Clear Creek Guard Station
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:42 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Clear Creek Guard Station is located 20 miles northeast of Montpelier, Idaho. Not much is known about the history of this guard station site, but it's believed to have been an administrative site since 1910. Several different buildings have either been built or relocated to this site since then. The current A-frame cabin was built by the Young Adult Conservation Corps in 1980. The cabin is accessible by car when there is no snow. Guests should be prepared to snowmobile in winter, and they are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety. The snowmobile trip is about 5 miles from Crow Creek and 10 miles from Montpelier Reservoir. The cabin provides some basic comforts, but guests will need to bring some of their own supplies and gear to make their stay comfortable. Keep reading
Recreation
This area offers myriad recreational opportunities. Nearby trails attract mountain bikers, hikers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts ( Idaho OHV safety message ). Snowmobiling and cross-country skiing are popular winter activities. Anglers can fish in Clear Creek. Hunting is available in season.
Facilities
The guard station has a maximum capacity of 15 people. This single-room cabin has three single beds. Please bring your own sleeping pads and bedding. A wood stove is provided for heat and firewood may be available. A table and chairs are provided. An outhouse, picnic table and campfire ring are located outside. Water is not provided at the cabin. Guests are required to bring their own water, as well as garbage bags for packing out trash. Lighting, a cook stove, cooking pots, kitchen utensils, bedding, towels and first aid supplies are not available.
Natural Features
Clear Creek Guard Station is tucked up against a mixed conifer and aspen forest at the edge of a meadow at an elevation of 6,500 feet. The cabin sits near the confluence of Crow Creek and Clear Creek. The surrounding landscape is rugged and mountainous. Area wildlife includes black bear, wolf, elk, moose, mule deer, bison, grizzly bear, mountain lion and pronghorn ( bear safety tips ).
What the agency tells you
4-7 days prior to your reservation you will receive an e-mail with your cabin code
Snow conditions can often affect cabin accessibility in the fall, winter and spring. Please call the Montpelier Ranger District Office to check snow conditions before reserving this cabin from November through June.
No water is available at the cabin
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Please leave the cabin clean for the next occupant
This is a pack-it-in/pack-it-out facility
Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to hantavirus when visiting remote cabins; click here to learn more
Click here for more information about Caribou-Targhee 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.
Pets are not allowed inside the guard station. Pets must be on a leash at all times when on the guard station site. Clean up all pet waste before checking out of the facility
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and campfire ring are located outside. Water is not provided at the cabin. Guests are required to bring their…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:42 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:42 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 12
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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:42 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| CLEAR CREEK GUARD STATION | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 236 ft | $35 |
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
Summit View CampgroundCaribou National Forest · 6.9 miAllred Flat CampgroundBridger National Forest · 11 mi
Diamond Creek Guard StationCaribou National Forest · 12 mi
Johnson Guard StationCaribou National Forest · 14 mi
Montpelier Canyon CampgroundCaribou National Forest · 14 mi
Stump Creek Guard StationCaribou National Forest · 19 miFrom Montpelier, take Highway 89 east for 7 miles. At the Montpelier Reservoir (Crow Creek Road)/ Forest Road 111, turn north and travel 13 miles to the guard station. Maps are available upon request at the district office.
From Afton, Wyoming, take Highway 89 south and turn right on WY 236 North. Drive for 2.6 miles and continue on to County Road 142/Fairview North Road. In less than a mile, turn left onto County Road 141/Crow Creek Road. Follow this road for 16.5 miles. The guard station is just off this road to the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Georgetown, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 27°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 7°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 · a letter you can send
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
Clear Creek Guard Station 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyMichael K. SimpsonU.S. Representative · Idaho’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJames E. RischU.S. Senator · Idaho
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMike CrapoU.S. Senator · Idaho
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clear Creek Guard Station, Caribou National Forest, Idaho
Dear Michael K. Simpson, I’m a constituent in Idaho’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Clear Creek Guard Station, Caribou National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clear Creek Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Creek Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Creek Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clear Creek Guard Station (Caribou National Forest, Idaho) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clear Creek Guard Station, Caribou National Forest, Idaho
Dear James E. Risch, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Clear Creek Guard Station, Caribou National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clear Creek Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Creek Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Creek Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clear Creek Guard Station (Caribou National Forest, Idaho) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clear Creek Guard Station, Caribou National Forest, Idaho
Dear Mike Crapo, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Clear Creek Guard Station, Caribou National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clear Creek Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Creek Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Creek Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clear Creek Guard Station (Caribou National Forest, Idaho) via campanac.com