Elk Creek Campground (Clearwater NF)
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 41 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 13All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Elk Creek Campground offers visitors a little bit of everything. From scenic views and vistas, to attractive waterfalls and ancient foliage, the campground provides a great place to stay in the mountains of north central Idaho. Recreational opportunities abound in the area and a variety of services are located nearby. Keep reading
Recreation
Elk Creek and nearby Elk River Reservoir provide visitors with opportunities for fishing and other water-related recreation. Cutthroat and rainbow trout, chinook salmon and steelhead swim in the clear waters. Fishing or hunting are popular activities in the rugged and primitive landscape. Hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding are available on the area's many trails and forest roads. The Elk Creek Falls Trail takes hikers 3.5 miles to the tallest waterfall in the state.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites for tent and RV camping, most of which are available on a first-come, first-served basis (no reservation needed). A total of 6 sites are available for advanced reservation up to four days before arrival date, at which point unreserved sites will also become first-come first-served. Electrical hookups are available at all sites including the six campsites available for advanced reservations. Parking and driving surfaces are gravel throughout the campground. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A more rustic overflow section offers additional campsites.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a mature pine forest in the Clearwater National Forest, next to Elk Creek, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet. The surrounding area is home to the tallest waterfall in Idaho, as well as the largest cedar tree east of the Cascade Range. Elk, deer, moose, bear and cougar make the forested country their home.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Elk River is less than a mile from the campground and offers a variety of basic services, including gas, groceries, showers and fishing equipment.
What the agency tells you
There are multiple Elk Creek Campgrounds; this is in Clearwater County, Idaho.
Extra Vehicles: One vehicle is included in your single campsite fee. Each additional vehicle will be charged a per day fee that is collected on site (cash or check only). Maximum two vehicles per site.
Stay Limit: The 14 day stay limit is strictly enforced. Camping for a period longer than 14 days during any 30-consecutive day period is prohibited. If you have booked back-to-back reservations, you will be asked to cancel all days after the first 14.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Occupancy and Use: Each site allows (1) camper/RV, (1) vehicle (not including RV pulling vehicle), (1) tent and maximum (8) people per campsite.
Maximum Camper/RV size: The campground sites are designed to accommodate units up to 40 feet long.
Click here for more information on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests
Due to dry weather conditions in late summer, camping season may end early to prevent forest fires.
Bears frequent the area; all food must be kept in approved containers.
This campground has first-come, first-serve sites.
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13
- Hookups
- 13 electric
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A more rustic…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A more rustic overflow section offers…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Reservoir, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 289th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 2
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 6 mapped sitesAll 13 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. 13 of the 13 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard electric | 40 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard electric | 40 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard electric | 40 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard electric | 40 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard electric | 40 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard electric | 40 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard electric | 40 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard electric | 40 ft | 130 ft | 346 ft | $20 |
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard electric | 40 ft | 130 ft | 296 ft | $20 |
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard electric | 40 ft | 155 ft | 509 ft | $20 |
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard electric | 40 ft | 133 ft | 557 ft | $20 |
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard electric | 40 ft | 169 ft | 388 ft | $20 |
| AREA ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard electric | 40 ft | 133 ft | 590 ft | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Dent Acres12 miLittle Boulder CampgroundSt. Joe National Forest · 14 miEmerald Creek CampgroundSt. Joe National Forest · 17 miFrom Moscow, Idaho, travel northeast on State Road 8 to Elk River. Turn north onto Forest Road 382 and then east onto Forest Road 1705. The campground is about 45 minutes from Moscow.
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
Who answers for this land
Elk Creek Campground (Clearwater NF) 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 →