McCrea Bridge
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $25–$50Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2517 on recreation.gov
- Season
- May 1Opens May 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
McCrea Bridge Campground is located on the backwaters of beautiful Island Park Reservoir in Island Park, Idaho at an elevation of 6,200 feet. Visitors love Island Park for its world-class fishing and outstanding scenery and wildlife viewing opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
Island Park Reservoir offers boating, water skiing, fishing and canoeing. A boat ramp is located within the campground. The reservoir is used for irrigation so the water level recedes throughout the summer and by August, the reservoir cannot be accessed from McCrea Bridge. The Island Park area is renowned for its fishing; Henry's Fork is considered one of the best fly-fishing streams in the nation. Anglers cast for rainbow, cutthroat and brook trout and Kokanee salmon. Hiking, biking, horseback riding and ATVing are popular activities. Many miles of trails are in the area, including the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail and the Nez Perce Trail. The Big Springs National Recreation Water Trail offers a roughly three-hour float or canoe trip through beautiful scenery. Wildlife, including moose, bald eagles and Sandhill cranes, are often seen along the trail.
Facilities
The campground contains single and double sites, each equipped with a picnic table, campfire ring and grill. Some sites have stairs between the parking spur and the site pad. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection area provided, but there is no electricity. A paved road accesses the campground but interior roads and parking spurs are gravel. Firewood is available for purchase from the host.
Natural Features
Island Park is composed of two areas of extinct volcanic activity. The Henry's Fork Caldera sits inside the larger Island Park Caldera. The area is known for its dense forests of lodgepole pine, broad grassy meadows bursting with summer wildflowers and a wide variety of wildlife, including black and grizzly bears, moose, elk, deer, bald eagles, Sandhill cranes and much, much more. The campground is situated in a forest of lodgepole pine, which provides partial shade in some sites. Some areas of the campground are more open and sunny than others.
Nearby Attractions
Mesa Falls Scenic Byway is 12 miles south of the campground. This 28-mile road leads to scenic overlooks and trails at 110 foot Upper Mesa Falls and 85 foot Lower Mesa Falls. Harriman State Park is 14 miles south. The Henry's Fork meanders through the Harriman, offering excellent fishing. Over 20 miles of trails are available, and wildlife is abundant in this scenic park. Henry's Lake State Park is 16 miles north, offering fishing, a fish cleaning station and boat ramp. Yellowstone National Park's west entrance is just 29 miles north in the town of West Yellowstone, Montana. Visitors enjoy day-tripping to the park for unparalleled wildlife viewing and the beautiful and unique scenery.
What the agency tells you
Wildlife Caution
Idaho OHV Safety Message
No reservoir access in August due to low water levels
Everything else this campground posts · 5
A $7 fee for each extra vehicle will be collected at the campground
No ATVs/OHVs or horses allowed in the campground
This campground has first come, first served sites
Click here for more information on the Caribou-Targhee 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
- 25
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 99 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…the parking spur and the site pad. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection area provided,…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…spur and the site pad. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection area provided, but there is no…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Boating
- Fishing
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 405th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 17 of the 25 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 · 14
What you actually pay
“A $7 fee for each extra vehicle will be collected at the campground” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $25–$50 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
25 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 25 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. 25 of the 25 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 01 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | 1 | standard nonelectric | $25–$50 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | A1 | standard nonelectric | $25–$50 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | A2 | standard nonelectric | $25–$50 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | A3 | standard nonelectric | $25–$50 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | A4 | standard nonelectric | $25–$50 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | A5 | standard nonelectric | $25–$50 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | A6 | standard nonelectric | $25–$50 | |||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | A7 | standard nonelectric | $25–$50 | |||
| MCCR | 10 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 78 ft | 564 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 11 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 75 ft | 611 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 12 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 78 ft | 492 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 13 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 75 ft | 544 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 14 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 411 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 15 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 352 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 16 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 111 ft | 330 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 17 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 120 ft | 356 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 2 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 76 ft | 435 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 3 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 58 ft | 507 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 4 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 58 ft | 538 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 5 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 60 ft | 582 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 6 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 60 ft | 612 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 7 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 682 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 8 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 73 ft | 725 ft | $25–$50 |
| MCCR | 9 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 73 ft | 678 ft | $25–$50 |
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
ButtermilkTarghee National Forest · 2.4 mi
Upper Coffee PotTarghee National Forest · 2.6 mi
Buffalo CampgroundTarghee National Forest · 2.9 mi
Buffalo (Idaho)Targhee National Forest · 2.9 mi
Flatrock CampgroundTarghee National Forest · 3.8 mi
Flat Rock (Idaho)Targhee National Forest · 3.8 miFrom West Yellowstone, Montana, take Highway 20 south for 27 miles. Turn west at Elk Creek Service Station and travel 2 miles to the campground entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Island Park, ID
Typical weather
Typical May night 32°F, day 58°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 32°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 moreOutside the published season
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
McCrea Bridge 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 →