Warm River
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $25–$50Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2524 on recreation.gov
- Season
- May 1Opens May 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Warm River Campground is located on its namesake in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest of southwestern Idaho. Visitors love the campground for its river tubing opportunities. Fishing and hiking are popular as well. Keep reading
Recreation
Warm River is a popular location for tubing and fishing. Anglers cast for whitefish, brook, rainbow and cutthroat trout. Numerous hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding trails are in the immediate area, leading to natural springs, waterfalls and old railroad lines and tunnels.
Facilities
The campground offers one large group site that can accommodate up to 100 guests. Several single sites are also available, 11 of which are for tent camping only. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. Firewood is available for purchase from the host.
Natural Features
The campground is situated along the slow-moving Warm River at an elevation of 5,200 feet. Thickets of willow line the riverbanks and pine trees offer partial shade.
Nearby Attractions
Ashton, Idaho, about 9 miles away, offers gas and grocery services. Island Park is nearby, with numerous lakes, rivers, streams and trails, offering plentiful outdoor activities for visitors of all ages. Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks are within a couple hour's drive as well, with outstanding scenery and wildlife.
What the agency tells you
Wildlife Caution
Idaho Off-road Vehicle Safety Message
A $7 fee for each extra vehicle will be collected at the campground.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Off-road vehicles not permitted
Please bring reservation confirmation to the campground
Walk-in sites may be available
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
- 25 · 10 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- 1 electric, 2 water
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- 9 of 25
- Accessible sites
- 8
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…11 of which are for tent camping only. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…for tent camping only. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. Firewood is…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
- Night sky · 364th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 24 of the 25 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 · 18
What you actually pay
“A $7 fee for each extra vehicle will be collected at the campground.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $25–$50 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
37 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 24 mapped sitesAll 37 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 25 of the 37 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. 25 of the 37 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.
| GRP | GS-1 | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 208 ft | 34 ft | 350 ft | $100 | ||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX | unnamed record | 40 ft | yes | $40 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX1 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX10 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX11 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX2 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX3 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX4 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX5 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX6 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX7 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX8 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| MANAGEMENT SITES | XXX9 | unnamed record | $40 | ||||||
| SING | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 68 ft | 95 ft | 341 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| SING | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 68 ft | 42 ft | 299 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| SING | 003 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 75 ft | 124 ft | 266 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| SING | 004 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 81 ft | 52 ft | 203 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| SING | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 75 ft | 130 ft | 193 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| SING | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 97 ft | 115 ft | 115 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| SING | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 68 ft | 66 ft | 88 ft | $25–$50 | |
| SING | 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 56 ft | 131 ft | 47 ft | $25–$50 | |
| SING | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 72 ft | 62 ft | 141 ft | $25–$50 | |
| SING | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 56 ft | 135 ft | 98 ft | $25–$50 | |
| SING | 026 | type not stated | 30 ft | 50 amp | yes | 115 ft | 170 ft | $40 | |
| SING | 027 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | yes | 171 ft | 59 ft | 282 ft | $31 |
| TENT | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 67 ft | 112 ft | 195 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| TENT | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 67 ft | 49 ft | 249 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| TENT | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 46 ft | 108 ft | 295 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| TENT | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 60 ft | 14 ft | 320 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| TENT | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 60 ft | 38 ft | 346 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| TENT | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 46 ft | 76 ft | 355 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| TENT | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 46 ft | 122 ft | 323 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| TENT | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 50 ft | 21 ft | 401 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| TENT | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 50 ft | 55 ft | 406 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| TENT | 018 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 52 ft | 106 ft | 385 ft | $25–$50 | ||
| WARM | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 72 ft | 90 ft | 89 ft | $25–$50 | |
| WARM | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 72 ft | 154 ft | 92 ft | $25–$50 |
The agency files 12 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It types every one of them MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 37 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Grandview Campground (Idaho)Targhee National Forest · 3.8 mi
Warm River CabinTarghee National Forest · 6.7 miPole BridgeTarghee National Forest · 10 mi
Riverside (ID - Targhee)Targhee National Forest · 12 mi
Riverside CampgroundTarghee National Forest · 12 mi
Cave Falls CampgroundTarghee National Forest · 15 miFrom Ashton, Idaho, travel northeast on Highway 47 to Warm River. Turn right onto Fish Creek Road and continue 1/4-mile to the campground entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Warm River, ID
Typical weather
Typical May night 40°F, day 65°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 40°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Warm River 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 →