Best Tent Camping near Ponderay, ID

Tent camped on RV spot. All spots have a leveled sand square for tents. Trees offered shade. No privacy due to layout. Tent spots appear to offer more privacy. However, be warned that the access road for tent sites is steep and bumpy. Pit toilets with no other amenities. Camp host is friendly enough. Camp is so close to the day use area. Perfect to go swim or paddle board.

The Gilmore Loop Campground is one of a handful of campgrounds in Farragut State Park. It is a large campground boasting 91 rv/tent sites. There are several ADA sites as well as the most amenities I have ever seen in a campground. Even tho you could spend days exploring and playing in Farragut State Park, there are quite a few things to do outside of the park also.

Some amenities for this campground include:

RV/Tent Camping - (Some are ADA)

Onsite Tables/Fire Pits/Water/Electricity on all and Sewer on some

Nice and Clean Flush Restrooms and Showers

Firewood for sale onsite by the hosts and a well stocked General Store/Visitor Center in park

Payphones and extra Parking

Dump stations for RVs

Extensive Day Use Facilities - (Including 3 professional disc golf courses and a large Lake for a $5 fee)

Boat launch/Swimming/Fishing

Museum and Historical Sites

Loads of Hiking/Biking/Horse Trails

Some amenities close to this campground include:

Bayview - (A small lake town about 5 min to the East)

Silverwood Theme Park - (About a 10 min drive to the West)

Coeur'd Alene and Sandpoint - (Both 33 min drives to the South and North respectively)

The negatives for Gilmore are all subjective. I personally prefer a much more secluded campground, I can see this place being packed during the on-season. The sites are closer than I like, tho I have seen much closer sites elsewhere. The tent pads are gravel filled squares, I Like the feel of the ground under me while camping and these will necessitate a mat/airbed. Overall I love this place as a day use, and see myself camping here soon.

This is a great little private campground in the Wolf Lodge Bay, and their added free amenities made this campground a really fun alternative to the usual state park/national forest campsites I go to more often. The swimming pool was well kept, and we really enjoyed using the free canoes. They had a lot of decent looking free firewood, but we were camping during a fire ban and weren't able to use it. (This, of course, is no fault of the campground. But if we camp there again it will be nice to have free firewood!)

We originally booked tent site 3, which I cannot recommend as it had no shade or privacy, but the attendant was very kind and let us switch to a shadier site for free. I think this was tent site 4 or 5, which were much better. Tent site seven looked really nice as well and I would recommend that one. But if we go back we will definitely be booking the island tent site 201, it looked to be the best one of all.

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.

Tent camping at Whitetail campground has plenty of site room and good privacy. Camp hosts did an excellent job of keeping the campground clean. Restroom facilities and showers well kept and clean.

This campground stretches along a tributary of the CdA river, and there is great tent camping and fly fishing. Downside is that there is limited vehicle access to most spots.

The tent sites are private and not too close together. Very nice campground host and clean restrooms. We spent the night in the upper section and it was peaceful and quiet.

KM and RPI rv resort, they do have a couple of designated tent sites, and 2 members-only cabins. Clubhouse is pretty much shut down, I guess you could say it has “long covid”, heh

I love the Colville National Forest and enjoy discovering different campgrounds within it.

I like to camp at Pioneer Park when I am in Newport visiting family and will always choose campsite 14! It is the best out of all the campsites there, very private, incredibly spacious, and with a nice trail to the water. I only tent camp so I don't know how accommodating it is for an RV, however.

Lionhead is by far my favorite campground of hundreds I’ve been to. it’s designed more for tent camping of very small rv’s such as truck campers or tent trailers. There are numerous trails to explore and the beach is beautiful white sand with crystal clear water. Indian Creek is also nice and has a store with everything you could need and ice cream by the scoop. Indian Creek also has full and partial hookup sites - free hot showers- and boat slips to rent.

Arrived at 4:30, in our 24ft camper. All RV sites were full. When driving out the camp host, John, greeted us with a smile, and confirmed RV sites were full, but one Tent site was available, and we could stay in the parking spot. Fire pit Table Garbage Water Cleanest bathroom ever Quiet

Pulled into this campground in our RV in late September and only encountered one other party in the campground. Loved the remote setting. We were able to snag a spot close to the river, so we slept to the sound of rushing water. I’d estimate that half the primitive spots could fit a medium sized RV, the others are car/tent sites.

This campground is next to the interstate. I called last minute as we were driving through and was offered a tent site next to “the creek”—turns out the creek is the ditch between the highway and campsite. It’s loud, and bright with lights from the highway. More of a trailer park. But it’s extremely clean and well maintained and friendly hosts, maybe better for RVs.

It's a relatively small loop campground along a creek, close to the Pend Oreille River. Gravel road, ideal for tent camping. When we camped there in September of 2017, there were 3 occupied spaces, all of whom left the next day so we had the whole campground to ourself. There were primitive bathrooms, and from my memory no running water. I also don't think we paid, because we couldn't find anyone to give money to. Maybe this is because it was fall, or maybe it's actually free. Either way, pleasant experience here!

This park was our first park to ever camp at, lucked out and caught an opening in the middle of the pandemic, booked it online and left 4 days later for a week of bliss in the woods. My first time to northern Idaho, it's absolutely breathtaking The lake itself is beautiful surrounded by tall pines and Lilly pads. The hiking trails are easy for all ages, though the big loop is something to take slow, and bring plenty of water to drink. The bullfrogs at night help you drift off to sleep. It rained 3 nights when we were there and it was some of the best sleep we've ever had. We had a rooftop tent on our 4 runner and it for perfect in the tent site. You don't have to be an rv to rent a site with water and electricity. It's definitely a spot we will add to our yearly travels.