Big Springs - Caribou
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $20–$40Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 16All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Big Springs Campground is nestled along the banks of Pebble Creek at an elevation of 6,500 feet, just 16 miles from Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. Visitors enjoy fishing and exploring local trails. Keep reading
Recreation
Pebble Creek offers cutthroat and rainbow trout fishing. Big Springs Nature Trail begins in the site, offering an easy path along the creek. The multi-use Boundary Trail, for hiking, biking, horseback and off-road vehicle riding, begins in the campground and accesses several additional local trails.
Facilities
The campground contains one large group site that can accommodate up to 175 people with a shelter, tables, a campfire ring, grills and parking. The campground has first-come, first-serve campsites and reservable campsites. Visitors can first check with the campground host for available campsites. If the campground host is not available, visitors must check if the campsite is occupied, and if available pay at the fee tube. Several single and double sites are also available with tables, campfire rings and grills. Some sites have stairs between the parking spur and site pad. Single and double sites on the less shady Loop B have picnic shelters. Two equestrian sites are available with horse corrals and hitching racks. Potable water and vault toilets are provided. Security is provided by the host and periodic patrols by the county sheriff. This campground is managed by Pinnacle Parks LLC under a special use permit with the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. For any questions please call 208-757-3999 between the hours of 8am and 9pm.
Natural Features
A Douglas fir forest towers over Loop A, offering partial shade. Loop B is situated among a grove of aspens which provide limited shade. Sagebrush, grasses and summer wildflowers dot the landscape.
Nearby Attractions
Lava Hot Springs is close enough for an exciting day trip. A natural hot springs soaking pool, Olympic-sized swimming pool, water slides and diving platforms provide fun for all ages. Two 9-hole disc golf courses are linked around the pool complex. Tubing on the Portneuf River is also a very popular activity. Tube rentals are available at many locations in town. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (208) 757-3999.
What the agency tells you
Big Springs Campground is managed by Pinnacle Parks Llc under a special use permit with the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. For questions please contact 208-757-3999 between the hours of 8am and 9pm.
This is Big Springs Campground on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest near Lava Hot Springs, Idaho
The campground has first-come, first-serve campsites and reservable campsites. Visitors can check the kiosk board for available campsites, check if the campsite is occupied, and if available pay at the fee tube.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
A fee of $5 will be collected on-site for extra vehicles parked in a campsite. The Allowable Vehicle/Driveway Details section has information on maximum vehicles allowed for individual campsites. Single sites: 1 vehicle, Double Sites: 2 vehicles, Triple Site: 3 vehicles
There are no electric, water or sewer site hookups at this campground
This facility is pack-it-in/pack-it-out
Off-road vehicles not allowed to be operated on campground roads
Wildlife Caution
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Click here for more info about the Caribou-Targhee National Forest
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 16 · 1 group, 2 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Paved pads
- 2 of 16
- Accessible sites
- 10
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and hitching racks. Potable water and vault toilets are provided. Security is provided by the host and…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with horse corrals and hitching racks. Potable water and vault toilets are provided. Security is…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 482nd darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 3
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 · 16
What you actually pay
“A fee of $5 will be collected on-site for extra vehicles parked in a campsite.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$40 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
16 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 16 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. 16 of the 16 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 002 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 99 ft | 176 ft | $20–$40 |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 003 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 99 ft | 158 ft | $20–$40 |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 004 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 139 ft | 75 ft | $20–$40 |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 005 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 157 ft | 298 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 006 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 133 ft | 372 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 007 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 133 ft | 425 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 008 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 251 ft | 565 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 015 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | yes | 268 ft | 99 ft | $20–$40 |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 019 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 86 ft | 379 ft | $20–$40 |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 020 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 86 ft | 316 ft | $20–$40 |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 021 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | yes | 123 ft | 199 ft | $20–$40 |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 023 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | yes | 163 ft | 244 ft | $20–$40 |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 029 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 163 ft | 206 ft | $20–$40 |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | 031 | group standard nonelectric | yes | 299 ft | 171 ft | $80 | |
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | H1 | equestrian nonelectric | 208 ft | 444 ft | $20 | ||
| BIG SPRINGS - CARIBOU | H2 | equestrian nonelectric | 208 ft | 582 ft | $20 |
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
Pebble Guard StationCaribou National Forest · 0.3 miGoodenough Creek CampgroundPocatello Field Office · 12 mi
Scout Mountain CampgroundCaribou National Forest · 14 mi
Mink Creek Group Site CampgroundCaribou National Forest · 17 miHawkins Reservoir CampgroundPocatello Field Office · 21 miGraves Creek CampgroundPocatello Field Office · 21 miJust east of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, look for "Pebble Area" sign and turn left onto Blaser Highway/Old Highway 30. Go north on the paved highway 9 miles to Pebble Creek Road, known locally as Mike's Place or Whiskey Mike's. Turn left across railroad tracks on gravel Forest Road 036. Travel about 7 miles to the campground.
Pebble Creek Road is a narrow single-lane dirt road with limited sight distance and not suitable for the very large RVs (the tour bus size RVs that require overhead clearance due to their height and have limited turning capacity due to length, as opposed to a truck with trailer of the same length which has a tighter turning radius due to the hitch).
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Inkom, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 13°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
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
Big Springs - Caribou 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 →