Powell Campground
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 25 mi
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $14–$20Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 34All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Powell Campground provides direct access to the Lochsa Wild and Scenic River, one of Idaho's most scenic waterways. The Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness lies on the opposite side of the river. The campground is within walking distance of a small general store, fuel, lodging and a restaurant. The Powell Ranger Station is nearby as well, but all visitor services have moved to Lolo Pass Visitor Center. Keep reading
Recreation
The Lochsa River provides visitors with opportunities for fishing and other water-related recreation. Cutthroat and rainbow trout, Chinook salmon and steelhead swim in the clear waters. The Lochsa is world-famous for its exciting whitewater rafting opportunities. A permit is not necessary to float the river, but technical expertise is a must. A variety of hiking and horseback riding trails are available in the wilderness area. The 1.5-mile Powell Complex Trail begins near the campground and leads west through cool, shady cedar and larch trees, making for a relaxing day trip. Hunting is also a popular activity in the rugged and primitive landscape. Highway 12, also known as the Lewis and Clark Highway, winds along the narrow river canyon through evergreen trees and past large rock outcroppings. Visitors enjoy the scenic drive and historic sites along the way.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites for tent and RV camping. The sites in loop A offer electrical hookups (15 amp, 30 amp, and 50 amp.) Parking surfaces are paved throughout the campground. Additional sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water (spigots are located in 5 sites throughout the campground and are not intended for hooking up to, the sites do not have water hookups) are provided throughout the campground. An accessible flush toilet is adjacent to the day use area. Firewood is not provided and it is often not available.
Natural Features
Lochsa is a Nez Perce word meaning "rough water." The 70-mile river and its tributaries have no dams and the flow is unregulated from its headwaters near the Powell Ranger Station in the Bitterroots, to Lowell, where it joins the Selway River to form the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River. The Lochsa is one of the world's best for continuous whitewater. The campground is situated in a dense forest in north-central Idaho at an elevation of 3,400 feet. It is across the river from the border of the 1.5-million acre Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Famed explorers Lewis and Clark passed through on their way to the Pacific Ocean in September of 1805. Elk, deer, moose, bear, cougar and mountain goats make the steep canyon country their home. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (208) 942-3113.
Nearby Attractions
A variety of services are available in the rustic resort area near the campground including a general store, lodging, food and fuel. Fishing licenses are also available for purchase. The nearest free dump station is 40 miles west on Highway 12, at the Wilderness Gateway Campground.
What the agency tells you
A $2/day fee is charged for extra vehicles
Click here for more information on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
There is no cell phone service within the campground; the nearest town with reception is Lolo, MT 45 miles away.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 34
- Hookups
- 23 electric
- Longest rig
- 200 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water (spigots are located in 5 sites… / …throughout the campground. An accessible flush toilet is adjacent to the day use area. Firewood is not…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water (spigots are located in 5 sites throughout the…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Coast
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 254th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 2
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:39 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
“A $2/day fee is charged for extra vehicles” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $14–$20 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:39 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
35 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 21 mapped sitesAll 35 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 21 of the 35 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. 34 of the 35 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | A012 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15 amp | $20 | |||
| A | A013 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15 amp | $20 | |||
| A | A014 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | 117 ft | 491 ft | 97 ft | $20 |
| A | A015 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | 117 ft | 393 ft | 118 ft | $20 |
| A | A016 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15 amp | 97 ft | 211 ft | 209 ft | $20 |
| A | A017 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | 97 ft | 258 ft | 214 ft | $20 |
| A | A018 | standard electric | 45 ft | 15 amp | $20 | |||
| A | A019 | standard electric | 45 ft | 15 amp | $20 | |||
| A | A020 | standard electric | 35 ft | 15 amp | $20 | |||
| A | A021 | standard electric | 45 ft | 15 amp | $20 | |||
| A | A022 | standard electric | 200 ft | 15 amp | $20 | |||
| A | A023 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | $20 | |||
| A | A024 | standard electric | 45 ft | 15 amp | 81 ft | 196 ft | 385 ft | $20 |
| A | A025 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | 92 ft | 115 ft | 469 ft | $20 |
| A | A026 | standard electric | 35 ft | 15 amp | 81 ft | 165 ft | 422 ft | $20 |
| A | A027 | standard electric | 45 ft | 15 amp | 91 ft | 81 ft | 502 ft | $20 |
| A | A028 | standard electric | 45 ft | 15 amp | $20 | |||
| A | A029 | standard electric | 45 ft | 15 amp | $20 | |||
| A | A030 | standard electric | 200 ft | 15 amp | 104 ft | 226 ft | 530 ft | $20 |
| A | A031 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15 amp | 75 ft | 251 ft | 438 ft | $20 |
| A | A032 | standard electric | 45 ft | 15 amp | 88 ft | 323 ft | 433 ft | $20 |
| A | A033 | standard electric | 45 ft | 15 amp | 75 ft | 306 ft | 363 ft | $20 |
| A | A034 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15 amp | 102 ft | 411 ft | 345 ft | $20 |
| B | B001 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 62 ft | 655 ft | 283 ft | $14 | |
| B | B002 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 62 ft | 604 ft | 266 ft | $14 | |
| B | B003 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 70 ft | 587 ft | 304 ft | $14 | |
| B | B004 | standard nonelectric | 200 ft | 130 ft | 556 ft | 391 ft | $14 | |
| B | B005 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 90 ft | 333 ft | 523 ft | $14 | |
| B | B006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 90 ft | 331 ft | 612 ft | $14 | |
| B | B007 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $14 | ||||
| B | B008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $14 | ||||
| B | B009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 147 ft | 197 ft | 484 ft | $14 | |
| B | B010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 207 ft | 174 ft | 274 ft | $14 | |
| B | B011 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $14 | ||||
| B | HOST | host pad | 45 ft | 15 amp | $20 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 35 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
West Fork Butte LookoutLolo National Forest · 22 mi
Scurvy Mountain LookoutClearwater National Forest · 23 miThe campground is located 160 miles east of Lewiston, Idaho, and 60 miles southwest of Missoula, Montana. From Lowell, travel east on Highway 12 for about 65 miles, to milepost 162.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pinesdale, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
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
Powell Campground is in Idaho’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Russ Fulcher (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →