Cape Horn Winter Rental
1Heads up1 fire 49 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cape Horn Winter Rental is located in beautiful Elk Meadow, approximately 16 miles northwest of Stanley, in central Idaho. It sits at an elevation of 6,660 feet. Guests enjoy the area for its endless winter recreation opportunities, including cross-country skiing, back country downhill skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling. Keep reading
Recreation
The Cape Horn area offers unlimited cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling opportunities in the surrounding meadows, and downhill skiing is available on the slopes behind the cabin. Click here for an Idaho OHV safety message.
Facilities
The cabin is open for reservations during the winter only. In the summer, it is used by Forest Service employees as a guard station. The cabin can comfortably accommodate four people on one double bed and one single bed, each with mattresses, and one couch. More people can use sleeping bags on the floor, but due to the cabin's size, group size is limited to eight people. Guests need to bring their own food, toiletries, towels, bedding and trash bags. The cabin is equipped with electricity, which powers the lights and a standard four-burner stove and oven, but due to heavy snowfall on power lines, electricity cannot be guaranteed at all times. Be prepared to cook meals on the wood stove if the power is out. Firewood is provided, though it may need to be split. A table and chairs and additional seating is provided, along with a battery powered lantern and a wooden rack for drying clothes. The water system is turned off during the winter season so the indoor flush toilet and running water are not available. A vault toilet is located behind the station.
Natural Features
The cabin is situated in a stand of lodgepole pines. On clear days, the cabin's front porch affords breathtaking views of the rugged Sawtooth Mountain Range to the south.
What the agency tells you
Walk-in use is not allowed; reservations must be made via the website or call center prior to arrival
A maximum of 8 people are allowed in the cabin
Horses and livestock are not permitted at the cabin
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility
No tent, trailer or RV camping is allowed at the site
Snowfall can be heavy and Highway 21 may be closed at times; access is still possible from Boise via Sun Valley and over Galena Summit to Stanley
On occasion, Highway 21 in the Stanley Basin may not be plowed to the skier's parking pullout, changing the distance to ski to the guard station from 1.7 miles to nearly 9 miles: The parking pull out is near and across Highway 21 from FS Road 195 and Swamp Creek; The coordinates for the pullout are 44° 21' 39.0000" N 115° 8' 20.0000" W; The trail is marked from the pull out on Highway 21 to the guard station; The coordinates for the guard station are 44°22'21.88"N, 115° 7'8.34"W. There is no winter road access to the cabin. Be prepared to ski, snowshoe, or snowmachine from the parking pull out.
The cabin remains locked; please see your confirmation email for the current combination.
Click here for more information on the Salmon-Challis 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.
Firewood is provided at the cabin; Self-Service from the covered woodshed near the cabin.
Pets are not allowed
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and running water are not available. A vault toilet is located behind the station. Natural Features The…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Meadow
- Winter sports
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 · 11
What you actually pay
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 · 4
rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
| CAPE HORN WINTER RENTAL | 001 | cabin electric | 704 ft |
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
Trap Creek CampgroundChallis National Forest · 4.2 miBanner Creek CampgroundAnadromous Spawning Area Anadromous Spawning Area · 4.9 mi
Sheep Trail CampgroundChallis National Forest · 5.6 miThe guard station it is less than two miles by skiing cross-country from State Highway 21 or approximately four miles by following the Stanley-Landmark Snowmobile Trail.
If you are a first time renter, it is important to get detailed directions. To obtain these, click here or call the district office at (208) 879-4100.
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
Cape Horn Winter Rental 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 →