French Gulch Campground
4Heads up4 fires, nearest 24 mi
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- FreeNo camping fee
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
French Gulch Campground provides a good "base camp" for day trips to other areas of the Red River Ranger District, with two campsites and vault toilet. This is a roomy area, with plenty of parking available. It provides public fishing access on nearby Red River. French Gulch Creek flows through the campground.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Ranger District, with two campsites and vault toilet. This is a roomy area, with plenty of parking…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and it costs nothing at all. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Walker CabinNezperce National Forest · 7.9 miBridge Creek CampgroundNezperce National Forest · 8.4 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Elk City, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 14°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
French Gulch Campground 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 →