Grayback
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:01 UTC
- A night
- $20–$40When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 14In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Grayback Campground is located 36 miles northeast of Boise, Idaho, just off scenic Highway 21. Historic Idaho City is just two miles north of the campground. Visitors enjoy fishing in Mores Creek and exploring the Grayback Gulch Trail. Keep reading
Recreation
Mores Creek can be accessed just below the campground. Anglers fish for whitefish and rainbow trout. Grayback Loop Trail begins within the site, offering a 1-mile footpath for hikers. Numerous trail opportunities are in the area just north of Idaho City, where hiking, biking, horseback riding and off-road vehicles can be enjoyed. During the winter, the area becomes a playground for back country skiers and snowmobiles.
Facilities
The group campground contains two group sites with picnic and serving tables, grills, campfire circles and paved site pads. Site A can accommodate up to 150 people and 20 vehicles, and site B can accommodate up to 100 people and 15 vehicles. Both sites can be reserved at the same time, for even larger groups. The group sites share one accessible bathroom facility that has a men's and women's side, each with four stalls. There is also an accessible hand pump for drinking water and a dumpster that is shared between the two sites. The campground hosts 15 single sites and 3 double sites, each equipped with a paved parking spot, picnic table, lantern hook, and campfire ring. Three vault toilets, a two accessible hand pumps for drinking water, and dumpster are provided in the campground. Sites 2, 4, 7, 8, 11, and 15 are not listed on Recreation.gov and are first-come-first-serve.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on a hillside about a quarter-mile above Highway 21, at an elevation of 4,200 feet. A Ponderosa Pine forest covers the site, offering partial shade. Wildlife and summer wildflowers are abundant in the area. Mores Creek flows nearby, down the hillside from the campground Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (208) 392-6681.
Nearby Attractions
Highway 21, also known as the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway, snakes along Mores Creek to Mores Creek Summit, Gold Fork and Banner Ridge, offering historic sites, hot springs pools and breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains and forest along the way to the campground. The campground is only 2 miles away from historic Idaho City, which is an old gold mining town that hosts multiple restaurants, bars, shops, a vistor center, and a museum.
What the agency tells you
Water from hand pump is tested monthly for contaminants and will be abruptly shut off if not currently potable. Please plan accordingly with your own water supply in case of a shut off during your stay.
Use caution on the campground access road; while the road is paved, it is a steep, one-lane road, with sharp turns
Due to limited parking space at the group site, large groups of RVs or trailers cannot be accommodated; tent camping is encouraged
Everything else this campground posts · 7
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.
Pets must be on a leash at all times
Campfires are allowed in fire rings ONLY, unless fire restrictions are in place. Contact Idaho City Ranger District for updates regarding fire restrictions.
Quiet hours are from 10pm-6am, generators are only permitted from 6am-10pm
Reservations cancelled last minute due to weather or smoke conditions will not be refunded unless campground is closed to the public.
For questions regarding the campground, please contact the Idaho City Ranger District at (208) 392-6681
For questions regarding reservations and refunds, please contact Recreation.gov customer service.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 14 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 85 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 14 campsite records / ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 14 of 14 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- ACCESSIBLE DRINKING WATER on 13 of 14 campsite records
- Playground
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Visitor center
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 511th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 4
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:01 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Grayback closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 2
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Ninemeyer CampgroundBoise National Forest · 15 mi · walk-up
- Abbott CampgroundSawtooth National Forest · 35 mi
recreation.gov availability, read 16:01 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
14 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 14 mapped sitesAll 14 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. 14 of the 14 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| GRAY | 003 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 107 ft | 411 ft | $20–$40 |
| GRAY | 005 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 57 ft | 592 ft | $20–$40 |
| GRAY | 006 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 57 ft | 615 ft | $20–$40 |
| GRAY | 009 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 67 ft | 823 ft | $20–$40 |
| GRAY | 010 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 67 ft | 802 ft | $20–$40 |
| GRAY | 012 | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 61 ft | 915 ft | $20–$40 |
| GRAY | 013 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 61 ft | 937 ft | $20–$40 |
| GRAY | 014 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 115 ft | 906 ft | $20–$40 |
| GRAY | 016 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 132 ft | 767 ft | $20–$40 |
| GRAY | 017 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 122 ft | 712 ft | $20–$40 |
| GRPA | GRPA | group standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 185 ft | 1,857 ft | $250 |
| GRPB | GRPB | group standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 185 ft | 1,790 ft | $250 |
| MULT | 001 | standard nonelectric | 69 ft | 107 ft | 429 ft | $20–$40 |
| MULT | 018 | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | 158 ft | 613 ft | $20–$40 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ten Mile CampgroundBoise National Forest · 9.9 mi
Bad Bear CampgroundBoise National Forest · 11 mi
Edna Creek CampgroundBoise National Forest · 11 mi
Hayfork Group CGBoise National Forest · 11 miFrom Boise, take State Highway 21 north for 36 miles. Campground access road is located on the east side of the road, between mileposts 36 and 37. Turn right and travel a quarter-mile 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 Idaho City, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January 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 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
Grayback 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 →