Emigration Campground
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $20–$34Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 26All of them booked ahead
- Season
- June 1Opens June 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Emigration Campground is located in 17 miles west of Montpelier, Idaho, just off State Highway 36 in Emigration Canyon. Visitors enjoy exploring the nearby Highline Trail and fishing on local streams. Keep reading
Recreation
The Highline National Recreation Trail is adjacent to the campground and is considered the premier trail of the Montpelier District. It is open to hikers, bikers, horseback riders, motorcyclists and off-road vehicle riders. The trail stretches 55 miles along the backbone of the Bear River Range and intersects many other trails on the west side of the district.
Facilities
The campground offers 20 single-family sites, three double-family sites and two group sites. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads to and within the campground are paved, and several sites can accommodate 40-foot trailers with pull vehicle. Group Site 3 (RCD) was recently added to the facility and is 1.5 miles west of the main campground on Highway 36. The site has vault toilets and drinking water. A picnic shelter with multiple tables and campfire rings, and small amphitheater are available. Roads and parking areas are gravel.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a quiet canyon forested with pine, spruce and aspen trees. Summer wildflowers dot the landscape and grasses cover the area. Wild huckleberries are abundant in mid-August.
What the agency tells you
Wildlife Caution
Idaho OHV Safety Message
An additional $6 fee will be collected at the campground for extra vehicles
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Click here for more information on the Caribou-Targhee 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
- 26 · 3 group, 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 58 ft
- Paved pads
- 25 of 26
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…double-family sites and two group sites. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads to and… / …campground on Highway 36. The site has vault toilets and drinking water. A picnic shelter with multiple…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and two group sites. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads to and within the campground…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Visitor center
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 411th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 3
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 · 15
What you actually pay
“An additional $6 fee will be collected at the campground for extra vehicles” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$34 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
26 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 26 mapped sitesAll 26 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 26 of the 26 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 26 of the 26 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 161 ft | 387 ft | 3,129 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 139 ft | 288 ft | 2,842 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 103 ft | 408 ft | 2,835 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 115 ft | 478 ft | 3,070 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 95 ft | 604 ft | 3,092 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 95 ft | 523 ft | 3,007 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 120 ft | 675 ft | 3,049 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 113 ft | 568 ft | 2,857 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 101 ft | 512 ft | 2,914 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 87 ft | 461 ft | 2,779 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 87 ft | 384 ft | 2,716 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 93 ft | 289 ft | 2,679 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 93 ft | 299 ft | 2,588 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 180 ft | 2,497 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 121 ft | 109 ft | 2,617 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 109 ft | 71 ft | 2,503 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 94 ft | 13 ft | 2,630 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 124 ft | 89 ft | 2,534 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 021 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 132 ft | 177 ft | 2,717 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 022 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 94 ft | 61 ft | 2,693 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 023 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 102 ft | 62 ft | 2,887 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 102 ft | 152 ft | 2,898 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | 025 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 229 ft | 3,038 ft | $20–$34 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | GS-1 | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 109 ft | 146 ft | 3,035 ft | $87–$100 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | GS-2 | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 381 ft | 57 ft | 3,269 ft | $87–$100 |
| EMIGRATION CAMPGROUND | GS-3 RCD | group shelter nonelectric | 5321 ft | 5,049 ftEmigration Creek | 2,890 ft | $100 |
25 of 26 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Maple Grove Campground11 mi
Eight Mile Guard StationCache National Forest · 11 mi
Paris Springs CampgroundCache National Forest · 12 mi
Redpoint CampgroundPocatello Field Office · 14 mi
Willow Flat CampgroundCache National Forest · 16 mi
Montpelier Canyon CampgroundCaribou National Forest · 17 miFrom Montpelier, drive west on U.S. Highway 89 to Ovid, Idaho. At the junction of U.S. 89 and State Highway 36, take the right fork of the "Y" onto State Highway 36 and travel approximately 12 miles northwest to the campground. A left hand turn is required to enter the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bennington, ID
Typical weather
Typical June night 38°F, day 71°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical June night 38°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Emigration 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 →