Dam View Camping Area
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 39 mi
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 5 of the next 30 nights read 15:41 UTC
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 6All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Dam View Camping Area is a primitive six site campground near Dworshak Reservoir. Managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers the three upper sites have grassy areas with gravel parking primarily for tenting and smaller campers ( less than 26 feet). The three lower sites are paved and primarily for larger ( greater than 26 feet, Less than 35 feet) RVs. One CXT bathroom and two water sources are available for campers only. 1.4 miles down Viewpoint Rd is Big Eddy Recreation Area and Boat Ramp. 0.8 miles down A Road is Dworshak Visitor Center. Keep reading
Nearby Attractions
Dworshak Dam Visitor Center Big Eddy Recreation Area
What the agency tells you
- Reservation via QR code is required IMMEDIATELY after placing your equipment in the site. - Dogs MUST be on 6ft or shorter leash and under owners control at all times. 2 dogs per site limit. - Water and restroom are available on site. - All of your belonging must fit within boundaries of reserved site. - The Visitor Center may be reached at: (208) 476-1255 for any questions. - Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information. Purchase firewood in Orofino for best prices. - Quiet hours are from 10pm-6am. - Noon check out time
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 6 · 3 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir
- Night sky · 269th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 15:41 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:19 UTC. See them
OpenBookedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on three midweek nights after it as well. read 15:41 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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:19 UTC
- Dent AcresDworshak Reservoir · 5.4 mi · 20 of 58 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:41 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
6 sites
All 6 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. 3 of the 6 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Dent Acres5.4 miPartridge Creek CampgroundSt. Joe National Forest · 8.7 miElk Creek Campground8.8 mi
Elk Creek Campground (Clearwater NF)St. Joe National Forest · 9.4 mi
Pink House Recreation Site16 miLittle Boulder CampgroundSt. Joe National Forest · 18 miFrom HWY 12. Cross the bridge at Orofino and turn left onto Hwy 7. Travel 4.5 miles to Viewpoint Rd and turn right. Continue on Viewpoint Rd for 2.2 miles. Dam View Camping Area is on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Elk River, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 56°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Dam View Camping Area is in Idaho’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Russ Fulcher (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 moneyRuss FulcherU.S. Representative · Idaho’s 1st 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 Dam View Camping Area, Idaho
Dear Russ Fulcher, I’m a constituent in Idaho’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Dam View Camping Area, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Dam View Camping Area 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. Dam View Camping Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Dam View Camping Area. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Dam View Camping Area (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 Dam View Camping Area, Idaho
Dear James E. Risch, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Dam View Camping Area, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Dam View Camping Area 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. Dam View Camping Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Dam View Camping Area. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Dam View Camping Area (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 Dam View Camping Area, Idaho
Dear Mike Crapo, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Dam View Camping Area, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 6 sites at Dam View Camping Area 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. Dam View Camping Area keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Dam View Camping Area. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 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 Dam View Camping Area (Idaho) via campanac.com