Beauty Creek Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $26–$52Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2018 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Beauty Creek Campground is located a half mile from Lake Coeur d'Alene along the peaceful Beauty Creek. Visitors enjoy breathtaking scenery and convenient access to miles of trails. Keep reading
Recreation
The trailhead for the Caribou Ridge National Recreation Trail starts at the campground. The 5-mile trail features a moderate climb with two outstanding overlooks of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Biking and hiking trails in the area include the 1.8-mile Beauty Creek Overlook and the 4.9-mile Mt. Coeur d'Alene Viewpoint. Anglers enjoy an abundance of northern pike, chinook salmon and bass in the nearby stream.
Facilities
Beauty Creek offers about 20 spacious campsites for both tent and RV camping. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Parking aprons are paved. The nearest boat ramp is at Mineral Ridge, which is less than a mile from the campground. Here, visitors have easy access to boating and fishing.
Natural Features
The campground is nestled in a narrow valley along Beauty Creek in northern Idaho. At an elevation of 2,100 feet, it is a sparsely wooded valley surrounded by heavily wooded hillsides. Beauty Creek sits in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, between the Cascade Mountains to the west and the Bitterroot Mountains to the east.
Nearby Attractions
Lake Coeur d'Alene offers excellent boating, fishing and canoeing. Towns around the lake offer opportunities for para-sailing, ferry rides, paddle boating and sea plane rides.
What the agency tells you
Extra Vehicles: One vehicle is included in your single campsite fee. Each additional vehicle will be charged $10.00 per day fee. If that fee is not paid with your reservation, it will be collected on site (cash or check only). Maximum two vehicles per site.
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers
SCRS & Recreation.gov policy states we will keep your reserved site until check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. If you haven't occupied it at any time during this period, your reservation is null and void and we will give it to first come first serve folks. Your reservation will be a no show and no refund will be given.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
The 14 day stay limit is strictly enforced. Camping for a period longer than 14 days during any 30-consecutive day period is prohibited. If you have booked back-to-back reservations, you will be asked to cancel all days after the first 14.
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.
The road leading to Beauty Creek has a number of pot holes. Please use caution when driving on this road.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 20 · 1 group, 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 44 ft
- Paved pads
- 19 of 20
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…campsites for both tent and RV camping. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Parking aprons are…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 1 of 20 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Mountain biking
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 520th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 4
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 18 of the 20 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 15
What you actually pay
“Each additional vehicle will be charged $10.00 per day fee.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $26–$52 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
20 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 20 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. 18 of the 20 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.
| Beauty Creek Campground | GS1 | group shelter nonelectric | 16 ft | $85 | ||
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 001 | type not stated | 20 ft | 142 ft | ||
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 002 | type not stated | 20 ft | 87 ft | ||
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 54 ft | 130 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 54 ft | 76 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 79 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 89 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 114 ft | 56 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 130 ft | 157 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 82 ft | 185 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 82 ft | 127 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 125 ft | 173 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 123 ft | 161 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 117 ft | 189 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 109 ft | 148 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | 91 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 72 ft | 69 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 81 ft | 83 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 103 ft | 100 ft | $26–$52 |
| BEAUTY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 104 ft | 81 ft | $26–$52 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Bell Bay CampgroundCoeur d'Alene National Forest · 12 mi
Mokins Bay CampgroundCoeur d'Alene National Forest · 12 mi
Kit Price CampgroundCoeur d'Alene National Forest · 13 mi
Honeysuckle CampgroundCoeur d'Alene National Forest · 13 mi
Bumblebee CampgroundCoeur d'Alene National Forest · 18 mi
Shadowy St. Joe Campground23 miFrom Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, go east on I-90 to exit 22, then turn south on ID-97. Drive 2.5 miles to Forest Road 438 and turn left. Go one mile and look for signs.
The weather
the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 26°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Beauty Creek 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 →