Boundary Creek Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 5All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Boundary Creek Campground is located at the edge of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, adjacent to the boat launch for the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. The site generally provides overnight camping for boaters waiting to launch the next day on their permit to float the Middle Fork. Of the 15 campsites, 5 can be reserved during the high-use season (June 15-Aug. 15); the remaining 10 are first-come, first-served. Outside of those dates, all 15 sites are first-come, first-served. Keep reading
Recreation
Boundary Creek Campground is a popular spot for boaters running the Middle Fork of the Salmon. A nearby transfer camp provides long-term parking and trail access into the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Visitors enjoy hiking, horseback riding, picnicking, fishing and viewing wildlife.
Facilities
The campground offers 15 campsites, each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Five of these sites are reservable during the peak season (June 15-August 15); the other 10 are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided.
Natural Features
At an elevation of 6,280 feet, the campground is situated among lodgepole pine trees, near the Wild and Scenic Middle Fork of the Salmon River. The air is crisp and fresh, even in the heart of summer, due to it's high elevation.
Nearby Attractions
The Middle Fork of the Salmon River flows over 100 miles through the heart of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, and originates 20 miles northwest of Stanley, Idaho, at the confluence of Bear Valley and Marsh Creeks. Float permits are required year round. It was one of the original eight rivers in the nation designated as Wild and Scenic on October 2, 1968.
What the agency tells you
Reservations are available from June 15 through August 15. Camping outside of this date range is first-come, first-serve.
No livestock allowed in the campground
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Permits to float the river are required all year; Click here for permit information on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River
Check out the forest's campground description for specific information to Visit Your 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
- 5
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…on a first-come, first-served basis. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…first-served basis. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features At an elevation of…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
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 · 12
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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 5 mapped sitesAll 5 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. 5 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BOUNDARY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | yes | 101 ft | 597 ft | $10 |
| BOUNDARY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 101 ft | 544 ft | $10 | |
| BOUNDARY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 121 ft | 472 ft | $10 | |
| BOUNDARY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 482 ft | $10 | |
| BOUNDARY CREEK CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 389 ft | $10 |
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
Boundary Creek is accessed by a dirt road from Idaho State Highway 21, and is often closed by snowdrifts until late May or early June. The turnoff to Boundary Creek is located 23 miles west of Stanley, Idaho, or 107 miles east of Boise between mileposts 109 and 110 on SH21. This road is commonly referred to as the Bear Valley Road, #579, which is rough and narrow. Travel this road for approx. 13 miles, then turn onto the Boundary Creek Road, #568, and travel another 13 miles. Your vehicle and/or trailer should be prepared for 26 miles of rough, busy, single-lane dirt road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Stanley, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 24°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 4°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
Boundary 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 →