Independence Lakes Campground
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Independence Lake Campground and Picnic Area is a non-fee campground and picnic area where reservations are not required. There are 5 single sites. This area is accessible for a season that varies usually between July through October. Sites are handicapped accessible. Campground amenities include 9 tables and grills, toilets, and livestock facilities. No drinking water or trash service is available. Nearby Independence Lakes Trail (#35) is 3.1 miles to the Lake. Only non-motorized travel is authorized. The first mile is rocky, however the remainder is a reasonable grade with switchbacks to the first of four lakes in the alpine cirque basin. Fish Your National Forests: This site can be accessed by Passenger Car; Fish available include: Trout; Types of fishing available include: Wade, Shore, Non-motorized boat, Float tube, Fly, Spin, Bait;
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “Campground amenities include 9 tables and grills, toilets, and livestock facilities.”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…toilets, and livestock facilities. No drinking water or trash service is available. Nearby Independence…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- OHV riding
- Picnicking
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. 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 · 3
What you actually pay
How we know this receipt · 4
rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Lake Cleveland - East SideSawtooth National Forest · 7.4 miLake Cleveland Campground - West SideSawtooth National Forest · 7.5 mi
Thompson FlatSawtooth National Forest · 7.8 miBennett Springs CampgroundSawtooth National Forest · 8.3 mi
Smoky Mountain CampgroundBurley Field Office · 9.9 miThe weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Oakley, ID
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

Independence Lakes 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 →