Shorty Peak Lookout
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 4 mi
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:37 UTC
- Sites
- 1In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Shorty Peak Lookout, 45 miles northwest of Bonners Ferry, sits atop Shorty Peak with views of the Selkirk and Purcell mountain ranges of Northern Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. The rustic dwelling was once used to patrol forest fires, and is now a unique way for overnight guests to escape the city and become enthralled with 360 degree views of area's magnificence. Access requires a moderate to steep 2.5 mile hike with a 1,300 foot elevation gain. The lookout was refurbished in 2005 and is in excellent condition. Keep reading
Recreation
The 2.5 mile hike up to Shorty Peak is part of the fun of staying at the cabin. The trail is also open to horseback riding. While here, landscape photography and wildlife viewing are popular pastimes. Birding is particularly popular and guests may have the chance to look down on some birds of prey. Look for red-tailed hawks, golden eagles, and goshawks soaring over the valleys. Clear nights offer prime stargazing opportunities.
Facilities
The 15' X 15' cabin sits atop a 5 foot foundation and can accommodate two overnight guests. The look of the interior is modern with hardwood floors. Two twin beds with pads, two chairs, two tables, a historic fire finder, and a district map are included inside the cabin. A pit toilet is within 100 yards of the lookout. No drinking water or electricity is available. Guests are asked to bring plenty of water, food, bedding, a first aid kit and all other basic camp gear. Horses are allowed, but no corrals or hitching racks are available. Hobbles are recommended for horses.
Natural Features
Shorty Peak lookout is located in the Lower Kootenai River Area (Bonners Ferry District) of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. The land is bordered by the Purcell and Cabinet Ranges and the Montana Line on the east, the rugged Selkirk Range on the west, and the Canadian border to the north. The 360-degree unobstructed vista from Shorty Peak Lookout is exceptional, with views of Kootenai Valley, U.S. and Canadian Selkirks, Smith Creek and Cow Creek drainage areas, Red Top Mountain, and the higher Lone Tree Peak a mile to the west. Elk, deer and black bears are among the wildlife in the area. This is bear country, both grizzly and black. The Forest Service recommends that you be able to distinguish between them. Please be aware of and practice bear safety while camping in this area.
Nearby Attractions
The nearest location for a convenience store is the Canadian border. A more cost effective location for groceries and gear is in Bonners Ferry, about 50 miles from the lookout.
What the agency tells you
Entry to the cabin is by combination lock; contact the ranger district at (208) 267-5561 for combination 5-10 days prior to visit
No drinking water; bring plenty or properly boil and treat water from stream located a mile from lookout
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack it in-pack it out' facility
Everything else this campground posts · 5
No off-road vehicles allowed
Bring bedding, cooking supplies, flashlights, etc.
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
Click here for more information on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests 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
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…map are included inside the cabin. A pit toilet is within 100 yards of the lookout. No drinking…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…is within 100 yards of the lookout. No drinking water or electricity is available. Guests are asked to…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Horseback riding
- Wildlife viewing
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:37 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 11
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Shorty Peak Lookout closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Robinson Lake CampgroundIdaho Panhandle National Forests · 22 mi
- Copper Creek CampgroundKaniksu National Forest · 24 mi
- Meadow Creek CampgroundKaniksu National Forest · 26 mi
- Lake Gillette CampgroundColville National Forest · 45 mi · 14 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:37 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.
| AREA SHORTY PEAK LOOKOUT | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 2,279 ft | 231 ft | $45 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Trapper Creek CampgroundKaniksu National Forest · 14 miGeisinger CampgroundKaniksu National Forest · 14 miNavigation CampgroundKaniksu National Forest · 14 miPlowboy CampgroundKaniksu National Forest · 15 mi
Beaver Creek (Idaho)Tepee Creek Natural Area · 17 miRobinson Lake Campground22 miFrom the Bonners Ferry Ranger Station: Take Highway 95 north for 17 miles. Turn left onto Highway 1 and head north for 2 miles. Turn left onto Copeland Road and head west for 4 miles. Stay right at the T junction and continue north on Westside Road for 9 miles. Stay to the left around the switchback, onto Forest Road 281, then drive west for 8 miles. Turn right on Road 655 and drive west 1.5 miles. Stay right again at the switchback, heading east 1 mile on Rd 282. Go straight at the next junction, and continue northeast on Road 282 for 4 miles. Park at the trailhead on top of the saddle before the locked gate. Hike 2.5 miles up the trail to the west to reach the lookout.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bonners Ferry, ID
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
Shorty Peak Lookout 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 →