Copper Basin Guard Station
- 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 · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Copper Basin Guard Station is located in Copper Basin, a rugged and beautiful area in the Pioneer Mountains of south-central Idaho. Keep reading
Recreation
Copper Basin offers many recreational opportunities. These include stream and lake fishing, day hikes to high mountain lakes, mountain bike riding, hiking, horseback riding, camping, photography, hunting, off-highway vehicle (OHV) riding, birding, viewing wildlife, and driving for pleasure.
Facilities
The Copper Basin Guard Station is a 900 square foot, two bedroom log cabin that can sleep up to six adults comfortably, with room for eight people total. The cabin comes furnished with one queen bed with mattress, two full sized bunk beds with mattresses, and a queen sized sleeper couch in the living room. Other amenities include a propane cook stove, propane refrigerator, propane furnace, propane lights, wood stove, table with benches and chairs, table settings for eight, kitchen tools and cleaning supplies. The bathroom has hot and cold running water, a flush toilet, and a shower. The Copper Basin Guard Station has no electricity, phone service, cell coverage, or internet service. All appliances are powered by propane. Guests need to bring their own food, toiletries, towels, bedding and trash bags. There is no smoking, no candles, and no garbage service. No pets allowed in the cabin. Campfires are allowed only in the metal fire ring that is provided.
Natural Features
Copper Basin is a remote mountain valley with beautiful views, wide open spaces, and mountains in every direction. The Basin is surrounded by both the Pioneer and White Knob mountain ranges, with elevations between 7,500' - 8,000'. Copper Basin has abundant wildlife, numerous streams, and stunning mountain peaks.
Nearby Attractions
Nearby attractions include fishing in the East Fork of the Big Lost River, OHV riding on the Lake Creek Trail, hiking on the Bellas Trail, and horseback riding on the Broad Canyon Trail.
What the agency tells you
- The guard station has no electricity, phone service, cell coverage, or internet service.
All appliances are powered by propane.
Guests need to bring their own food, toiletries, towels, bedding and trash bags.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
There is no smoking, no candles, and no pets allowed in the cabin.
Maximum number of people is eight. This includes the occupants of any RVs/motorhomes parked in the parking lot.
Maximum number of vehicles allowed in the parking lot is three.
This site does not honor America the Beautiful passes.
Minimum stay is two nights, maximum stay is six nights.
No tents or stock are allowed in the yard or parking area.
Guests are expected to pack out their trash and clean the cabin before leaving and locking up.
The combination of the rental will be in the confirmation letter.
Check-Out is 11:00am and Check-In is 3:00pm
Click Here for more information https:/www.fs.usda.gov/r04/salmon-challis
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…has hot and cold running water, a flush toilet, and a shower. The Copper Basin Guard Station has…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 148th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 2
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- None
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 38 km away
- Past peak
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
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
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.
| COPPER BASIN GUARD STATION | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 35 ft | 1,629 ft | $100 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Joe T. Fallini Recreation SiteChallis Field Office · 13 miCopper Creek/Garfield CampgroundSawtooth National Forest · 15 miFrom Mackay, Idaho, drive north on Highway 93 approximately 17 miles and take a left on the Trail Creek Road. Travel approximately 15 miles on the Trail Creek Road. This road starts as paved and turns to gravel at approximately 12 miles. Turn left at the Wild horse/Copper Basin turnoff, and continue on this road for approximately 2 miles and bear left on Road #135. This road continues for approximately 14 miles. The Copper Basin Guard Station is on the right at the intersection of Roads 135 and 138.
From Ketchum, Idaho, travel north east on the Trail Creek Road, #208, for approximately 23 miles. Turn right on at the Wildhorse/Copper Basin turnoff and continue on this road for approximately 2 miles. Bear left on Road #135. This road continues for approximately 14 miles. The Copper Basin Guard Station is on the right at the intersection of Roads #135 and #138.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lost River, 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
Copper Basin 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…Guard Station has no electricity, phone service, cell coverage, or internet service. All appliances are powered by…”