Helende
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 39 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $12–$24Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 10All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Helende Campground is located 10 miles east of Lowman, Idaho, along Highway 21 at an elevation of 4,100 feet. The South Fork Payette River lies a few hundred yards away. Visitors enjoy fishing and rafting on the river, soaking at nearby Kirkham Hot Springs and exploring the extensive Kirkham Ridge Trail. Keep reading
Recreation
The South Fork Payette River offers whitewater rafting, kayaking and trout fishing. The Deadwood and Danskin River Access areas are nearby. Popular Kirkham Hot Springs is less than 5 miles west of the campground along Highway 21. A trail with staircases leads down to the soaking pools on the riverside. Kirkham Ridge Trail is one of the Lowman Ranger District's premier trails. It begins near Kirkham Campground and stretches through beautiful country for 35 miles, connecting with many other trails in the area. It is open to hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding. Sections of the trail are open seasonally to off-road vehicles.
Facilities
The campground contains single-family sites, all of which are accessible. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a dense forest of lodgepole and Ponderosa pine, which offers plentiful shade in most sites. Summer wildflowers dot the landscape. Deer and elk may be seen wandering through the area on occasion.
Nearby Attractions
Numerous natural hot springs pools can be found along the Banks-Lowman Highway, also known as the Wildlife Canyon Scenic Byway and Highway 21, the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway. Both byways offer scenic views, wildlife watching, historical information kiosks and several trail opportunities. Whitewater rafting and kayaking are popular activities on the South Fork and Main Payette Rivers. Several companies in the area offer guided half and full-day trips.
What the agency tells you
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Maximum two vehicles per site; additional vehicles must use parking lot and pay a fee
Day use fee for non-campers is $5
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Additional sites may be available on a first-come, first-served basis
Please contact the Lowman Ranger District at 208-259-3361 for off-season camping information
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
- 10
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 65 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 10
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. Natural Features…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, River
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 285th 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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $12–$24 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
10 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 10 mapped sitesAll 10 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 10 of the 10 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. 10 of the 10 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| HELE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 97 ft | 784 ft | 397 ft | $12–$24 |
| HELE | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 97 ft | 873 ft | 306 ft | $12–$24 |
| HELE | 003 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 267 ft | 729 ft | 495 ft | $12–$24 |
| HELE | 004 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 63 ft | 1,018 ft | 280 ft | $12–$24 |
| HELE | 005 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 63 ft | 1,008 ft | 238 ft | $12–$24 |
| HELE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 51 ft | 1,125 ft | 127 ft | $12–$24 |
| HELE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 51 ft | 1,098 ft | 111 ft | $12–$24 |
| HELE | 008 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | yes | 107 ft | 1,149 ft | 39 ft | $12–$24 |
| HELE | 009 - Double Site | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 79 ft | 1,067 ft | 146 ft | $12–$24 |
| HELE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 79 ft | 994 ft | 196 ft | $12–$24 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
KirkhamBoise National Forest · 3.6 mi
Park Creek Campground and Group sitesBoise National Forest · 5.5 mi
Park Creek (Idaho)Boise National Forest · 5.5 mi
Mountain ViewBoise National Forest · 6.4 mi
Warm Springs Guard StationBoise National Forest · 8.2 mi
BonnevilleBoise National Forest · 9.1 miFrom Boise, Idaho, take State Highway 55 to Banks. Turn east and travel on Forest Highway 24/Banks-Lowman Highway to Lowman. Turn left on Highway 21. Campground is located at milepost 82.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lowman, 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
Helende 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 →