Lower Penstemon
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $8From, per site
- Sites
- 76 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lower Penstemon Campground is located along the scenic Rock Creek Road, in southern Idaho, at an elevation of 6,600 feet. Visitors come to the area to enjoy its abundant trails and natural beauty. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and off-road vehicle trails crisscross the surrounding area. Third Fork, Pike Mountain, Rim View and Porcupine Spring trails all begin nearby. Rock Creek runs along the campground, offering good trout fishing.
Facilities
The campground contains single-family campsites with picnic tables and campfire rings. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking spurs within the campground are gravel. Because the campground is situated along the main road, some noise from passing cars is to be expected.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a mixed conifer and aspen forest, just off Rock Creek Road. Most sites have partial shade. Summer wildflowers dot the landscape and wildlife can be seen frequently in the surrounding area.
What the agency tells you
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Click here for more information on the Sawtooth 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.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Due to a new well installation for the Rock Creek water system, there will be no water available until August 31th, 2019. Please plan accordingly and bring all the water you will need for your stay. For more information, please contact the Minidoka Ranger District at 208-678-0430.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 7
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with picnic tables and campfire rings. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and campfire rings. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Roads and parking spurs within the…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 417th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 6 of the 7 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $8 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
7 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 6 mapped sitesAll 7 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. 7 of the 7 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LOWER PENSTEMON | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 628 ft | 167 ft | $8 |
| LOWER PENSTEMON | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 169 ft | 60 ft | $8 |
| LOWER PENSTEMON | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 169 ft | 58 ft | $8 |
| LOWER PENSTEMON | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 301 ft | 325 ft | $8 |
| LOWER PENSTEMON | 005 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 291 ft | 347 ft | $8 |
| LOWER PENSTEMON | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 628 ft | 308 ft | $8 |
| S&P | Single S&P | type not stated | 30 ft | $8 |
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
Porcupine SpringsSawtooth National Forest · 2.2 miThird Fork CampgroundSawtooth National Forest · 4.4 miBear Gulch CampgroundSawtooth National Forest · 5.4 miTravel south on Twin Falls County Road G3 which becomes Forest Road 515, commonly known as Rock Creek Road, for approximately 27 miles from Hansen.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hollister, 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
Lower Penstemon 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 →