Cub River 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 16:34 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cub River Guard Station was established in 1907, and the first cabin was built in 1909 about a mile from the current site. This cabin was short-lived, and a second structure was built in 1922 and used until 1934. A third structure occupied this area after that until it burned down in 1957. The current cabin was built 2 years later. The cabin is open year-round and can be accessed by car in warmer months. Guests must snowmobile or ski to the cabin on groomed trails in the winter. Many modern conveniences are provided at the guard station, but some are seasonal and not guaranteed, so guests should be prepared to bring much of their own equipment and supplies. Keep reading
Recreation
Numerous hiking, biking, horse and off-road vehicle trails crisscross the area, offering great opportunities to get out and explore. The area becomes a playground for snowmobiling, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter months. Nearby trailheads lead to several multi-use trails, including the Highline National Recreation Trail. Click here for an Idaho OHV safety message. Anglers can fly-fish for cutthroat and rainbow trout in the Cub River. Hunting areas are nearby.
Facilities
The cabin can sleep eight people on the four bunk beds provided; there are no mattresses. Renters will need to provide sleeping pads and bedding. Two bunk beds are in one bedroom and can sleep four people and the other two bunk beds are in the second bedroom, sleeping four more people. Total capacity for the site is 75 people and 20 vehicles. Outside the cabin is a large grassy area for tents. A table, chairs and four-burner range with oven are supplied in the kitchen. Log furniture, a wood-burning stove, and propane space heater are located in the living room. The cabin is equipped with propane lighting. Propane is provided for the lighting, range and space heater. A flush toilet and shower may be used in the summer if water is available. The vault toilet outside the cabin must be used from approximately mid-September to early June. There is an outdoor dining/entertainment pavilion with picnic tables as well as a fire ring with benches. Firewood may be provided but must be chopped. Water isn't guaranteed even in warmer months, so guests should bring their own. Bedding, cooking pots, kitchenware, towels, matches, emergency supplies, trash bags and cleaning supplies are not provided. Guests must pack out trash and clean the cabin before leaving. Activities at the site include a basketball court, volleyball court, kids playhouse, horseshoe pit, and a tetherball pole. There is a large lawn area that can be used for other various games and activities.
Natural Features
Cub River Guard Station is situated near the banks of the Cub River at an elevation of 6,000 feet. The grounds are partially shaded by mixed hardwood, pine and cottonwood trees. Wildflowers dot the landscape in warmer months. Dense thickets of willow around Cub River attract local moose, but elk and deer are also seen in the area.
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.
Water is not guaranteed; it may be available for showering and inside toilet use from approximately June 1 to Sept. 15; before and after this timeframe, please plan to bring drinking water
Everything else this campground posts · 10
No wheeled vehicles (including ATVs) are allowed on groomed trails from Dec. 15 to April 15; winter access to the cabin is via snowmobile only
Basketball court with cement pad is available on-site
Covered 20x20 dining pavilion is available on-site
Firewood may be provided and must be chopped.
Please leave the cabin clean for the next occupant
This is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility
Idaho State license and registration is required for ATVs on all roads in Franklin County, Idaho; Cub River Road is a county road
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
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…in the summer if water is available. The vault toilet outside the cabin must be used from approximately…”
- Playground
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Fishing
- Historic site
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Winter sports
- Fall color · reported 9 days ago, 36 km away
- Past peak
Full this Saturdayread 16:34 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:34 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.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:34 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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.
| CUB RIVER GUARD STATION | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 274 ft | 1,027 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Albert MoserCache National Forest · 1.0 mi
Willow Flat CampgroundCache National Forest · 2.6 mi
Redpoint CampgroundPocatello Field Office · 7.8 mi
NORTH FORK CAMPGROUND - St. CHARLES CANYONCache National Forest · 7.9 mi
Egan Basin Guard StationCache National Forest · 8.0 miFrom Preston, Idaho, head approximately 3 miles south on U.S. Highway 91. Turn east on Cub River Road/Forest Road 406. Proceed about 10 miles to the guard station. This road is heavily traveled throughout the summer with other recreationists, so please travel slowly and use caution.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Preston, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 63°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 15°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
Cub River 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 Cub River Guard Station, Cache National Forest, Idaho
Dear Michael K. Simpson, I’m a constituent in Idaho’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Cub River Guard Station, Cache National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Cub River 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cub River Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cub River 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 Cub River Guard Station (Cache 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 Cub River Guard Station, Cache National Forest, Idaho
Dear James E. Risch, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Cub River Guard Station, Cache National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Cub River 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cub River Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cub River 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 Cub River Guard Station (Cache 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 Cub River Guard Station, Cache National Forest, Idaho
Dear Mike Crapo, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Cub River Guard Station, Cache National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Cub River 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cub River Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cub River 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 Cub River Guard Station (Cache National Forest, Idaho) via campanac.com