Egin Lakes Campground/Day Use Area
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 48All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located far from any ocean, the St. Anthony Sand Dunes appears as a rolling sea of sand on the eastern edge of Idaho’s volcanic Snake River Plain. These vast dunes are the largest in Idaho. They blanket an area approximately 20 miles long and 5 miles wide and range from 50 to 400 feet high. This 10,600-acre playground of shifting, white quartz sand is known for its unique beauty and exceptional space for off-highway vehicle (OHV) enthusiasts, hikers and equestrians. Picnicking, snowmobiling, wildlife viewing and camping opportunities are also available. The best time to visit is spring through fall. Keep reading
Summer temperatures cause sands to reach over 100 degrees. The area features Deadhorse Bowl, a popular OHV sand bowl one-mile in circumference and 400 feet deep, located in the western section of the dune complex. The Egin Lakes Campground located 8 miles to the west from St. Anthony, ID. The developed campground offers a potable water system, RV dump station and 48 improved camp units, including electrical service. There is also a day use and horse trailer parking area.
Recreation
The campground sites have electric pedestals, access to water hydrant, campfire rings, picnic tables and a vault toilet. There are numerous opportunities to go hiking, biking, horseback riding and ride off-road vehicles in the area.
Facilities
Facilities: 48 site developed campground, each site has electric hookup, picnic shelter, fire ring, and table. 3 parking areas include day use, overflow, and equestrian. Reservations are available at recreation.gov for 26 of the 48 campsites. The remaining 22 sites are first come, first served. View the campground map . Other facilities include fee station, OHV unloading ramp, 7 water hydrants, restrooms (6 double vaults), RV dump station, concessions, and 3 picnic sites with shelters. Contact station area: Law enforcement, EMS, and Idaho Air Rescue Regulations: Safety flags, annual OHV sticker; designated routes, ride only in open sand and observe all posted signs; no glass containers; all riders under age 18 must wear helmets (ID state law).
Natural Features
This 10,600-acre playground of shifting, white quartz sand is known for its unique beauty and exceptional space for off-highway vehicle (OHV) enthusiasts, hikers and equestrians. The dunes are an important environment for a variety of plants and animals. The sand dunes themselves may appear lifeless, but they harbor three unique and sensitive species: the Saint Anthony evening primrose and two species of beetle. The dunes are ringed by thousands of acres of native grasses, junipers and sagebrush that provide habitat for sage-grouse and critical winter range for elk, mule deer and moose.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is within a couple of hours drive from Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.
What the agency tells you
- Reservable Campsites: Limited to two campsites per transaction - If your arrival is delayed for any reason you have 24 hours to contact the Upper Snake Field Office at 208-524-7500 during office hours from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm MST then 208-709-2363 after hours, otherwise your reservation may be cancelled - Pets on a leash - Must occupy the campsite the first night and must not leave property unattended for over 72 hours - 14 day camping limit with a 30 day period - Quiet hours are from 11pm to 7am - Maximum tow vehicle/camper length 72 ft - Senior and Access Interagency Federal Passes are accepted at this site and give the user 50% off camping fees - Check in 2pm and Check Out 11am - All OHVs must be equipped with a minimum 8-foot above level ground whip mast and brightly colored flag - All motorized travel must occur on open sand or designated routes - 2026 free day use days - Memorial Day (May 25), Flag Day / President Trump’s Birthday (June 14), Independence Day weekend (July 3–5), 80th Birthday of the BLM (July 16), Constitution Day (September 17), Theodore Roosevelt’s Birthday (October 27)
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 48 · 48 cabin
- Hookups
- 48 electric
- Longest rig
- 72 ft
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…campfire rings, picnic tables and a vault toilet. There are numerous opportunities to go hiking,…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…ID. The developed campground offers a potable water system, RV dump station and 48 improved camp units,…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Playground
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Coast
- Biking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Kayaking
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Other Recreation Concession Site
- Picnicking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 507th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 10 days ago, 16 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 · 14
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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
48 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 48 mapped sitesAll 48 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. 48 of the 48 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Main loop | A-1 | overnight shelter electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 3,216 ft | $35–$90 | |
| Main loop | A-10 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 41 ft | 3,241 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | A-2 | overnight shelter electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 53 ft | 3,207 ft | $35–$90 | |
| Main loop | A-3 | overnight shelter electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | 51 ft | 3,200 ft | $35–$90 | |
| Main loop | A-4 | overnight shelter electric | 72 ft | 50 amp | yes | 51 ft | 3,200 ft | $35–$90 |
| Main loop | A-5 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 43 ft | 3,211 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | A-6 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 41 ft | 3,221 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | A-7 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 38 ft | 3,228 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | A-8 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 38 ft | 3,236 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | A-9 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | yes | 41 ft | 3,245 ft | $35–$90 | |
| Main loop | B-1 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 23 ft | 3,456 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-10 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 27 ft | 3,439 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-11 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 27 ft | 3,235 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-12 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 27 ft | 3,230 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-13 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 27 ft | 3,230 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-14 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 30 ft | 3,229 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-15 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 13 ft | 3,241 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-16 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 13 ft | 3,241 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-17 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 31 ft | 3,250 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-18 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 36 ft | 3,267 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-19 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | yes | 37 ft | 3,314 ft | $35–$90 | |
| Main loop | B-2 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 23 ft | 3,453 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-20 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 37 ft | 3,342 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-21 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 40 ft | 3,377 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-22 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 24 ft | 3,474 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-23 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 24 ft | 3,496 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-24 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 23 ft | 3,521 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-25 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 23 ft | 3,543 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-3 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 24 ft | 3,453 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-4 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 24 ft | 3,449 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-5 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 24 ft | 3,445 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-6 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 24 ft | 3,445 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-7 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 26 ft | 3,442 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-8 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 23 ft | 3,441 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | B-9 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 23 ft | 3,439 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-1 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 23 ft | 3,450 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-10 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 21 ft | 3,673 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-11 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 21 ft | 3,689 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-12 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 20 ft | 3,708 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-13 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | yes | 20 ft | 3,723 ft | $35–$90 | |
| Main loop | C-2 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 22 ft | 3,472 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-3 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 20 ft | 3,494 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-4 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 20 ft | 3,514 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-5 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 25 ft | 3,539 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-6 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 21 ft | 3,596 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-7 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 21 ft | 3,616 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-8 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 20 ft | 3,636 ft | $35–$90 | ||
| Main loop | C-9 | overnight shelter electric | 50 amp | 20 ft | 3,654 ft | $35–$90 |
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.
25 of 48 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Kelly Island Campground25 mi
Table RockTarghee National Forest · 26 mi
Riverside CampgroundTarghee National Forest · 29 mi
Riverside (ID - Targhee)Targhee National Forest · 29 mi
Warm RiverTarghee National Forest · 29 mi
Bishop Mountain CabinTarghee National Forest · 30 miAddress: 1525 E 500 N, St.Anthony, ID 83445
Located 35 miles north of Idaho F alls, Idaho
From US-20 northbound, take the North Rexburg #337 exit. Turn left onto 1900 E. (Salem Highway). Travel 6.3 miles north to the 2nd flashing light (at the 4-way) to St. Anthony Sand Dunes. Turn left and travel 0.85 miles to the split in the road. Stay right, over the railroad tracks and continue on 500 N for 2.9 miles. At the Egin Lakes Access sign, turn right onto the paved access road.
From US-20 southbound, take exit #346 (Saint Anthony City Center). Turn right onto Bridge Street and continue through the stop light to West 4th N. Turn left onto West 4th N, which turns into 600 N after you leave city limits. Follow 600 N approximately 3 miles until you reach the intersection with Red Road. Turn left to go to Egin Lakes access or right to the parking and dispersed camping areas along Red Road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Parker, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 12°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
Who answers for this land
Egin Lakes Campground/Day Use Area 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 →