North Fork (ID)
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 16 mi
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $22–$44Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 28All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
North Fork Campground is situated on the banks of the beautiful Big Wood River at an elevation of 6,300 feet. Visitors enjoy fishing and tubing on the river and exploring the Harriman Trail. Keep reading
Recreation
This site is part of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, where outdoor activities abound. Fly-fishing for rainbow, brown and brook trout is popular on the Big Wood River, as is float tubing. The 20-mile Harriman Trail leads past the campground, offering excellent hiking and biking. Numerous additional trails spur off the Harriman Trail leading to deep canyons, sparkling lakes, swimming holes and more excellent high country fishing.
Facilities
The campground contains several family sites, some of which are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood is available for purchase from the host. Roads and parking spurs are gravel.
Natural Features
A scenic aspen forest covers North Fork, offering plentiful shade. Pines dot the landscape and colorful summer wildflowers are abundant. Willows and grasses line the riverbank. Temperatures are cool with an average summer high of 78 degrees and a low of 40 degrees.
Nearby Attractions
The Sawtooth National Recreation Area Visitor Center is 1/2-mile from the campground, with a small museum, bookstore and area information. An RV dump station and drinking water are located here as well. Easley Hot Springs is 6 miles north, offering a swimming pool, hot tubs, showers and a small store. Popular area events include Wagon Days in Ketchum in September.
What the agency tells you
Standard Single Family sites: Recreation Use Fee allows ONE camping unit ONLY. Double sites: refer to Specific Site # for capacity limits.
Late Arrivals: campers are not considered a "no-show" until 24 hours after arrival date check in time. Our policy is that your site will not be released before that.
Extra Vehicles: Your camp fee includes the first vehicle only in a single site and the first 2 vehicles in a double site. All other vehicles will be charged 50% of the posted camp fee at the time of check-in and cannot be paid for in advance. Coordinate with the host for payment and where to park.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
FIRST COME FIRST SERVE sites must be booked in person. DO NOT call to determine availability, as they are only avaiable on-site.
There are no electricity, water or sewer hookups at this campground.
Off-road vehicles are not permitted at the campground
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.
Click here for more info about the Sawtooth National Forest
Opening and closing dates are weather permitting, please call 928-537-8888 for more information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 28
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…on a first-come, first-served basis. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood is…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…first-served basis. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood is available for purchase…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Lake, River
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 266th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 21 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $22–$44 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
28 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 28 mapped sitesAll 28 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 28 of the 28 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. 28 of the 28 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.
| NORTH FORK | 1 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 191 ft | 183 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 10 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 128 ft | 305 ft | 1,252 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 11 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 202 ft | 181 ft | 1,324 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 12 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 104 ft | 188 ft | 1,072 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 13 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 95 ft | 279 ft | 465 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 14 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 206 ft | 296 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 15 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 77 ft | 146 ft | 80 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 16 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 126 ft | 193 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 17 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 117 ft | 163 ft | 311 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 18 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 117 ft | 229 ft | 428 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 19 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 80 ft | 469 ft | 549 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 2 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 77 ft | 218 ft | 18 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 20 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 80 ft | 409 ft | 604 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 21 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 185 ft | 56 ft | 1,096 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 22 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 84 ft | 72 ft | 1,249 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 23 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 77 ft | 154 ft | 1,226 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 24 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 77 ft | 218 ft | 1,159 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 25 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 167 ft | 366 ft | 942 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 26 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 91 ft | 384 ft | 777 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 27 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 61 ft | 441 ft | 704 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 28 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 61 ft | 494 ft | 675 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 3 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 127 ft | 208 ft | 170 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 4 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 267 ft | 292 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 5 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 95 ft | 301 ft | 388 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 6 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 191 ft | 213 ft | 720 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 7 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 70 ft | 204 ft | 903 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 8 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 70 ft | 254 ft | 949 ft | $22–$44 |
| NORTH FORK | 9 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 104 ft | 286 ft | 1,125 ft | $22–$44 |
25 of 28 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Wood River Group Overnight Area (Tent Only)Sawtooth National Recreation Area · 1.8 miCaribou CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 2.2 mi
Easley CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 5.6 miBoundary Campground and Picnic AreaSawtooth National Forest · 6.8 miFrom Ketchum, Idaho, travel approximately 8 miles north on Highway 75. Campground is on the west side of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ketchum, ID
Typical weather
Typical May night 35°F, day 62°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 35°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
North Fork (ID) 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 →