Best Campgrounds near Stanley, ID

Sunny Gulch is a NFS campground right between Stanley, Idaho and Redfish Lake. The views are incredible and the location can’t be beat. The campground has two loops with the lower loop being closer to Highway 75 (not noisy at all at night) and more appropriate for smaller rigs while the upper loop has some larger sites with some above the Salmon River. All sites have picnic table, prep table, fire ring and tent pad and are quite large and lots of space between sites. Sites are FCFS except for 10 reservable sites; camp host is fantastic and super friendly. Firewood is available at the host site and vault toilets are located throughout the campground and water pumps are also positioned within a short walk of most sites. The Ranger Station is 1/2 mile away and has four dump stations ($12 as of this review) and free fresh water if the pumps at the campground don’t suit your needs.

Redfish Lake and all that encompasses is 1/2 mile to the south; the town of Stanley is beyond the Ranger Station about 2 miles to the north. We’ll definitely stay here again if we’re in the area!

We 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)

Exceptionally clean and well kept BLM campground. Tables, fire pits, and grills at each well spaced site. Close to the highway, but noise at night is minimal. No cell reception of any kind. Starlink works. Next to the Salmon River (raft trips) and a lot of nearby sites and experiences to take in: Malm Canyon Petrified Sequoias, Bayhorse Ghost Town and lakes, Custer Motorway with more lakes, ghost towns, and mining history; Yankee Fork State Park and Challis Hot Springs, many other primitive hot springs, miles of dedicated ATV/OHV and motorcycle trails not to mention hiking, fishing, hunting in season and a wild horse herd. Supplies of all kinds available in Challis 10 miles away.