Redfish Cabin
1Heads up1 fire 33 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 29 of the next 29 nights read 15:08 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
A stay at the historic Redfish Cabin is like having your own private Idaho! Nestled in the trees above the northern shore of Redfish Lake at an elevation of 6,570 feet, the historic (Civilian Conservation Corps 1930's era) cabin offers a perfect getaway for a small family or group of friends. The cabin is warm and cozy, the views are breathtaking, recreation opportunities abound and starry nights provide a gateway to heaven. And you can share it all with your canine family member. Keep reading
The Sawtooth National Recreation Area was established in 1972 for its natural, scenic, historic, pastoral, and fish and wildlife values. Redfish Lake is by far the most popular location in the area; however, a fall or winter visit provides a totally different experience than the "Coney Island" atmosphere of summer. Available only in the fall and winter, this is a special time of year where few visitors come to enjoy the beauty and solitude of the lake and surrounding mountain peaks.
Recreation
The cabin provides easy access to a variety of recreation opportunities. In the fall, trailheads to Bench Lakes, Redfish Creek, Fishhook Creek, and Marshall Lake, all within half a mile of the cabin, offer access to fabulous hiking or horseback riding. Snowshoeing and cross-country skiing on un-groomed trails near the lake offer excellent opportunities for winter recreation. Quick access to the groomed Stanley to Smiley Creek snowmobile route affords motorized recreation opportunities. Whether its photography, bird watching, climbing a mountain or sitting by the fire with a book, there's an activity for all.
Facilities
Redfish cabin can accommodate three people on a log bunk bed/futon (single mattress above, double mattress below). More people can sleep on the floor in sleeping bags (bring your own bags and pads) for a maximum of six persons. Winter access (after November 30) is a 2.25 mile snowmobile, snowshoe or ski along the gently climbing Forest Road 214. The cabin is equipped with electric lights. The heat source is a gas fireplace in the living room and electric wall heaters. The kitchen features an electric stove, refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot, pots and pans, dishes and utensils. There is no running water. There is an outhouse 50 feet from the cabin. There are picnic tables and a fire ring at the cabin although these might be buried under the snow in the winter. The front porch offers stunning views of the Sawtooth Wilderness and Redfish Lake.
Natural Features
Named for the brilliant sockeye salmon that return each year after a 900 mile journey from the sea, Redfish Lake is the largest lake in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. These fish were in such numbers that it's said the lake would shimmer red. Now endangered, most of the sockeye returning to the lake are bred in the nearby Sawtooth Fish Hatchery. The 217,000 acre Sawtooth Wilderness provides the backdrop for this dramatic setting, including the peaks which frame the lake at its south end: Mount Heyburn at 10,229' (3,118 m) and Grand Mogul at 9,733' (2967 m). Known for clear air, clean water and classic alpine beauty, this wilderness is home to a diversity of wildlife including bald eagles, osprey, elk and deer, gray wolf, mountain goat, and the elusive wolverine.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby small town of Stanley (5 miles north) provides a rural western atmosphere with limited amenities including lodging, dining, fuel and groceries in winter. Popular activities in the Sawtooth Valley this time of year include hunting, hiking, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, and hot springing along the Salmon River.
What the agency tells you
Check-in time is any time after 2:00 p.m.; check out time is 2:00 p.m.
Guests may call the Stanley Ranger Station (208-774-3000) for any questions or inquiries. Office hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00-12:00, 1:00-3:00. Alternate phone number is Sawtooth National Recreation Area, 208-727-5000.
Fall Access (October 15 - Nov.30): If Redfish Lake Road is free of snow, vehicles may park at the Redfish Lake Visitor Center parking lot. Follow the trail up to the rear of the Visitor Center, and then proceed beyond the amphitheater down to the cabin.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Winter access (December 1 - April 14) requires a 2.25 mile approach by ski, snowshoe, or snowmobile. No vehicular access.
A maximum of six people are allowed at the cabin.
Pets are allowed but should be kept off of furniture. Please pick up after your pet.
Livestock such as saddle, pack, or draft animals are not allowed at this site.
There is no drinking water available. Renters must bring drinking water, melt snow, or obtain and treat (bring your own filter) water from Fishhook Creek.
Bring all food, toilet paper and personal items with you.
Bring garbage bags as this facility is 'pack it in, pack it out'.
No refunds for bad weather.
No Wi-Fi or telephone. Cell service is intermittent.
Cabin is not ADA accessible.
For more information on the Sawtooth National Forest, click here.
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
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…pot, pots and pans, dishes and utensils. There is no running water. There is an outhouse 50 feet from the cabin. There…”
- Stay limit
- 10 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Climbing
- Fish Hatchery
- Historic site
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Visitor center
- Winter sports
- Night sky · 171st darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 15:08 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 15:08 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:08 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 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. 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.
| REDFISH CABIN | RF01 | cabin electric | 20 ft | 251 ftFishhook Creek | 1,034 ft | $65 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Outlet CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 0.5 mi
Glacier View CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 0.5 miMount Heyburn CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 0.6 mi
Point CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 0.8 miSockeye CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 0.9 miMountain View CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 1.5 miRenters should check winter road reports online at 511.idaho.gov or by calling 511 or 1-888-432-7623 prior to travel.
October 15, November 30:
From Stanley: Intersection of Hwy 21 and Hwy 75, drive south on Hwy 75 4.25 miles to Redfish Lake Road (FS Road 214). The turn is near mile marker 185, approximately 5 miles south of Stanley.
From Ketchum/Sun Valley: Drive north 55 miles on Hwy 75 to Redfish Lake Road. Hint: The turn is near mile marker 185. If you reach Stanley, you've gone about 5 miles too far north. From Hwy 75 and Redfish Lake Road (FS Road 214), drive 2 miles (southwest) along FS Road 214 to Redfish Visitor Center, park at Visitor Center, walk around Visitor Center to Redfish Amphitheater. Redfish Cabin is 30 yards south of amphitheater.
The weather
the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Typical weather
Typical October night 24°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 4°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 · a letter you can send
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
Redfish Cabin 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyMichael K. SimpsonU.S. Representative · Idaho’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJames E. RischU.S. Senator · Idaho
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMike CrapoU.S. Senator · Idaho
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Redfish Cabin, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho
Dear Michael K. Simpson, I’m a constituent in Idaho’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Redfish Cabin, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Redfish Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Redfish Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Redfish Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Redfish Cabin (Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Redfish Cabin, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho
Dear James E. Risch, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Redfish Cabin, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Redfish Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Redfish Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Redfish Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Redfish Cabin (Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Redfish Cabin, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho
Dear Mike Crapo, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Redfish Cabin, Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Redfish Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Redfish Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Redfish Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Redfish Cabin (Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Idaho) via campanac.com