the loop, and there is zero privacy. The picnic tables are covered with a shade structure and there are fire pits. Also toilets and water.
A friendly host was also on site. Sites very in size but we saw a couple of bigger trailers there.
There was a dumpster for trash but no recycling. The campground sits well above the river and very close to the highway so there is road noise.
It was nice but we did not stay here as it seemed cramped and there are too many free options in this area.
$10/night
$5/night when the water gets shut off generally around October.
No cell reception for ATT, Verizon or TMobile
LegendPros: *Views for miles *Steps from the Salmon River *Boat launch for rafting,kayaking,fishing *Covered picnic table *Generous spacing between sites *Serious star gazing opportunities
Cons: *No shade *Close to road, so some road noise.
Pros out weigh the cons for us. 2 thumbs up.
LegendThis is a smaller campground tucked back against the mountains. Good shade trees. Close to hiking, fishing and mountain biking. Campsites have a picnic table, fire ring with grill.
LegendThough this campground sits along the highway it is easier to tolerate noise when its free!
The campground loop is gravel and has “pull next to” (bump out?) type sites with covered picnic table and a fire pit. There are also pit toilets and a hand pump water spigot. There is also a boat ramp and a day use area.
The river is very shallow and the bank is quite muddy -- our little dog sank up to her belly.
No privacy here and lots of road noise but you get to see the river and the meandering cows across the river.
Did not see any wildlife unless you count the swarms of tiny bugs of the variety that squeeze their little bug bodies through your screens.
Zero cell reception ATT, verizon or TMobile. The WeBoost was able to give us bars of LTE but still was not very usable.
Good for an overnight but not much around to keep us occupied for anything longer.
LegendThis forest service land is a quick drive down Lake Creek Rd from Hwy 75 just past the town of Ketchum in the Sawtooth National Forest. You'll drive through a residential area so mind your speed as there are kids around and lots of cars parked that were crowding into the road a bit as there were construction workers building one of the massive houses along this road.
The paved road comes to an end with a large parking or turn around area then turns to a very washboarded dirt/gravel road that runs behind people’s houses so maybe drive a bit slower to keep the dust down until you pass that point.
There are multiple areas that are large and mostly flat that pull off the side of this main dirt road. The views are amazing and it seemed quiet. We did not stay here as it was too hot at the time, but we would have because you have nice hiking or biking opportunities here. The pullout spaces are large enough for a good sized rig, we had plenty of space for our 26’ class C. A couple of the sites had stone fire pits but fire restrictions are in effect so no fires at this time. There are plenty of sites here and they were almost all free when we visited in September.
There are no amenities here. No garbage or water. You are fully in the sun with no shade.
The camping limit is 3 days only. There is one garbage can at near the large turn around/parking area before the road turns to dirt but it was small so just take your trash with you.
Good ATT and Verizon cell reception.
TravelerI happened upon Honeys Camping area. Scar is the owner of the property and a very kind man. He has 2 rules to stay on his property, you need to speak to him before you enter, and you need to come outside and join all the campers at dusk and stand for the Star Spangled Banner. He does not have any water, but he does have 30 amp electric sites. It is an open field with beautiful views of the mountains. You can get water and also dump your trailer at the free city dump station very close to the campground.
GuideWe were driving through to Stanley, but it got dark before we were able to arrive so we found this spot. We arrived at dark and set up camp at about the 3rd or 4th spot in (3 day camp limit in this area). Woke up to the most wonderful views! Mountains, meadows, flowers, and a creek bed (our section was still dry).
You can still see peoples homes from this point and the locals seem to utilize the creek trail regularly with off leash dogs. Everyone was respectful keeping their distance except for one lovely lady who was on the phone and not paying ANY attention to where her dog was. She was several hundred feet away chatting it up, walking through our campsite while we had our own pups that we were having to restrain ourselves. Really careless and inconsiderate. Luckily we only saw her that one day as she stated to us they frequent the area.
Really didn’t encounter a whole lot of other campers. 1 van conversion was there as long as us and we talked to a gentleman in his truck our second day farther up the road when we were exploring the area.
If you drive to the end (go right when the road Y’s) there’s a crystal clear pond that feeds the creek. It has trout visible, several ducks, there’s a vault toilet, picnic table, and established fire ring with a grate of youd like to utilize it for cooking.
We were only supposed to stay here one night in our Class C but we stayed the full 3 days because it was just so beautiful! (Farther up the road is a 16 day limit also, you’ll see a sign when it changes).
We tow a Nissan Altima and it had no problems driving the unpaved road down to the first pond. There’s a second pond (go left at the Y) but we didn’t travel that way.
No trash, water, or RV dump here but you can find one ~20 min away here: (43.7948535, -114.4216629)
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Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Mackay, ID?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Mackay, ID is Mackay Reservoir Access Area - IFG with a 4.7-star rating from 3 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 7 equestrian camping locations near Mackay, ID, with real photos and reviews from campers.
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