Thompson Flat
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading
- A night
- $8–$16Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 1311 on recreation.gov
- Season
- July 1Opens July 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Thompson Flat Campground is located high in the Albion Mountain Range of southern Idaho, near the towns of Declo and Albion. Visitors enjoy the area for its abundant trails, alpine lakes and scenic beauty. Keep reading
Recreation
The Twin Lakes Campground area is located just outside the campground and across the road. It offers picnic areas, horse corrals and access to a variety of trails. Lake Cleveland is a two-mile drive from the campground, offering fishing, canoeing and trail opportunities. Several additional hiking, mountain biking, horse and off-road vehicle trails are on the mountain.
Facilities
The campground contains three group sites, which can accommodate from 40 to 64 people, respectively. All sites are equipped with large picnic tables and campfire rings with grills. There are four reservable single units and four double unit campsites as well as 17 additional single-family campsites that are available on a first-come, first-served basis, but the group sites must be reserved. Accessible vault toilets are provided. A campground host is located on-site. Roads and parking spurs within the campground are gravel.
Natural Features
The campground is situated in a beautiful wildflower-filled meadow lined with tall pine and fir trees, on the eastern slope of Mount Harrison. It sits at an elevation of 8,400 feet.
Nearby Attractions
A visit up the road to the Mount Harrison Lookout offers interesting area information and breathtaking panoramic views of the valleys below. Pomerelle Ski Area, just below Thompson Flat, offers lift-served hiking and mountain biking, scenic chairlift rides and a few dining options, generally on weekends.
What the agency tells you
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Campground is normally snow-covered and closed until after July 4
The drinking water system is not currently operable, a new well installation is planned; call the Minidoka District Office at 208-678-0430 for latest information on drinking water availability
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Off-road vehicle use is prohibited within the campground
Click here for more information on the Sawtooth 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
- 13 · 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Accessible sites
- 13
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…group sites must be reserved. Accessible vault toilets are provided. A campground host is located on-site.…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Meadow
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 490th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 11 of the 13 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $8–$16 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 11 mapped sitesAll 13 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 11 of the 13 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. 13 of the 13 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LOOP A | A1 -A5 | group standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 247 ft | 4,034 ft | 163 ft | $50 |
| LOOP B | B1 -B8 | group standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 247 ft | 3,896 ft | 95 ft | $50 |
| LOOP C | C1-C4 | group standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 159 ft | 3,802 ftGreen Pine Creek | 127 ft | $50 |
| S&P | Double S&P | type not stated | 50 ft | yes | $8–$16 | |||
| S&P | Double S&P | type not stated | 48 ft | yes | $8–$16 | |||
| THOMPSON FLAT | 02 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 371 ft | 4,206 ftGreen Pine Creek | 201 ft | $8–$16 |
| THOMPSON FLAT | 06 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | yes | 337 ft | 4,063 ftGreen Pine Creek | 170 ft | $8–$16 |
| THOMPSON FLAT | 10 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 118 ft | 3,764 ftGreen Pine Creek | 36 ft | $8–$16 |
| THOMPSON FLAT | 11 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | yes | 105 ft | 3,698 ftGreen Pine Creek | 144 ft | $8–$16 |
| THOMPSON FLAT | 12 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 105 ft | 3,623 ftGreen Pine Creek | 165 ft | $8–$16 |
| THOMPSON FLAT | 17 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 171 ft | 3,564 ftGreen Pine Creek | 177 ft | $8–$16 |
| THOMPSON FLAT | 19 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | yes | 118 ft | 3,681 ftGreen Pine Creek | 123 ft | $8–$16 |
| THOMPSON FLAT | 20 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | yes | 168 ft | 3,785 ft | 203 ft | $8–$16 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lake Cleveland - East SideSawtooth National Forest · 1.2 miLake Cleveland Campground - West SideSawtooth National Forest · 1.3 miIndependence Lakes CampgroundSawtooth National Forest · 7.8 miMcClendon Spring CampgroundBurley Field Office · 11 miFrom Interstate 84, take exit 216 and follow State Highway 77 south for approximately 18 miles, through the towns of Declo and Albion, to Howell Canyon Road. Turn west at the Pomerelle Ski Area sign and drive seven miles up the canyon on Howell Canyon Road. The road is steep and winding, watch for the campground entrance sign on the right.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Albion, 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
Thompson Flat 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 →