Baumgartner Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 31All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Baumgartner Campground is situated alongside the South Fork Boise River, 11 miles from Featherville, Idaho. The area offers excellent fishing, hiking and off-road vehicle riding opportunities. Baumgartner Hot Springs is located within the campground, where visitors can enjoy soaking in the pool while admiring the scenic, natural setting. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground's main draw is Baumgartner Hot Springs. The 101-degree water is piped into a large concrete soaking pool. The pool is open during daylight hours and is drained and refilled daily. The pool is pressure washed Tuesday mornings and will not open until around noon. The South Fork Boise River provides great fishing for wild and stocked rainbow trout. Younger campers love splashing in the cool mountain waters. An accessible path leads to a bench overlooking the swimming/fishing hole on thenorth end of the campground. The John Baumgartner Gravesite is a short walk from the hot springs. A 1/4-mile interpretive nature trail begins at the hot springs and meanders up the hill through the forest. Kelley Creek/Iron Mountain, Virginia Gulch, Willow Creek, Van Gulch and Big Water Trails all begin in the area. Ponderosa Trail Learner's Loop is located approximately 1 mile to the west of the campground and offers beginner level trails for young ATV and off-road motorcycle riders. ATVs, UTVs and off-road motorcycles cannot be ridden within the campground. You may trailer them in and out of the campground but the trailer must fit within your camping spur.
Facilities
The campground offers single and double-family sites, as well as one quad site and one large group site (Site 100), all with picnic tables, fire rings and utility tables. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking spurs within the main campground are paved. Site 100 is not paved.
Natural Features
The campground is nestled beneath towering ponderosa pines at an elevation of 5,200 feet. The gentle South Fork Boise River runs along the site, offering beautiful scenery and recreation. A variety of wildlife is commonly seen in and around the campground, including deer and moose.
Nearby Attractions
Numerous hiking, biking, horseback and off-road vehicle trails crisscross the surrounding area. Kelley Creek Flats Recreation Area is adjacent with additional designated dispersed site camping and livestock corrals near Kelley Creek. The historic Iron Mountain Lookout is located to the south of the campground. It is approximately a 12 mile one-way trip along the Kelley Creek trail which is open to vehicles 50" or less in width.
What the agency tells you
ATVs, UTVs, Off-Highway Vehicles, and off-highway motorcycles cannot be ridden in the campground. You may trailer them in and out, but trailers must fit within camp spur.
Idaho Off-road Vehicle Safety Message
No electricity, water or sewer site hookups at this campground
Everything else this campground posts · 5
No livestock permitted
Live music and sound systems not permitted
Alcohol, glass, soap and shampoo are prohibited in the pool area; swimsuits are required
Don't Move Firewood: Help prevent the spread of tree-killing pests in our national forests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Pets are not allowed in the pool area
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 31 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 76 ft
- Paved pads
- 30 of 31
- Accessible sites
- 30
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets · Pit Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 2 of 31 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 11 of 31 campsite records / ACCESSIBLE PIT TOILETS on 1 of 31 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 13 of 31 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Off Highway Vehicle Trails
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
- Night sky · 256th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
31 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 31 mapped sitesAll 31 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. 31 of the 31 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BAUMGARTNER CAMPGROUND | 100 | group rv area nonelectric | 934 ft | 223 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $100 | ||
| Loop A | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 105 ft | 157 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop A | 002 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | yes | 105 ft | 261 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop A | 003 | standard nonelectric | yes | 142 ft | 301 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 | |
| Loop A | 004 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | yes | 104 ft | 171 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop A | 005 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | yes | 104 ft | 175 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop A | 006 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | yes | 123 ft | 151 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop A | 007 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | yes | 130 ft | 174 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop A | 008 | standard nonelectric | yes | 82 ft | 161 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 | |
| Loop A | 009 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | yes | 82 ft | 241 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop A | 010 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 88 ft | 169 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop A | 011 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 88 ft | 230 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop A | 012 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | yes | 121 ft | 347 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop A | 013 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | yes | 121 ft | 359 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop B | 014-015 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 135 ft | 425 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop B | 016-017 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | yes | 91 ft | 296 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop B | 018-019 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | yes | 81 ft | 264 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop B | 020-021 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 90 ft | 282 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Loop B | 022-025 | group standard nonelectric | 34 ft | yes | 90 ft | 345 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $20–$40 |
| Main Access | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 150 ft | 154 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 027 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 81 ft | 209 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 028 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | yes | 244 ft | 234 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 029 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 118 ft | 161 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 030 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 118 ft | 218 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 031 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 166 ft | 146 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 032-033 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | yes | 183 ft | 124 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 034 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 183 ft | 305 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 035 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 136 ft | 54 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 036 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | yes | 86 ft | 175 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 037 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 86 ft | 184 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
| Main Access | 038-039 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 168 ft | 159 ftSouth Fork Boise River | $10 |
25 of 31 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Take I-84 to Exit 95. Go east on State Highway 20 to mile marker 127.5. Turn north and follow signs to Featherville. Once at Featherville, head east on Forest Road 227 for 11 miles on dirt road. At Baumgartner Campground sign, turn right and cross the bridge to the campground, on the left hand side.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Fairfield, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 9°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
Baumgartner Campground 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 →