U.S. Forest Service · Challis National Forest · ID

Mt. Borah Trailhead and Camping Area

First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
A night
$5From, per site
Drawn from the record · 7,330 ft · 0% tree cover · water within reach · Bortle 1 sky
7,330 ftElevation
504 ftWater · an unnamed stream
37.4 miNE of Sun Valley, ID
0%Tree cover
Bortle 1Night sky · 54th darkest of 523 in ID

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

This area serves as a base camp for climbing the tallest mountain in Idaho. It has 5 campsites, accessible vault toilet, No drinking water, safety and informational signs. Nearby areas of interest include Earthquake site and Mackay Reservoir.

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Vault Toilets
“…in Idaho. It has 5 campsites, accessible vault toilet, No drinking water, safety and informational signs.…”
Drinking water
None, bring your own
“…5 campsites, accessible vault toilet, No drinking water, safety and informational signs. Nearby areas of…”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Reservoir
Source: Stated in the agency description

Nothing to book, just show up

One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and a night costs $5 with nothing added. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.

recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
A night$5Per site, fromthe agency’s fee record
A weekend$10DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 5

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night, from$5
Night for single unit$5
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
One night, fromDerived$5
A weekend, Friday and Saturday, fromDerived$10

Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($5), and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.

How we know this receipt · 5
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate

The weather

the next four days

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight39°Partly Cloudy
Saturday60°Mostly Sunny
Saturday Night39°Partly Cloudy
Sunday58°Mostly Sunny

NWS forecast for Mackay, ID

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Borah Peak130,336 acres · 8 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Mike Simpson, official portrait

Mt. Borah Trailhead and Camping Area 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Mackay, ID, 18.3 mi NW. Straight line.