Sagehen Creek
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 9All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sagehen Creek Campground is located on the shores of the scenic Sagehen Reservoir at an elevation of 4997 feet. Visitors enjoy boating, fishing, exploring Joe's Creek Trail, as well as utilizing the non-motorized Sagehen Reservoir Trail. Keep reading
Recreation
Sagehen Reservoir offers great boating, canoeing, and rainbow trout fishing. A boat ramp and dock are located within the campground.There is a 15 mph speed limit on the reservoir. Hiking, biking, horse, and ATV trails are abundant in the area, including Joe's Creek Trail, which begins not far from the campground. The Sagehen Reservoir Trail, a 4-mile loop around the lake, offers great fishing spots, beautiful viewpoints and wildlife watching opportunities for hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders. The Sagehen and KYAOTT ATV Trail Systems can be accessed near the reservoir, offering more than 35 miles of trails for ATVs and motorcycles, but hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders can enjoy these trails as well.
Facilities
The campground contains several single-family sites, a few of which are accessible, all with picnic tables and campfire rings. Vault toilets and hand-pumped drinking water are provided. Firewood is available for purchase from the host.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a forest of towering Ponderosa pine, Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, and grand fir, which provide plentiful shade in most sites. Some sites afford lake views. Summer temperatures range from 80 to 90-degree days to cooler nights. A variety of berries and mushrooms can be found throughout the area. Local wildlife includes deer, elk, black bear, goshawk, woodpeckers, and boreal owls.
What the agency tells you
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Additional first come, first served sites are available
A per-day, per-vehicle fee will be collected at the campground for extra vehicles
Everything else this campground posts · 4
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
- 9
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 3
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with picnic tables and campfire rings. Vault toilets and hand-pumped drinking water are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…rings. Vault toilets and hand-pumped drinking water are provided. Firewood is available for purchase…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 357th 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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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
9 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 9 mapped sitesAll 9 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 9 of the 9 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. 9 of the 9 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.
| SAGE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 801 ft | 137 ftSage Hen Reservoir | 1,189 ft | $20 | |
| SAGE | 008 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 158 ft | 70 ft | 516 ft | $20 | |
| SAGE | 009 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 87 ft | 38 ftSage Hen Reservoir | 425 ft | $20 | |
| SAGE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 87 ft | 118 ftSage Hen Reservoir | 352 ft | $20 | |
| SAGE | 011 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 82 ft | 30 ftSage Hen Reservoir | 335 ft | $20 | |
| SAGE | 012 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 64 ft | 26 ftSage Hen Reservoir | 277 ft | $20 | |
| SAGE | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 64 ft | 18 ftSage Hen Reservoir | 228 ft | $20 |
| SAGE | 014 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 105 ft | 131 ftSage Hen Reservoir | 137 ft | $20 |
| SAGE | 015 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 105 ft | 203 ftSage Hen Reservoir | 82 ft | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
EastsideBoise National Forest · 0.3 mi
Antelope (Boise National Forest, ID)Boise National Forest · 0.4 miHollywood CampgroundBoise National Forest · 0.6 miShady Pines CampgroundBoise National Forest · 0.6 miCartwright Ridge CampgroundBoise National Forest · 0.7 miFrom Horseshoe Bend, Idaho take Highway 52 for 9 miles west to the junction with the Sweet/Ola Highway. Turn north and travel 16 miles to Ola, Idaho. Travel north through Ola and follow FS Rd 618, 18 miles to Sagehen Reservoir (FS Road 626). Turn right and continue on FS Rd 626 for 7 miles. Take a left on FS Rd 614 and travel about 2 miles to Sage Hen Reservoir. Sagehen Campground is on the east side of the reservoir.
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 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 15°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
Sagehen Creek 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 →