Rattlesnake
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rattlesnake Campground is located 13 miles north of Crouch, Idaho along the Middle Fork Payette River at an elevation of 3621 feet. The Middle Fork drainage offers a variety of excellent trails. Fishing and hunting are popular activities as well. Keep reading
Recreation
The Middle Fork Payette River offers good to excellent fishing most of the year. Anglers cast for whitefish and rainbow trout. Many trails for hiking, mountain biking, horseback and ATV riding can be found in the area. The One Spoon Trail, Rattlesnake Trail, and 465 ATV Trail are all in the vicinity of the campground. In-season big game hunting for deer, elk and bear is a popular activity in the surrounding mountains.
Facilities
The campground can be reserved as one large, accessible group site, which consists of nine single sites and one double site. This group site can accommodate up to 100 people. A two night minimum stay is required on weekends. A three night minimum stay is required on holiday weekends. Picnic and utility tables, campfire rings and a picnic shelter are provided. Two accessible vault toilets are also provided. Ten parking spurs are available, each 50-75' in length. Additional camping is available at nearby Hardscrabble and Trail Creek Campgrounds.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the banks of the Middle Fork Payette River among Douglas fir and lodgepole pine trees, which offer partial shade. A few sites offer river views through the dense vegetation on the banks. A variety of wildlife makes its home in the Middle Fork drainage, including deer, elk, and red-tailed hawks.
What the agency tells you
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Site is reservable as a group unit only; individual sites are available on a first come, first served basis when there is no group reservation
No firearms allowed within 150 yards
Everything else this campground posts · 5
General parking area is 100' x 75'
Click here for more information on the Boise National Forest
Please click here for further information about the facility and recreation opportunities in the area.
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 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 75 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…shelter are provided. Two accessible vault toilets are also provided. Ten parking spurs are available,…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Picnicking
- Night sky · 334th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 2
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
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.
| RATTLESNAKE | G01 | group standard area nonelectric | 75 ft | yes | 172 ft | $150 |
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
Rattlesnake Campground and Group sitesBoise National Forest · 0.0 miHardscrabble CampgroundBoise National Forest · 2.1 miTie Creek CampgroundBoise National Forest · 4.6 mi
Silver Creek CampgroundBoise National Forest · 5.9 mi
Boiling Springs CabinBoise National Forest · 6.9 mi
Peace Valley CampgroundBoise National Forest · 7.8 miFrom Crouch, travel north on Forest Road 698 approximately 14 miles to the campground, which is located on the left-hand 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 Smiths Ferry, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 64°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Rattlesnake 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 →