Montpelier Canyon Campground
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $13From, per site
- Sites
- 15All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1Opens May 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Montpelier Canyon Campground provides a rustic camping opportunity next to Highway 89, along Montpelier Creek, at an elevation of 6,400 feet. Montpelier Reservoir is within five miles, offering fishing, boating and canoeing. Keep reading
Recreation
Montpelier Creek offers rainbow, cutthroat and brown trout fishing. Many visitors make the short drive to Montpelier Reservoir for boating, canoeing and additional fishing opportunities. A boat ramp is located at the reservoir.
Facilities
The campground offers 15 family sites, two of which are tent-only. Vault toilets are provided, but drinking water is not available. Roads and parking spurs within the campground are gravel. Larger RVs and trailers may have difficulty maneuvering through the campground; please check individual site descriptions for maximum vehicle length. Additionally, campsites within this facility are considered very small and rustic. Driveways are narrow and surrounded by dense vegetation.
Natural Features
The campground in situated in dense stands of willow, which help shelter the campground from traffic noise. Montpelier Creek runs alongside the campground.
Nearby Attractions
Beautiful Bear Lake straddles the Utah-Idaho border and is within a 35-minute drive of the campground. Outdoor activities abound at Bear Lake, with endless boating, water skiing, jet skiing, scuba diving, swimming, hiking, biking, horseback riding and off-road vehicle riding opportunities. Sightseeing and scenic driving are popular activities as well.
What the agency tells you
Drinking water is not available at the campground
Wildlife Caution
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Everything else this campground posts · 3
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.
Check-in Time is 2:00pm and Check-out time is 12:00pm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 15 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…sites, two of which are tent-only. Vault toilets are provided, but drinking water is not available.…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…Vault toilets are provided, but drinking water is not available. Roads and parking spurs within the campground are…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 479th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 3
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 rate for this season, $13 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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
15 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 15 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. 15 of the 15 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.
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 63 ft | 63 ft | $13 | |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 63 ft | 85 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 13 ft | 73 ft | 100 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 73 ft | 144 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 82 ft | 19 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 94 ft | 65 ft | $13 | |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 92 ft | 33 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 162 ft | 114 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 123 ft | 101 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 126 ft | 45 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 126 ft | 56 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 95 ft | 42 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 95 ft | 91 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 87 ft | 53 ft | $13 |
| MONTPELIER CANYON CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 87 ft | 137 ft | $13 |
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
Clear Creek Guard StationCaribou National Forest · 14 mi
Paris Springs CampgroundCache National Forest · 16 mi
Summit View CampgroundCaribou National Forest · 16 mi
Emigration CampgroundCache National Forest · 17 miAllred Flat CampgroundBridger National Forest · 17 mi
St. Charles CampgroundCache National Forest · 19 miThe campground is located three miles east of Montpelier, Idaho, on U.S. Highway 89.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Montpelier, ID
Typical weather
Typical May night 34°F, day 64°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 34°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
Montpelier Canyon 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 →