Redfish Lake Recreation Complex
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Redfish Lake is at the headwaters of the Salmon River, whose waters flow north to meet the Snake River and continue to the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. As late as the 1950's, more than 4,000 sockeye salmon made the annual 900-mile (1,440-km) pilgrimage from the ocean to their spawning grounds in the Sawtooth Valley. However, in recent years only between 2-20 have returned each year. In an effort to save the endangered fish, whose bright red color gave Redfish Lake its name, the National Marine Fisheries Service established a local hatchery. Since 1999, the lake has been stocked with sockeye salmon. Keep reading
Bull trout, steelhead and Chinook salmon can also be spotted in the area. There is a visitor center and Redfish Lake Lodge. Between Little Redfish Lake and Redfish Lake there are commercially operated showers, a gas station with propane, a dump station and horse rentals. Little Redfish Lake does not allow motorboats. Redfish lake campsites that accept reservations include: Sunny Gulch campsite, Glacier View, Outlet campsite, Point, North Shore picnic area and Sunny Gulch Pavillion picnic area. Reservations can be made by going to www.recreation.gov or by calling (877)444-6777. First-come, first-serve campsites include: Chinook Bay, Mountain View, Mt. Heyburn, Sockeye, Red Fish Inlet, Outlet Day Use Area, and Sunny Gulch campsite offers some as well. Double-sites are available at Sunny Gulch campsite, Sockeye, Glacier View and Outlet. Picnic and day use areas include North Shore picnic area, Sunny Gulch Pavillion and picnic area, and Outlet day use area.
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Coast
Phone before you drive
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
How we know this receipt · 4
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Point CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 1.1 miMount Heyburn CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 1.3 mi
Outlet CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 1.7 mi
Redfish CabinSawtooth National Recreation Area · 1.7 miRedfish Inlet CampgroundSawtooth National Recreation Area · 1.8 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Stanley, ID
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
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 Lake Recreation Complex 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 →