NORTH FORK CAMPGROUND - St. CHARLES CANYON
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1Opens May 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
North Fork Campground is located in scenic St. Charles Canyon in southern Idaho, near Bear Lake. Visitors enjoy hiking, biking, horseback riding and motorcycling on local trails, and fishing in St. Charles Creek. Keep reading
Recreation
North Fork Trail, which has a trailhead within the campground, is open to motorcycles, horses, hikers and mountain bikers and connects with the Highline Trail, a 55-mile path along the backbone of the surrounding Wasatch Mountains. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game manages the river fisheries, providing excellent fishing most of the year, including in St. Charles Creek. In-season big game hunting is also a popular activity.
Facilities
The campground offers an accessible group site that can accommodate a maximum of 50 guests. The group site is made up of five smaller sites. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets. Roads and parking spurs are gravel.
Natural Features
A dense, mixed growth conifer forest covers the campground. St. Charles Creek flows gently through the site.
Nearby Attractions
Minnetonka Cave is a short distance from the campground. Scenic Canyons offers guided, 90-minute tours through the nine-room cave with formations called the Bride and Groom, Three Sisters and Devil's Kingdom. The cave temperature is 40 degrees and the path through it includes 444 steps. Tickets must be purchased at the cave entrance. Bear Lake's North Beach is 12 miles from the campground, offering swimming and fishing opportunities on one of the Inter-mountain West's largest natural lakes. Bear Lake State Park Marina is 20 miles from the campground, with a seven-lane boat ramp, boat rentals, slips, a snack bar and general store.
What the agency tells you
Visitors please read the wildlife caution
Pack out trash upon departure
Limited parking can accommodate small pop-up trailers only; no large trailers
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Off-road vehicles not permitted in the canyon
There is no cell phone service
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
- 1 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 24 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets. Roads and parking spurs are gravel. Natural…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Night sky · 453rd darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 9 days ago, 30 km away
- Past peak
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 Sep 10, 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.
| NORTH FORK CAMPGROUND - St. CHARLES CANYON | GS1 | group tent only area nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 703 ft | 482 ft | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cloverleaf CampgroundCache National Forest · 0.1 mi
Porcupine (ID)Cache National Forest · 0.7 mi
Davis Canyon CampgroundCache National Forest · 2.4 mi
Egan Basin Guard StationCache National Forest · 3.5 mi
St. Charles CampgroundCache National Forest · 4.6 miBeaver Creek CampgroundCache National Forest · 5.2 miFrom Garden City, Utah, take Highway 89 north to St. Charles, Idaho. Drive west from St. Charles along Forest Road 412 for 8.1 miles, then turn right and follow the dirt road a short distance 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 St. Charles, ID
Typical weather
Typical May night 37°F, day 62°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 37°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
NORTH FORK CAMPGROUND - St. CHARLES CANYON 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 →