Black Lake Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 13 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 4All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Black Lake Campground is a rustic facility with 4 designated tent sites. Located on the edge of Black Lake and adjacent to the Hells Canyon Wilderness, the site is popular for visitors wanting a truly 'off-the-beaten-path' recreational experience. The access road to the campground is steep and rough, and is not recommended for RVs, trailers or low clearance vehicles. This site provides access to Black Lake- Horse Heaven Trail #214 and Six Lakes Basin Trail #218 which enter the Hells Canyon Wilderness from the southeast. Quiet hours are from 10pm to 6am. Primary use season is from July to September. Keep reading
Facilities
Black Lake Campground has 4 sites, each with a picnic table, fire ring and parking area.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 4
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wilderness access
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:45 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 16
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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:45 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
4 sites
All 4 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. 4 of the 4 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
HuckleberryPayette National Forest · 7.9 miBig Bar Camping AreaPayette National Forest · 9.7 miSeven Devils CampgroundNezperce National Forest · 11 mi
OlloKot CampgroundHells Canyon National Recreation Area · 16 mi
Saddle Creek CampgroundHells Canyon National Recreation Area · 17 mi
Cold Springs Campground - Payette NF (ID)Payette National Forest · 18 miFrom Riggins, Idaho go south 60 miles on US Hwy 95 to Council, Idaho; In Council leave Hwy 95 in the downtown area and head north/northwest on the Hornet Creek Road #002; Continue north on this road past Lafferty Campground until the Community of Bear (no services); After passing through Bear continue north on Road 105 (gravel road suitable for passenger cars) and watch for the split in the road; Stay right on road #105 - do not enter the Bear Work Center; Continue on #105 road for approx. 1/2 mile to the intersection with Road #112; Travel on Road #112 heading north/northwest past Smith Mountain Lookout to the end of the road at Black Lake Campground.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Riggins, ID
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
Black Lake 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 →