Meadow Lake Campground
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $15–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Meadow Lake Campground is located on the Leadore Ranger District of the Salmon-Challis National Forest. This high alpine campground sits at an elevation of 9,160 feet in the Lemhi Mountain Range, 22 miles from Leadore, Idaho. Keep reading
Recreation
There's no lack of recreational opportunities around Meadow Lake Campground. The lake is stocked twice a year so the fish are always biting. Fish from the bank or carry your boat down to the lake and try from the water, as there is no boat ramp or boat dock at the lake. Hiking opportunities are available right out of the campground and include trail # 342 which provides a gentle loop around the backside of the campground. Try trail # 057 which takes you up to the steep ridge above the campground (the trail to Meadow Lake Peak is not maintained by the Forest Service). If a slower pace is appealing, pull up a chair and soak-up the incredible views from the campground.
Facilities
Meadow Lake Campground consists of 17 campsites and a day use area with picnic tables, fire rings and barbecue pedestals. The campground offers 2 vault toilets, drinking water and day use parking. 4 double campsites are available for larger groups with each site including 2 picnic tables, 2 tent pads, a campfire ring, a prep table, and expanded parking for 2 vehicles. The campground also offer 13 single campsites each with a picnic table, tent pad, campfire ring, prep table, and parking for 1 vehicle.
Natural Features
Meadow Lake Campground is located at the base of the 10,720-foot Meadow Lake Peak and along the banks of the 13.3-acre Meadow Lake. The high elevation campground is dotted with lodge pole pine and white bark pine trees and is frequented by deer and mountain goats.
Nearby Attractions
There are plenty of other attractions in the vicinity of Meadow Lake including the Gilmore Ghost Town and a number of other Forest Service recreation sites and trails. Stop at the Leadore Ranger Station and pick up a visitor map for more information.
Charges & Cancellations
A $8.00 non-refundable on line reservation fee may be charged for some facilities.
What the agency tells you
No day use parking in campsites.
This campground has 15 first-come, first-served sites, and 2 sites available for advanced reservation.
Reservations are available from July 1st through Labor Day. Camping outside of this date range is first-come, first-served (fee still required, pay onsite) as weather permits.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Road to campground not maintained during winter months. Call Leadore Ranger Station (208-768-2500) for more information on access to campground.
No electric, water or sewer hookups at this campground.
Campground water is only to be used for drinking and cooking; please help us conserve water.
Livestock prohibited in campground.
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility. This includes packing out fish guts.
Bring reservation confirmation paperwork with you for check-in with campground host.
Click here for more information on the Salmon-Challis National Forest.
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Elevation of gampground is 9,160 feet.
No boat dock or boat ramp. Please carry your boat to the lake to put in the water. The only boat motors allowed are trolling motors.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 28 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…pedestals. The campground offers 2 vault toilets, drinking water and day use parking. 4 double…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…The campground offers 2 vault toilets, drinking water and day use parking. 4 double campsites are…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 16 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Meadow
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Picnicking
- Water access
- Night sky · 26th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 1
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$30 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.
“A $8.00 non-refundable on line reservation fee may be charged for some facilities.” · this campground’s own terms
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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites · the site map
All 2 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. 2 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
McFarland CampgroundSalmon Field Office · 28 mi
Birch Creek CampgroundUpper Snake Field Office · 29 miFrom Leadore drive 17 miles south on Highway 28 and turn right (west) on to Forest Service Road #002 at the old Gilmore Townsite. Follow the gravel road for 6 miles as it climbs 2,080 feet to the campground.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Leadore, 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
Meadow Lake 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 →