Alturas Tent Camping Area
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- Season
- June 1 – September 30Open June 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
This tent camping area is accessible by hiking in, and consists of 4 single-sites and 2 double-sites on the east side of beautiful Alturas Lake. It is first-come, first-serve. Experience a quiet, serene, relaxing time in the heart of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area with the Sawtooth Mountains to the west, Smoky Mountains to the south and the Hemingway-Boulder Mountains to the east. Fishing is terrific in Alturas lake along with swimming, kayaking and canoeing. Capturing the scenic beauty, plants and wildlife through photography is ideal at this unique location. It includes flush toilets, potable water, trash pick-up and fire rings. There is access to Alturas Lake Creek trail head towards Eureka Gulch, Jakes Gulch, Cabin Creek trail and Alpine Creek trail to the north.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…at this unique location. It includes flush toilets, potable water, trash pick-up and fire rings. There…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…location. It includes flush toilets, potable water, trash pick-up and fire rings. There is access to…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
How we know this receipt · 4
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Alturas Lake InletSawtooth National Recreation Area · 2.4 miPettit Lake CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 4.2 mi
Chemeketan CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 7.1 miRedfish Inlet CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 13 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Stanley, ID
Typical weather
Typical June night 35°F, day 69°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical September night 31°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Alturas Tent Camping Area is in Idaho’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Mike Simpson (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →