Bull Trout
1Heads up1 fire 46 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20–$40Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 38All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bull Trout Campground is located on the shores of beautiful Bull Trout Lake at an elevation of 6,900 feet. The lake offers great fishing and canoeing opportunities. Many trails for hiking, biking, horseback and off-road vehicle riding are in the area. Only equestrian users may reserve equestrian sites. Keep reading
Recreation
Bull Trout Lake offers excellent canoeing and kayaking opportunities, as the lake is for non-motorized watercraft only. Anglers fish for brook and rainbow trout. A primitive boat ramp is located on the west side of the lake. Martin Lake is nearby, offering canoeing and fishing. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout. Many miles of trails can be found in the area, including the 11-mile Warm Spring Trail for hikers. The 35-mile Kirkham Ridge Trail is open to hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and dirt biking.
Facilities
This campground contains group, equestrian and single and double campsites, many of which are accessible. The group sites can accommodate up to 50 people each. Equestrian sites each contain a corral and large parking spur. Some sites are on the waterfront and have direct lake access, others have lake views. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. Roads and parking spurs within the campground are dirt. A campground host is on-site.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a mixed-growth forest of Douglas fir and lodgepole pine, which offers partial shade. Summer wildflowers are abundant.
What the agency tells you
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Campers must have a horse to stay on an equestrian site
This is bear country; please keep a clean camp and be bear aware
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Please contact the Lowman Ranger District at 208- 259-3361 for off-season camping information
Additional vehicles may be subject to parking fees
Some first-come, first-served sites may be available
Click here for more information on the Boise National Forest
Please click here for further information about the facility and recreation opportunities in the area.
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
- 38 · 2 group, 4 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 85 ft
- Accessible sites
- 23
- Pets
- Allowed at 33 of 36 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 4 of 38 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 4 of 38 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 161st 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 · 17
What you actually pay
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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
38 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 37 mapped sitesAll 38 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. 38 of the 38 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BUL1 | 016 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 115 ft | 393 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 017 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 105 ft | 271 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 018 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 105 ft | 361 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 019 - Double Site | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | yes | 121 ft | 198 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 020 - Double Site | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | yes | 128 ft | 300 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 021 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | yes | 121 ft | 184 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 022 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | yes | 121 ft | 297 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 023 - Double Site | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | yes | 99 ft | 200 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 024 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | yes | 133 ft | 326 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 025 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 99 ft | 199 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 026 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | yes | 150 ft | 532 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 027 - Double Site | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | yes | 95 ft | 584 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 028 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 131 ft | 454 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 029 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | yes | 95 ft | 597 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 030 - Double Site | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | yes | 175 ft | 572 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 031 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | yes | 139 ft | 475 ftMartin Lake | $20–$40 |
| BUL1 | 032 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | $20–$40 | ||
| BULL | 001 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 43 ft | 92 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 002 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 43 ft | 49 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 003 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 53 ft | 31 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 004 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 53 ft | 13 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 005 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 50 ft | 43 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 006 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 50 ft | 93 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 007 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 53 ft | 113 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 008 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 53 ft | 111 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 009 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 142 ft | 188 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 104 ft | 191 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 104 ft | 198 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 213 ft | 135 ft | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 213 ft | 170 ft | $20–$40 |
| BULL | 014 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 70 ft | 386 ftSpring Creek | $20–$40 | |
| BULL | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 70 ft | 343 ftSpring Creek | $20–$40 | |
| GROU | 033 | group standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 191 ft | 843 ftMartin Lake | $75 |
| GROU | 034 | group standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 191 ft | 807 ft | $75 |
| HORS | 035 - Horse Camp | equestrian nonelectric | 70 ft | 116 ft | 105 ft | $20–$40 | |
| HORS | 036 - Horse Camp | equestrian nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 123 ft | 219 ft | $20–$40 |
| HORS | 037 - Horse Camp, Double Site | equestrian nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 116 ft | 198 ft | $20–$40 |
| HORS | 038 - Horse Camp, Double Site | equestrian nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 388 ft | 296 ft | $20–$40 |
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.
25 of 38 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Bull Trout Lake Campground & Group sitesBoise National Forest · 0.6 miBench Creek CampgroundAnadromous Spawning Area Anadromous Spawning Area · 1.8 miBanner Creek CampgroundAnadromous Spawning Area Anadromous Spawning Area · 4.3 miThatcher CampgroundAnadromous Spawning Area Anadromous Spawning Area · 7.3 mi
Trap Creek CampgroundChallis National Forest · 8.4 miLola Creek CampgroundAnadromous Spawning Area Anadromous Spawning Area · 8.4 miFrom Boise, Idaho, take State Street to Highway 55 north. At Banks, take Highway 17/Banks-Lowman Highway to Lowman. Take Highway 21 east to milepost 107. Turn left on Forest Road 520. Proceed on dirt road 2 miles to the campground.
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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Bull Trout 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 →