Mink Creek Group Site Campground
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 26 – September 9Open May 26 through September 9
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Mink Creek Group Site Campground is located just 12 miles south of Pocatello, Idaho, along the Bannock Highway. The Mink Creek area is a popular area for birding and wildlife viewing, with many miles of multi-use trails waiting to be explored. Keep reading
Recreation
The West Fork Mink Creek Trail begins just outside the campground and is popular with hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders. Additional trails including Corral Creek Trail and Valve House Trail are in the vicinity.
Facilities
The campground offers one large accessible group site that can accommodate up to 200 people. The site contains a 40x80-foot picnic pavilion with concrete base, large paved parking area, 12 large picnic tables, two serving tables and a large fire ring, two accessible vault toilets and four potable water hydrants. The pavilion has two electrical outlets and night lighting. The road to the campground is paved, allowing easy access for RVs and cars. Security is provided by a locked entrance gate, area campground hosts and periodic county sheriff patrols. Mink Creek Group Area is popular for outdoor weddings; if you plan to move any site furniture please call Pinnacle Parks LLC for approval at (208)757-3999. Remember that site check-in time is 2:00 pm on the day of your reservation and check-out time is noon of the following day. Firewood is not provided and is not available on site for gathering. Garbage service is not provided. Mink Creek Group Site is managed by Pinnacle Parks Llc under a special use permit with the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. For questions please contact 208-757-3999 between the hours of 8am and 9pm.
Natural Features
The campground is situated along Mink Creek in the scenic Bannock Mountain Range of southeastern Idaho. A grove of ponderosa pines borders one side of the site, offering partial shade. Aspens and pines dot the surrounding mountainsides. A wide variety of birds can be found in the area, including the Western Scrub-Jay, Juniper Titmouse, Bushtit, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Mountain Bluebird and Green-tailed and Spotted Towhees and Calliope Hummingbirds.
Nearby Attractions
Cherry Springs Nature Area is nearby, with its pretty namesake spring, a stream for fishing, paved self-guided nature trails and picnic facilities. Mink Creek Nordic Center is also nearby, with hiking and horseback riding trails in summer months and groomed cross-country ski trails in the winter. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (208) 757-3999.
What the agency tells you
This campground is managed by Pinnacle Parks LLC under a special use permit with the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.
The group site gate code is included in the reservation confirmation email. Please call the Pinnacle Parks LLC at 208-757-3999 between the hours of 08:00 am and 09:00 pm if you have any questions.
Any commercial event or activity where a participation fee is charged or the primary purpose is the sale of a good or service requires a special use permit. Please call the Westside Ranger District for more information if you are trying to host a commercial event or activity at Mink Creek Group Site.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Check in is at 2pm. Check out is at noon.
There are no water or sewer hookups at this campground.
This facility is pack-it-in/pack-it-out.
Off-road vehicles and horses are not allowed in the campground.
Click here for more info about 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.
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Wildlife Caution
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and a large fire ring, two accessible vault toilets and four potable water hydrants. The pavilion has…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…two accessible vault toilets and four potable water hydrants. The pavilion has two electrical outlets…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 508th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 4
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
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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.
| MINK CREEK GROUP SITE | 1 | group standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 38 ft | 120 ft | $80 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Scout Mountain CampgroundCaribou National Forest · 3.9 miGoodenough Creek CampgroundPocatello Field Office · 8.4 miHawkins Reservoir CampgroundPocatello Field Office · 16 mi
Big Springs - CaribouCaribou National Forest · 17 mi
Pebble Guard StationCaribou National Forest · 17 miPipeline CampgroundPocatello Field Office · 25 miTake exit 63 off I-15 just south of Pocatello. Follow the brown "Mink Creek Recreation Area" signs to Bannock Highway for 2 miles, then turn left up Mink Creek Canyon. Go 7 miles south on Bannock Highway, past Bannock Guard Station, to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pocatello, ID
Typical weather
Typical May night 44°F, day 71°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 44°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
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
Mink Creek Group Site 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 →