Upper Payette Lake Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 16 mi
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $10–$15Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2321 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Upper Payette Lake Campground is located 16 miles from McCall, Idaho, on the shores of beautiful Upper Payette Lake. Visitors enjoy fishing, canoeing and exploring local trails. Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cellular service. Keep reading
Recreation
Upper Payette Lake is a no-wake lake that offers great fishing, canoeing and kayaking opportunities. The paved, mile-long Shoreline Trail begins in the campground and several additional hiking and biking trails begin just across the road from the entrance.
Facilities
The campground offers two group sites that can accommodate up to 20 and 30 guests. Several additional single and double-family sites are available as well. All sites are accessible; some have lake views and some have lake access. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A boat ramp, day-use site and several paved pathways are located in the campground. Roads and parking spurs are gravel.
Natural Features
The lake is situated at the foot of the Salmon River Mountains at an approximate elevation of 5,900 feet. Engelmann spruce and lodgepole pine forest the site, providing partial shade. Summer wildflowers are abundant. Summer days are typically warm and nights are cool.
What the agency tells you
Idaho Off-road Vehicle Safety Message
Opening day is dependent upon snow levels; call ahead to check on early season reservations
No electric, water or sewer site hookups at this campground
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility
Sites may be available on a first come, first served basis outside the reservation season
If reserving the group sites for more than 75 people, please contact the McCall Ranger District at 208-634-0440
Lake is drawn down annually on or about September 1 (depending on annual conditions) and it may be difficult to launch a boat after that date
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
- 23 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…lake views and some have lake access. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A boat ramp,…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…some have lake access. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A boat ramp, day-use site and several…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 21 of the 23 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, $10–$15 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
23 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 10 mapped sitesAll 23 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 2 of the 23 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. 23 of the 23 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 87 ft | 143 ft | $10–$15 | ||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 87 ft | 178 ft | $10–$15 | ||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 114 ft | 260 ft | $10–$15 | ||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 130 ft | 368 ft | $10–$15 | ||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 107 ft | 496 ft | $10–$15 | ||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 456 ft | $10–$15 | ||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 427 ft | $10–$15 | ||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 147 ft | 290 ft | $10–$15 | ||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | 020 | standard nonelectric | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | GA1 | group standard nonelectric | yes | 216 ft | 193 ftCougar Creek | 2,568 ft | $20–$30 |
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | GA2 | group standard nonelectric | yes | 216 ft | 165 ft | 2,351 ft | $20–$30 |
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | Scan and Pay Double | type not stated | $10–$15 | ||||
| UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND | Scan and Pay Single | type not stated | $10–$15 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Grouse CampgroundPayette National Forest · 7.7 mi
Hazard LakePayette National Forest · 7.8 mi
Burgdorf Guard StationPayette National Forest · 12 mi
BurgdorfPayette National Forest · 12 miFrom McCall, Idaho, take Highway 55 north to Warren Wagon Road/Forest Highway 21. Turn right and continue for 16 miles to gravel Forest Road 495 and follow for a mile into the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for McCall, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 56°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 14°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
Upper Payette Lake Campground 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 →