Chemeketan Campground
1Heads up1 fire 16 mi away
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- June 1 – September 30Open June 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Chemeketan Campground sits near the headwaters of the Salmon River, at the foot of the Sawtooth Mountain Range. Keep reading
Recreation
This site is part of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, where outdoor activities abound. The Salmon River offers excellent fishing for rainbow trout, westslope cutthroat trout and occasional hybrid cutbows and bull trout. The Idaho Centennial Trail can be easily accessed nearby. Alturas, Perkins, Pettit and Yellowbelly Lakes are nearby, with fishing, canoeing and hiking.
Facilities
This campground is reached via dirt road, however visitors must ford a stream before reaching the site. Trucks, RVs and cars with higher clearance should have no trouble crossing the stream. The campground offers one group site than can accommodate up to 150 people. If it is not reserved, it is available as a group site or individual sites on a first come, first served basis. Vault toilets, tables and grills are provided.
Natural Features
Chemeketan is a secluded, peaceful campground situated among lodgepole pines, which provide partial shade. Rugged peaks of the Sawtooth Range surround the area and the Salmon River flows at the campground's edge. Temperatures are cool, with an average summer high of 78 degrees and a low of 40 degrees.
Nearby Attractions
The Sawtooth National Recreation Area offers a myriad of excellent hiking and biking opportunities, and an estimated 750 miles of trails crisscross the valley and surrounding mountains. Popular area events include an Arts and Crafts Fair in July, and Wagon Days, Salmon Festival, Quilt Fair and Fireman's Ball in September.
What the agency tells you
No water source available at the site; visitors must bring water.
This is a 'pack it in, pack it out' campground; bring garbage bags and remove all trash upon departure.
Opening and closing dates are weather permitting, please call 928-537-8888 for more information.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
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.
Idaho Off-road Vehicle Safety Message
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…on a first come, first served basis. Vault toilets, tables and grills are provided. Natural Features…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 174th 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 · 10
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 Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
| CHEM | 1 | group standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 495 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
Alturas Lake InletSawtooth National Recreation Area · 7.3 miNorth Shore CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 7.3 miBear Creek Transfer CampSawtooth National Forest · 11 miPettit Lake CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 11 miFrom Stanley, Idaho, take Highway 75 south. Turn southwest off highway onto a dirt road located between mile markers 163 and 162. The campground is located 4 miles beyond the turnoff. Fording a stream is necessary to access the campground.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ketchum, 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
Chemeketan Campground 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 →