Johnson Creek Guard Station
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Johnson Creek Guard Station was built in 1922 and offers a charming mountain respite with modern conveniences. The cabin offers nearly everything needed for a pleasant and comfortable stay. Peak season for the cabin is typically early June through late September. It can be accessed by most vehicles via dirt and gravel roads, but trailers are not recommended. Keep reading
Recreation
The cabin is near several trailheads into the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness. These non-motorized trails are popular for hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians. Off-road vehicle trails are also nearby. Click here for an Idaho OHV safety message. The South Fork Salmon River and Johnson Creek offer opportunities for fishing. Berry picking and hunting are popular pastimes in season.
Facilities
The rustic cabin has two twin beds with mattresses in the loft, as well as two cots, a couch and a heater. A full size bed is in separate bedroom. The kitchen is equipped with a table and four chairs, an electric range and a refrigerator. Cookware and utensils are provided, including saucepans, pots and lids, plates, bowls, cups, mugs, utensils, knives, a cutting board, salad bowl and cookie sheet. A modern bathroom with a flush toilet and shower is available. Two picnic tables, a campfire ring and two grills are located outside behind the cabin. Guests must bring garbage bags to pack out their own trash. Bedding, lanterns or flashlights, towels and emergency drinking water are not provided.
Natural Features
Johnson Creek sits in a pretty mountain meadow a stone's throw from scenic Johnson Creek, a tributary of the South Fork Salmon River. Mountain slopes covered in dense pine forest surround the cabin. Wildlife watchers may see deer, elk, bear and moose. Bald eagles are often spotted soaring overhead.
Nearby Attractions
The tiny community of Yellow Pine is a few miles north of the cabin and offers limited services. The popular Yellow Pine Music & Harmonica Festival is held annually in August.
What the agency tells you
Guests must bring the combination to the lock and directions to the cabin
Cabin is pack-it-in/pack-it-out
The campfire ring can be used, but no large bonfires please
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Tents, RVs and motor homes are not allowed at this site
The cabin is accessible by most vehicles but trailers are not recommended
Guests should be aware that there may be air traffic overhead coming to and from a nearby airstrip.
Click here for more information about Boise National Forest
Livestock are not permitted at this site
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
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…cookie sheet. A modern bathroom with a flush toilet and shower is available. Two picnic tables, a…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Bedding, lanterns or flashlights, towels and emergency drinking water are not provided.”
- Stay limit
- 4 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
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 · 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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| JOHNSON CREEK GUARD STATION | 001 | cabin electric | 30 amp | 374 ftJohnson Creek | $100 |
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
Deadman Bar Camping AreaPayette National Forest · 9.4 mi
Four MilePayette National Forest · 11 mi
Camp CreekPayette National Forest · 12 miFrom Cascade, ID, head north on ID-55/Main Street toward McCall, ID. Turn right/east on FH-22/Warm Lake Road. Stay on this road for about 35 miles. Turn left/north on Road 413/Johnson Creek Road. Stay on this road for about 22 miles. The cabin sits on the right/east side of the road. Look for the Forest Service sign.
This is good unpaved road, but there are a few narrow and steep sections with few pull-outs, and there may be some washboard sections. Use low gears. Some sections of the road are steep.
For additional information, the Cascade District Office is located in Cascade on the north end of town off Highway 55 on the right side of the road. Office hours are Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed on federal holidays. Please call the office at (208) 382-7400 for information on alternate routes.
Note Warm Lake Summit can be closed due to snow, if so, take FS 474 north to FH48, head east and then south on Johnson Creek Road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Yellow Pine, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 12°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
Johnson Creek Guard Station 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 →