Swinging Bridge
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $18From, per site
- Sites
- 7All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Swinging Bridge Campground is located 10 miles north of Banks, Idaho just off Highway 55 at an elevation of 4,000 feet. The North Fork Payette River flows next to the highway, where extreme kayaking is a popular activity. Keep reading
Recreation
The North Fork of the Payette River is a very popular location for expert kayaking. Whitewater rafting is nearby on the Main and South Fork sections of the Payette River. Anglers will find good to excellent fishing for whitefish and rainbow trout.
Facilities
The campground contains single-family sites, each with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets are provided. Roads and parking spurs are paved. Because of its proximity to the highway, some noise from passing traffic is to be expected.
Natural Features
The campground is situated is a scenic canyon just above Highway 55. The mountains are forested with a mix of Ponderosa and lodgepole pines and shade is plentiful within most of the campground. Summer days are warm, reaching 80-90 degrees; nights are cooler.
What the agency tells you
Idaho OHV Safety Message
This campground has first come, first served sites
A fee of $5/day will be collected for extra vehicles at the campground
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Click here for more information on the Boise 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.
Check-in Time is 2:00pm and Check-out time is 12:00pm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 7
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets are provided. Roads and parking spurs are paved.…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Night sky · 457th 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 · 13
What you actually pay
“A fee of $5/day will be collected for extra vehicles at the campground” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $18 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
7 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 6 mapped sitesAll 7 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. 7 of the 7 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.
| SWIN | 001 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 203 ft | 45 ft | $18 | |
| SWIN | 004 | rv nonelectric | 16 ft | yes | $18 | ||
| SWIN | 005 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 122 ft | 174 ft | $18 | |
| SWIN | 006 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 114 ft | 230 ft | $18 | |
| SWIN | 007 | rv nonelectric | 25 ft | 114 ft | 310 ft | $18 | |
| SWIN | 008 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 118 ft | 334 ftNorth Fork Payette River | $18 | |
| SWIN | 009 | rv nonelectric | 40 ft | 119 ft | 219 ftNorth Fork Payette River | $18 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cold Springs Campground - Boise NF (ID)Boise National Forest · 1.6 miBig Eddy CampgroundBoise National Forest · 3.5 miTie Creek CampgroundBoise National Forest · 10 miHollywood CampgroundBoise National Forest · 11 mi
EastsideBoise National Forest · 11 miFrom Horseshoe Bend, ID, take State Rt. 55 north for 21.5 miles to the campground sign. Turn left after the sign into the campground(on west side of highway).
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Banks, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 65°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
Swinging Bridge 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 →