Elks Flat Campground
1Heads up1 fire 22 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Elks Flat Campground is situated on the banks of the South Fork Boise River, at the foot of the Trinity Mountain Range in Idaho. It is five miles north of the town of Pine. Visitors enjoy fishing, swimming and exploring trails in the surrounding area. Keep reading
Recreation
The South Fork Boise River runs along the eastern edge of the campground, offering rafting, swimming and fishing for rainbow trout. Paradise Hot Springs is nearby. Green Creek Trail 270, a 4.5-mile trail for hiking, horseback riding and dirt bikes, begins a mile from the site. Cross Cut Trail 172 also begins close by and is open to hiking, biking, horseback riding and off-road vehicles.
Facilities
This campground contains two large-group campsites that can accommodate up to 100 people. Each site is equipped with covered pavilions, picnic tables and cement site pads. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking spurs within the campground are gravel.
Natural Features
The campground is settled in a grassy meadow. It is surrounded by stands of cottonwood, aspen, Douglas fir and ponderosa pine, at an elevation of 4,400 feet.
Nearby Attractions
Baumgartner Hot Springs is approximately 16 miles away with a soaking pool and nature trail. Kelly Creek Flats Recreation Area is adjacent to Baumgartner with several more trail opportunities.
What the agency tells you
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Horses are not allowed at the campground
Single-family campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Click here for more information on the 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…picnic tables and cement site pads. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and cement site pads. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking spurs within the…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, River, Creek, Meadow
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Night sky · 331st 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
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
2 sites · the site map
All 2 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. 2 of the 2 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
Dog Creek (ID)Boise National Forest · 0.7 miPine Campground Boat Ramp5.6 miAbbott CampgroundSawtooth National Forest · 6.3 miIce Springs CampgroundBoise National Forest · 6.3 miCurlew Creek CampgroundBoise National Forest · 7.0 miChaparral CampgroundSawtooth National Forest · 7.1 miFrom Mountain Home, travel east on Highway 20 for 35 miles to the turnoff for Pine/Featherville (Forest Highway 61). Travel north on Highway 61 for 24 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Fairfield, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 9°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
Elks Flat Campground 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 →