Best Campgrounds near Santa, ID

DIRECTIONS: 18 miles east of Lewiston, Idaho at mile post 18.6 on U.S. Highway 12

Flat, quiet, clean, and cheap. 15 RV sites and 3 tent sites. Full hookup, clean and large shower rooms and restrooms.

Camp hosts are great caretakers and quick to greet new guests.

Plenty of trees for shade, easy drivable path down to the river, nice local neighborhood to stroll through. BBQ stands at each site and two large community fire pits. Paved site for RV (any size), concrete pad with table. 2 bars cell signal.

Check the pics for accepted passes that drop the prices by 1/2.

At 18 dollars I was skeptical before l arrived. Getting everything for 9 dollars is unbelievable but true.

The wind had torn part of our roof and we had to find a place to stay a few nights, quickly and tarp before rain came. They accommodated our stay and even lent us a ladder to use while repairing the damage.

This is primitive off grid camping. No services, no water, no tables, just a bathroom in a field with a few campsites around it near the creek. Great location to stay if you're doing the Hiawatha trail and want to camp in the area. The busses picking up hiawatha trail users go right by the campground multiple times a day in the summer.

After camping on BLM lands & staying at smaller campgrounds, we were excited to stay at a KOA. It was a good price & the grounds were decent; we stayed in the fall & the changing trees everywhere were beautiful. The amenities on the other hand… The laundry room floor looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a LONG time & half of the washing machines were out of order. The showers weren’t aesthetically in great shape & the drains clearly needed to be cleaned as I was quickly standing in inches of water (picture taken). Then there’s the topic of the trains… The person who checked us in at the front specifically told us we were in a quiet spot in the back.. yes we were away from other campers but the heart attack from the blaring horn at 2:30am was rough. Then we were woken up at 6am by RVs coming in/ out. All that being said, we will be finding another option for the rest of our trip. I always hate leaving bad reviews, but hopefully sharing our experience is helpful to others.

EDIT: Wrote this review before we went into Spokane (we’re here to visit family who goes to GU) & after searching for hours, realized this is probably the best option in the area, so I’m humbled to say we did in fact have to come back for another night but are staying in a spot further away from the train

No one is here on a beautiful October long weekend Saturday. I can see why. The reservoir level is way down! Just getting to the water is a challenge. Maybe this was nice years ago but it’s a good ways out from Orfino. Not worth the drive.

Stopped at the little restaurant and got a fantastic meal after being on the road all day then headed past all the massive houses to end up in such a gorgeous location. This is one of my favorite spots now!

This is a cute campground with great hosts. Most folks come in to bike the trail. Verizon is not great and our Starlink had some blockages, but that’s what you get with lots of trees.

This was a great spot! The camp hosts, Dan and Steve, were very friendly. We loved how large the sites and overall area was, so we could back our rig in easily (40ft long x 13.5ft tall.) There were a lot of open sites, even during the holiday weekend, and even with people on either side, we didn’t feel like we were on top of anyone else. A really great central place to hang so we could check out the surrounding area.

• Had fast, reliable wifi!
• Great service for Verizon!
• Complimentary showers

As some others mentioned:

• there wasn’t shade, which made evenings outside pretty hot— but the grass was very lush (and a good place to rest.)
• there was also some road noise from the dump station and road that runs parallel

Found this great little riverside spot while checking out the paid campgrounds along St Joe River. Saw several similar sites that were already taken. This one has a small boat launch and several fire pits. Camping is prohibited from spring to mid July. Not the best spot for swimming due to the current in this section of the river but good enough to wade in and cool off anyway. We slept in a tent and loved the river sounds. There were some mosquitoes but with bugspray it was fine.

Take a night or two to visit this nearly unused campground. What a wonder. You are on the Ridgeline between two valleys with views of the horizons of 50 miles or more. To the east ot is very much like the views in the Smokey mountains. Not a lot of shade at this campground. Great for solar and Skylink. ATT and Verizon were 3 plus. Make certain the chores are done and the drinks are made before the light show begins at sundown. Vault toilets, picnic tables and fire rings. Sites at this campground are reasonably flat and deep but not a lot of room for pop-ups.

Camping here is free.

My only criticism is the distance between signs on a very small road. A few more signs would be reassuring. For this campground, head generally south on Skyline Drive until you think you should be there, then go 2 more miles.

Central potable water by the privy.

This is my 2nd time visiting and the quality has dramatically dropped. Maybe the difference was that I went in early fall 4 years ago and this time was late summer but YIKES. 

There was broken glass EVERYWHERE. We cleaned up so much trash in our site and off the road. The pit toilet was completely out of toilet paper (which we anticipated). Despite being stage 1 fire restrictions, multiple people were having fires, one person's was still smoldering when I got up the next morning. Due to the number of people, ATVs, dirt bikes, nearby shooting range, etc it was just much more noisy in the busy season. I recommend going in the off season.

The road up to the lake is really rough and narrow but manageable with a proper vehicle. 

The lake is gorgeous! I just wish people were more considerate.

FYI There is a moose that frequents the area so keep your trash in your car to avoid feeding the moose.

Albert is a very kind, chill and accommodating host. My only regret is I couldn't stay long enough to listen to his guitar skills. A gost that with stum hos guitar for his guests? Thats a good enough reason to go see the place and what made me pick it out from all the others. His prices are very reasonable too. We won't rake you over the coals if you forget something. The place can be really busy on a hot Saturday and he runs it well shuttling people around. i loved that there were clean bathrooms and showers and a general store incase you forgot or ran out of something. I also enjoyed the cool old iron bridge and the peace and quiet of the place. It's no party zone where teenagers have keggars. I was there on a Friday and by 10pm it was quiet and peaceful then the next morning everyone showed up to have swim or float the river there and the water looked nice a shallow and slow perfect for small children and for kayakers it gets a little faster on the other side and fast enough to not have to worry too much about your kids drown but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't pay attention.

Great one night spot on the river . Clean campground with nice flat spots. No Verizon. Wi fi works at entrance to campground. River is beautiful!

Took about an hour to get to our campsite, but was so worth it. Was a creek at the top of a mountain in the middle, I guess hence the name. Local had wondered how we found his special fishing spot. Was a place to swim, but we did not get in. Such a beautiful view and lots of nature to see.