Best Tent Camping near Ola, ID

Bad Bear is a nice little campsite outside of Idaho City. The sites are good size with adequate privacy. There is lots of tree cover for shade during those warm summer days, and a babbling brook at the back of the campground. Each site had a picnic table, fire ring, and there is a well for water and a vault toilet. We enjoyed our stay here, mostly because there wasn't anyone else camping in the campground when we were there in mid-July! Score! We grabbed the big site, but the other sites seemed a bit small. Would recommend for a easy campsite close to Idaho City and just a quick little jaunt from Boise.

This is a pretty quiet place! It about an hour drive/17 miles from Cascade on a paved road. True to it's name, the lake and campsite are right on a summit! The lake is pretty small and a little muddy, but a fun dip nevertheless. It's about a 5 minute hike from the campsites. There are 3 campsites at the campground and they are all first come first serve! Dispersed camping is allowed in the area as well. Managed to find 2 empty spots here on Labor Day weekend, which was a real treat! The sites all have fire rings and picnic tables and share a vault toilet. The sites are well spaced and there little noise carries around the area. The campground is a little close the to highway (Warm Lake Rd) but traffic at night is pretty low, so the noise isn't bad. There is a wilderness airstrip not too far off, so some plane noise as well! Otherwise, a nice spot with some great views of the night sky.

We have high expectations since we’ve been at so many places, so please bear that in mind when reading this.

1. Only vault toilets and water spigots placed randomly around.
2. No electric/water hook ups, flushing toilets, or showers
3. Outside of one vault toilet building some animal made a nest above out of dirt where they continually poop out of that looks like it hasn’t been touched in months so when you go to use the restroom you walk by a giant pile of poop.
4. Pea gravel pads where they encourage you put your tent, not bad if you have a blow up mattress. It is nicely raked upon arrival.
5. Campsite was clean.
6. Most sites had trees, but not all so definitely check site pictures online if you need shade.
7. Most sites have a view of the lake, since it’s almost like a peninsula campground.
8. Nice boat ramps and lots of parking for boaters to leave trucks and trailers.
9. Bugs would get a bit crazy at random times of day depending on weather.
10. 20 minutes south of McCall if you wanted to get out and see a quaint little town.
11. Cows on opposite side of water from campground; you can hear them, but not smell them.