Bartoo Island Boat-In Campground
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 11 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 25All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Surrounded by clear waters of Priest Lake, the 25 sites on Bartoo Island provide the ideal getaway for people looking for a rugged, but highly rewarding, camping experience on the peaceful shores of Priest Lake. There are 24 single sites on the island as well as one group site known as Sunrise Group Site. This group site has been renumbered from site #001 to site #23 for groups of 10-30 individuals. All sites are only reachable by boat. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors enjoy all types of boating from kayaking to canoeing to power boating up the 3.5-mile thoroughfare, which leads to the Upper Priest Lake Scenic Area. The upper lake cannot be access by car, so water is an excellent navigation option. Fantastic birding and wildlife viewing is available, as well as Huckleberry picking from mid-july to early fall, when the sweet berries can be found in abundance throughout the forests of Northern Idaho. Swimming is a popular summer pastime and with beach access not far from the campground, visitors won't have any problem cooling off during warmer months. Anglers will be excited to know that the waters of Priest Lake are home to record-breaking Mackinaw trout as well as Dolly Varden, Cutthroat and Kokanee.
Facilities
Campers are required to bring their own portable toilets to this campground. They can check out toilet buckets at the Kalispell Boat Launch. Bartoo Island can only be access by boat. No drinking water is available and this is a pack it in, pack it out facility. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided.
Natural Features
Priest Lake spans 25,000-acres of incredible beauty, fed primarily by the waters of the Priest River. Named after the historical presence of Jesuit priests who settled in the lake area in the mid 19th century, Priest Lake is today a major tourist attraction, drawing water sports enthusiasts, photographers and birders alike. The group campground is located on the east side of Bartoo Island at an elevation of 2,400 feet. Bartoo, spanning 219 acres, is one of nine islands on Priest Lake. Summers at the lake are typically sunny and warm and wildlife in the area includes bears, deer and moose.
Nearby Attractions
Hike the Lakeshore or Beach Trails that traverse along the west shore of Priest Lake. The Beach trail extends between Outlet Bay Campground and the Kalispell Bay Boat Launch. The Lakeshore Trail runs for 8 miles along the northwest shores of Priest Lake. In winter, ice fishing, shoe shoeing and snowmobiling on nearby trails entertain visitors.
What the agency tells you
Bring your own portable toilet
Site is accessed by boat only
No drinking water; please bring your own water
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack in-pack out' facility
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
No bathing or washing dishes in lake
No glass bottles allowed on beaches
No fireworks
Click here for more information on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Please display camping reservation on dashboard if parking at Kalispell Bay Boat Launch
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 25 · 1 tent-only, 24 boat-in, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Portable Toilets
- “…Campers are required to bring their own portable toilets to this campground. They can check out toilet…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…Island can only be access by boat. No drinking water is available and this is a pack it in, pack it out…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:14 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:14 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
25 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 25 mapped sitesAll 25 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 25 of the 25 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| BARTOO ISLAND GROUP SITE | 022 | group tent only area nonelectric | 1666 ft | 113 ft | $10 |
| Bartoo Solo | 25 | boat in | 1403 ft | under 10 ft | $15 |
| Cedar | 1 | boat in | 1216 ft | 64 ft | $15 |
| Fourmile | 23 | boat in | 596 ft | 43 ft | $15 |
| Fourmile | 24 | boat in | 596 ft | 41 ft | $15 |
| North Bartoo | 2 | boat in | 72 ft | 12 ft | $15 |
| North Bartoo | 3 | boat in | 72 ft | 23 ft | $15 |
| North Bartoo | 4 | boat in | 97 ft | 15 ft | $15 |
| North Bartoo | 5 | boat in | 98 ft | 29 ft | $15 |
| Solo #2 | 6 | boat in | 516 ft | 46 ft | $15 |
| South Bartoo | 10 | boat in | 75 ft | 45 ft | $15 |
| South Bartoo | 11 | boat in | 69 ft | 45 ft | $15 |
| South Bartoo | 12 | boat in | 65 ft | 55 ft | $15 |
| South Bartoo | 13 | boat in | 65 ft | 64 ft | $15 |
| South Bartoo | 7 | boat in | 60 ft | 56 ft | $15 |
| South Bartoo | 8 | boat in | 60 ft | 46 ft | $15 |
| South Bartoo | 9 | boat in | 73 ft | 43 ft | $15 |
| Sunshine | 17 | boat in | 65 ft | 17 ft | $15 |
| Sunshine | 18 | boat in | 60 ft | 18 ft | $15 |
| Sunshine | 19 | boat in | 60 ft | 24 ft | $15 |
| Sunshine | 20 | boat in | 66 ft | 30 ft | $15 |
| Sunshine | 21 | boat in | 66 ft | 30 ft | $15 |
| West Sunshine | 14 | boat in | 216 ft | under 10 ft | $15 |
| West Sunshine | 15 | boat in | 144 ft | 29 ft | $15 |
| West Sunshine | 16 | boat in | 144 ft | 26 ft | $15 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Kalispell Island Boat-In Campground1.6 miLuby Bay CampgroundKaniksu National Forest · 2.7 mi
Luby BayKaniksu National Forest · 2.8 mi
Outlet at Priest Lake3.6 mi
OspreyKaniksu National Forest · 3.8 miCampground is only reachable by boat. Travel north from Priest River, Idaho on State Highway 57 to various boat launches around the lake.
To access the Kalispell Bay Boat Launch, travel on Highway 57 for 31 miles to Kalispell Bay Road. Turn east (right) until you reach West Lakeshore Road. Head south .5 miles to the boat launch.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Coolin, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 22°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 more
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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Bartoo Island Boat-In Campground is in Idaho’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Russ Fulcher (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →