Priest River
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 33 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 20All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Priest River Campground is situated on the banks of Priest River, shaded by firs, cedars and pines, just upstream from the confluence of the Pend Oreille River. Keep reading
Recreation
Water activities are popular at the campground including kayaking, fishing and swimming. The day-use area includes a picnic shelter, playground, softball field, swim beach, boat ramp and a large grassy area for family fun . Adjacent to the campground is the Priest River Wildlife area, offering excellent fishing as well as birding. Wildlife in the area includes bald eagles, osprey, a wide variety of birds, and deer.
Facilities
Priest River Campground offers 20 campsites with amenities such as flush toilets and hot showers.
Natural Features
Albeni Falls Dam was built in 1955 for flood control and power production on the Pend Oreille River. Today, the popular lake has the added benefit of providing visitors with countless year-round recreational activities. Lake Pend Oreille is surrounded by scenic mountains and is one of the largest and deepest natural lakes in the western United States, plunging to depths of more than 1,200 ft. in some areas. Behind the dam, the Pend Oreille River stretches 65 miles through a glacial-carved valley that separates three mountain ranges.
Nearby Attractions
The Albeni Falls Visitor Center features exhibits on the history of the dam and the natural features of the area. Tours of the dam are given saturdays during the summer. The nearby town of Priest River, Idaho, offers gas and grocery services.
What the agency tells you
Group shelter reservations: You are responsible for following all regulations posted under the "Need to Know" and "Site Details" sections for each respective shelter. Please read these sections before making a reservation.
Campsites are by reservation only. There are no First Come, First Served sites.
Campground is nearby Highway 2 and is subject to road noise.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
No unlicensed motorized vehicles allowed, including side-by-sides, ATVs, etc.
Campsites are for camping only. Reserving for day-use activities without intending to camp is prohibited.
All camping equipment must be located on the campsite impact areas, or if undefined, located 10-15ft from the fire ring and off all vegetation.
Site Limits: (a) 2 Motorized Vehicles (b) 1 Camping unit (RV, motorhome, camper van, etc) (c) 2 tents (d) 8 people
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 20
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 72 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…20 campsites with amenities such as flush toilets and hot showers. Natural Features Albeni Falls Dam…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Facilities Priest River Campground offers 20 campsites with amenities such as flush toilets and hot showers.”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Birding
- Boating
- Fishing
- Softball Fields
- Swimming
- Visitor center
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 517th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 32 km away
- No change
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, $30 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
21 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 21 mapped sitesAll 21 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 20 of the 21 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Group | Priest River Shelter | day use | 178 ft | 26 ft | ||
| PRIV | 001 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 89 ft | 508 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 002 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 103 ft | 521 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 003 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 118 ft | 633 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 100 ft | 565 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 005 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 486 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 006 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 80 ft | 408 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 007 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 101 ft | 310 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 008 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 71 ft | 222 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 009 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 61 ft | 180 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 010 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 60 ft | 160 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 011 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 60 ft | 105 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 012 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 132 ft | 37 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 013 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 67 ft | 168 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 014 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 61 ft | 156 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 015 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 84 ft | 236 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 016 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 62 ft | 235 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 017 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 60 ft | 284 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 018 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 79 ft | 363 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 019 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 60 ft | 337 ft | $30 |
| PRIV | 020 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 86 ft | 428 ft | $30 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
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
Albeni Cove5.0 mi
Riley Creek5.8 mi
Pioneer Park7.8 mi
Springy Point15 miMaiden Rock CampgroundKaniksu National Forest · 19 mi
South Skookum LakeKaniksu National Forest · 20 miPriest River Recreation Area is 1 mile east of the town of Priest River on Highway 2. After the river it will be the first road on the right. The park is also known as the "Mudhole."
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Priest River, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 22°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Priest River 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 →