Scout Mountain Campground
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $20–$60Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 14All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Scout Mountain Campground is located on beautiful Scout Mountain at an elevation of 6,900 feet, just 13 miles south of Pocatello, Idaho. Scout Mountain is part of the Mink Creek area, a popular place for birding and wildlife viewing. Visitors enjoy exploring a variety of local multi-use trails. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and dirt biking are very popular activities in the area. The paved 1-mile Scout Mountain Nature Trail loops the campground, leading to several overlooks. The East Fork Mink Creek Trail begins within the site and the Crestline Trail is nearby.
Facilities
The campground contains one large group site that can accommodate up to 100 people, with picnic and serving tables, grills and a campfire ring with benches. Single sites, double sites, and one triple site are available with picnic tables, campfire rings, utility serving tables, lantern posts, and tent pads. The campground has first-come, first-serve campsites and reservable campsites. Visitors can first check with the campground host for available campsites. If the campground host is not available, visitors must check if the campsite is occupied, and if available pay at the fee tube. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Scout Mountain Campground is managed by Pinnacle Parks Llc under a special use permit with the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. For questions please contact 208-757-3999 between the hours of 8am and 9pm.
Natural Features
The campground sits high atop the Bannock Mountain Range in a scenic forest of Douglas fir, lodgepole pine and aspen, which offers partial shade. Summer wildflowers are abundant. A wide variety of birds can be found in the area, including the Western Scrub-Jay, Juniper Titmouse, Bushtit, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Mountain Bluebird, Green-tailed and Spotted Towhees and Calliope Hummingbirds. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (208) 757-3999.
Nearby Attractions
Cherry Springs Nature Area is less than 6 miles from the campground, with its pretty namesake spring, a stream for fishing, paved self-guided nature trails and picnic facilities. Mink Creek Nordic Center is about 5 miles away, with hiking and horseback riding trails in summer months and groomed cross-country ski trails in the winter.
Charges & Cancellations
A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. Late cancellations are subject to additional fees. For full details see NRRS Reservation Policy.
What the agency tells you
Scout Mountain Campground is managed by Pinnacle Parks Llc under a special use permit with the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. For questions please contact 208-757-3999 between the hours of 8am and 9pm.
The campground has first-come, first-serve campsites and reservable campsites. Visitors can first check with the campground host for available campsites. If the campground host is not available, visitors must check if the campsite is occupied, and if available pay at the fee tube.
An additonal fee of $5 will be collected on-site for extra vehicles parked in a campsite. The Allowable Vehicle/Driveway Details section has information on maximum vehicles allowed for individual campsites. Single sites: 1 vehicle, Double Sites: 2 vehicles, Triple Site: 3 vehicles
Everything else this campground posts · 8
The road to the campground is paved and has a few switchbacks; RVs should have no trouble accessing the facility
There is not water, sewer, or electrical hookups in the campground.
This is a pack it in, pack it out facility; please bring garbage bags
Horses, livestock and off-road vehicles are not permitted in the campground
Wildlife Caution
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Click here for more info about the Caribou-Targhee 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
- 14 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Paved pads
- 4 of 14
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and if available pay at the fee tube. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Scout Mountain…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…pay at the fee tube. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Scout Mountain Campground is managed…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 502nd darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 3
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 · 16
What you actually pay
“An additonal fee of $5 will be collected on-site for extra vehicles parked in a campsite.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$60 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.
“A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
14 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 13 mapped sitesAll 14 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 13 of the 14 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. 14 of the 14 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 249 ft | 2,596 ft | 213 ft | $20–$60 | |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 152 ft | 2,539 ft | 188 ft | $20–$60 | |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 206 ft | 2,618 ft | 127 ft | $20–$60 |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 210 ft | 2,535 ft | 140 ft | $20–$60 | |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 151 ft | 2,200 ft | 329 ft | $20–$60 | |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 154 ft | 2,397 ft | 344 ft | $20–$60 | |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 151 ft | 2,244 ft | 450 ft | $20–$60 | |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 140 ft | 2,386 ft | 268 ft | $20–$60 | |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 140 ft | 2,388 ft | 128 ft | $20–$60 | |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 147 ft | 2,360 ft | 53 ft | $20–$60 | |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | $20–$60 | |||
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 024 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | yes | 118 ft | 2,487 ft | 187 ft | $20–$60 |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 025 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 118 ft | 2,421 ft | 187 ft | $20–$60 |
| SCOUT MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND | 028 | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 402 ft | 2,778 ft | 604 ft | $80 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Mink Creek Group Site CampgroundCaribou National Forest · 3.9 miGoodenough Creek CampgroundPocatello Field Office · 4.5 miHawkins Reservoir CampgroundPocatello Field Office · 13 mi
Big Springs - CaribouCaribou National Forest · 14 mi
Pebble Guard StationCaribou National Forest · 15 mi
Malad Summit CampgroundCaribou National Forest · 24 miTake I-15 to exit 63 south of Pocatello. Follow the brown Mink Creek Recreation Area signs to Bannock Highway for 2 miles. Turn left up the canyon. Go 4.5 miles to the East Fork Mink Creek road and turn left. Go 5.3 miles up East Fork Mink Creek road 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 Pocatello, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 59°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
Scout Mountain Campground 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 →