Deadwood Lookout Rec Cabin
1Heads up1 fire 48 mi away
- 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 · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Deadwood Lookout Recreation Cabin is a historic Forest Service fire lookout on Deadwood Mountain. The structure provides sweeping panoramic views of the surrounding forest, making this a unique place to overnight. At least two other lookouts have existed previously on Deadwood Mountain, but the current one was built in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was actively used as a fire lookout until 1972. It has since become one of the most popular rental cabins in Idaho. The peak season is late June through mid-October. Keep reading
Guests can drive to the cabin, but high clearance vehicles are recommended for the dirt access road because it is narrow, steep and winding. The cabin offers only a few basic amenities. Guests should be prepared to bring most of what they need to make themselves comfortable, but the views of the mountains by day and the stars at night guarantee a memorable and rewarding experience.
Recreation
Hikers and mountain bikers have access to three nearby trails: Scott Mountain, Julie Creek, and Nellie's Basin. The Deadwood Ridge Trail is a popular destination for equestrians, hikers, mountain bikers, and off-road vehicle enthusiasts.
Facilities
This rustic cabin is a 14x14-ft. room equipped with two single beds with mattresses that can be fastened together. A wood stove is available for heating and cooking. A wood counter with shelf and a table with two chairs complete the furnishings. A vault toilet, picnic table, and campfire ring are located outside and below the lookout. The cabin is surrounded by an exterior catwalk. No water, electricity or firewood is available. Guests must bring their own water supply, as well as trash bags to pack out garbage. Bedding, pillows, cookware, kitchen utensils, and tableware are not provided. Guests are expected to clean the lookout before leaving. A broom and dustpan are provided for this purpose.
Natural Features
The cabin is perched atop Deadwood Mountain at an elevation of 7482 feet. A variety of colorful wildflowers bloom around the base of the cabin in the summer, and stands of conifers dot the landscape. Mornings bring unobstructed views of sunrises. Guests can watch the sun set each evening and then gaze out at an endless canopy of stars. Wildlife enthusiasts may spot elk, deer and bear in the surrounding area. Bull moose have occasionally been spotted along nearby trails. Guests may find swallows and other birds nesting just outside the lookout. Guests can also expect to see various types of snakes, including Gopher snakes, Garter snakes, Racer snakes, Bull snakes & Rattlesnakes, especially when temperatures reach 70-82 degrees fahrenheit outside.
What the agency tells you
The lock combination for the cabin will be on the reservation confirmation letter. Please call the Aud & Di Campground Services at (541) 351-1182 for any questions about your reservation or the cabin. Call the Emmett Ranger District at (208) 365-7000 for any additional questions about the area.
No water is available at the lookout or within its vicinity
No garbage service; trash must be packed out
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Please clean the cabin before leaving
Weather conditions and snow may delay opening of the road to Deadwood Lookout beyond the planned opening date and may force early closure of the road prior to the planned closing date
Livestock, such as saddle, pack or draft animals, is not allowed at this site
Click here for more information about Boise 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.
Check-in Time is 2:00pm and Check-out time is 12:00pm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…two chairs complete the furnishings. A vault toilet, picnic table, and campfire ring are located…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…or firewood is available. Guests must bring their own water supply, as well as trash bags to pack out garbage.…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
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.
| DEADWOOD LOOKOUT REC CABIN | 01 | cabin nonelectric | 1,442 ft | $80 |
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
Pine Flats (ID)Boise National Forest · 3.3 mi
Mountain ViewBoise National Forest · 5.4 mi
Park Creek (Idaho)Boise National Forest · 6.1 mi
Park Creek Campground and Group sitesBoise National Forest · 6.1 mi
KirkhamBoise National Forest · 8.4 miFrom Boise, Idaho, take Highway 55 north about 35 miles to Banks, Idaho. Turn right (east) on Banks-Lowman Road and proceed 25 miles to the junction with Forest Road 555. Turn left (north) on Road 555 and proceed 9 miles to the junction of Forest Roads 555 and 555EC. Turn right on 555EC and proceed 3 miles to Deadwood Lookout Recreation Cabin at the end of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lowman, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 24°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 4°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Deadwood Lookout Rec Cabin 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 →