St. Charles Campground
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 6All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1Opens May 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
St. Charles Campground is situated on its namesake creek in the scenic St. Charles Canyon, approximately 8 miles from Bear Lake State Park and North Beach. Keep reading
Recreation
Nearby, the North Fork Trail and its associated trails access the Highline Trail #316. The Highline Trail is part of the National Trail System and is the area's premier trail. It stretches 55 miles along the backbone of the Wasatch Mountains and is open to hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders and motorcyclists, attracting trail users from around the world. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game manages the river fisheries, providing good to excellent fishing most of the year, including in St. Charles Creek. In-season big game hunting is also a popular activity.
Facilities
The campground offers one group site that can accommodate up to 20 people. Six single sites are also available. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. A paved road leads to the campground.
Natural Features
Stands of aspens provide partial shade, while lodgepole pines, willow, dogwoods, Engelmann spruce and wild roses dot the landscape. The varied vegetation provides plenty of privacy from site to site.
Nearby Attractions
Minnetonka Cave, one of only two developed caves in the Forest Service, is a few miles from the campground. Guided cave tours are scheduled every 30 minutes daily from early June until Labor Day. The Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge is just north of Bear Lake, offering excellent bird watching. Bear Lake's Raspberry Days Festival occurs the first weekend in August every year, with a parade, fireworks, craft booths and a rodeo.
What the agency tells you
Electric hookups are not available
Wildlife Caution
Idaho Off-Road Vehicle Safety Message
Everything else this campground posts · 6
A fee of $5 will be charged for each additional vehicle
This is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility; please bring garbage bags
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.
Single Site Reservations: Davis Canyon, Porcupine and Cloverleaf CG's have single site reservations. Davis Canyon is less then a mile from St Charles CG. The others are a mile or so up the canyon towards Minnetonka Cave.
Check-in Time is 2:00pm and Check-out time is 12:00pm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 6 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 32 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…Six single sites are also available. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. A paved road leads…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are also available. Flush toilets and drinking water are provided. A paved road leads to the campground.…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 446th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 9 days ago, 33 km away
- Past peak
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 · 14
What you actually pay
“A fee of $5 will be charged for each additional vehicle” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
6 sites · the site map
All 6 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 6 of the 6 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| ST. CHARLES CAMPGROUND | 1 | group standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 72 ft | $50 |
| ST. CHARLES CAMPGROUND | 2 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $20 | |
| ST. CHARLES CAMPGROUND | 3 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | $20 | |
| ST. CHARLES CAMPGROUND | 4 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | $20 | |
| ST. CHARLES CAMPGROUND | 5 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | $20 | |
| ST. CHARLES CAMPGROUND | 6 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | $20 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Davis Canyon CampgroundCache National Forest · 2.2 mi
Porcupine (ID)Cache National Forest · 4.0 mi
Cloverleaf CampgroundCache National Forest · 4.6 mi
NORTH FORK CAMPGROUND - St. CHARLES CANYONCache National Forest · 4.6 mi
Paris Springs CampgroundCache National Forest · 6.9 mi
Egan Basin Guard StationCache National Forest · 7.6 miFrom U.S. Highway 89 in St. Charles, turn west onto Forest Road #412 and travel approximately 3 miles to the forest boundary. The campground entrance is just around the bend.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for St. Charles, ID
Typical weather
Typical May night 38°F, day 61°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 38°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
St. Charles 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 →