Rainbow Point
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20–$40Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 128 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rainbow Point Campground is located next to scenic Lake Cascade in west central Idaho. It is near the town of Donnelly, at an elevation of 4,850 feet. Boating, fishing, swimming and hiking are popular activities in this scenic region. Note: During the 2022 season, thinning work will be conducted in neighboring Amanita campground to reduce the risk associated with root rot and subsequent hazard trees. Keep reading
Recreation
Lake Cascade offers excellent opportunities for boating, water skiing, canoeing, windsurfing and sailing. Anglers enjoy casting for rainbow trout, coho salmon, smallmouth bass and perch. A boat ramp is located within the campground. Many hiking and biking trails are in the area as well.
Facilities
This small campground offers single-family campsites. Each is equipped with a picnic table, campfire ring and grill. Some sites have lake views and shoreline access. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided, but electricity is not available at the campground. Roads and parking spurs within the facility are gravel.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the west shore of the lake, among a mixed-growth conifer forest that towers over the campground. Summer wildflowers are abundant. A wide variety of wildlife makes its home around the lake. Waterfowl and songbirds can also be seen in the area, as well as pelicans and bald eagles.
What the agency tells you
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Bears frequent the area; please keep a clean camp and be bear aware
Some first-come, first-served sites may also be available
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Click here for more information on the Boise National Forest
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 12
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…have lake views and shoreline access. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided,…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and shoreline access. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided, but electricity…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 376th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 8 of the 12 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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, $20–$40 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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 6 mapped sitesAll 12 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 8 of the 12 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. 8 of the 12 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.
| RAIN | 001 | standard nonelectric | $20–$40 | ||||
| RAIN | 002 | type not stated | 30 ft | ||||
| RAIN | 003 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 85 ft | 346 ft | 836 ft | $20–$40 |
| RAIN | 004 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 85 ft | 264 ft | 798 ft | $20–$40 |
| RAIN | 005 Double Site | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 176 ft | 207 ft | 1,045 ft | $20–$40 |
| RAIN | 006 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 117 ft | 220 ft | 1,180 ft | $20–$40 |
| RAIN | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 117 ft | 138 ft | 1,296 ft | $20–$40 |
| RAIN | 008 Double Site | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $20–$40 | |||
| RAIN | 009 | type not stated | 30 ft | ||||
| RAIN | 010 | type not stated | 35 ft | 428 ft | 1,016 ft | ||
| RAIN | 011 | type not stated | 25 ft | 359 ft | 1,065 ft | ||
| RAIN | 012 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 164 ft | 336 ft | 960 ft | $20–$40 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
AmanitaPayette National Forest · 0.2 mi
Cabin CreekPayette National Forest · 7.8 mi
Paddy Flat Guard StationPayette National Forest · 11 mi
French CreekBoise National Forest · 12 mi
Kennally CreekPayette National Forest · 14 mi
Big FlatPayette National Forest · 15 miFrom Boise, Idaho, travel north on Highway 55 for 95 miles to Donnelly. Turn west on West Roseberry Road and go 1.5 miles to Norwood Road. Turn south and continue a mile to Tamarack Falls Road. Turn west and go just over a mile to West Mountain Road. Turn south and go a mile 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 Donnelly, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 57°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 13°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
Rainbow Point 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 →