Warm Springs Guard Station
1Heads up1 fire 37 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 28 of the next 30 nights read 14:46 UTC
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Historic Warm Springs Guard Station is open year-round and has recently been restored to reflect its original finishes and paint. It's accessible by car from mid-April through mid-December but can only be reached by snowshoes or cross-country skis for the remainder of the year. This charming cabin offers a rustic retreat with a few amenities. Guests should be prepared to bring most of the supplies and gear they need for a comfortable stay. PLEASE CALL THE DISTRICT OFFICE WITH YOUR RESERVATION NUMBER DURING REGULAR BUSINESS HOURS (8AM - 4:30PM EXCEPT HOLIDAYS) FOR COMBINATIONS AND OTHER INQUIRIES AT 208-259-3361. Keep reading
Recreation
Some hiking trails are nearby. One trail leads to Bonneville Hot Springs, which is accessible by snowshoes and skis in the winter. Visitors can soak in the waters while enjoying the beautiful surroundings. The South Fork Payette River offers opportunities for trout fishing and swimming. The area around the cabin is a cross-country skiing and snowshoeing playground in winter.
Facilities
The cabin sleeps six people and comes with one double bed and three single beds with mattresses. A small couch and a wood stove are located in the front room. Firewood is provided in the adjacent barn, but it may need to be split. The kitchen is equipped with a dry sink, a table with chairs, and a propane fridge and stove. Some pots and pans and a coffee pot are provided. A campfire ring and an outhouse with vault toilet are located outside the cabin. A hand pump for water is available for summer use. No water is available at the cabin in the winter, but snow can be melted. No electricity is provided. Guests must bring garbage bags to pack out trash. Items like bedding, lanterns or flashlights, matches, first aid supplies, extra toilet paper and an axe are not available.
Natural Features
Towering Ponderosa pines forest this pretty site located in a narrow mountain valley along the South Fork Payette River. The cabin sits at an elevation of 4,700 feet amid steep mountain peaks. This is a wintering area for deer and elk. Summer visitors to the area may see black bears. A variety of bird species make the forest their home year-round.
Nearby Attractions
Highway 21, just below the guard station, is known as the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway. This 131-mile route starts in Boise and meanders through Boise, Salmon-Challis and Sawtooth National Forests, with several points of interest along the way.
What the agency tells you
Please call the district office with your reservation number during regular business hours (8 am - 4:30 pm M-F except holidays) for combinations and other inquiries at 208-259-3361.
No water is available in the cabin; water is available from a hand pump only in summer
Please pack out trash and clean the cabin before leaving
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Use of candles is discouraged because of fire danger
Campfires outside the cabin are permitted in metal fire ring only
Please do not use tents, motor homes or RVs at the cabin
Livestock is allowed from April 16 to December 14 only
Road to cabin is closed to motorized traffic from December 15 to April 15
Road is not plowed during the winter. Snow can start in October. Check the local weather for Lowman, Idaho or call the Lowman Ranger Station (208) 259-3361 prior to arriving to check on access to the cabin. Road to cabin is closed to motorized traffic from December 15 to April 15 and can only be reached by snowshoes or cross-country skis for the remainder of the year. Depending on the winter, there could still be limited access due to snow levels from April to June.
This permit is for personal, private recreation use;special events and/or large groups are discouraged
Pets must be under restrictive control at all times; guests are responsible for cleaning up after pets
Click here for more information about 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2 · 2 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…A campfire ring and an outhouse with vault toilet are located outside the cabin. A hand pump for…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “A hand pump for water is available for summer use.”
- Playground
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, River
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 14:46 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Wed, Oct 21. read 14:46 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
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
recreation.gov availability, read 14:46 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites · the site map
All 2 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. 2 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
BonnevilleBoise National Forest · 1.2 mi
HelendeBoise National Forest · 8.2 miSawtooth National Forest - Grandjean CampgroundBoise National Forest · 8.5 miGrandjean CampgroundBoise National Forest · 8.6 mi
Bull TroutBoise National Forest · 12 mi
KirkhamBoise National Forest · 12 miFrom Boise, Idaho, take State Highway 21 northeast 75 miles to Lowman, Idaho. Continue on Highway 21 another 18 miles to milepost 91.2. Turn left on Forest Road 025RC and continue 1.5 miles to cabin when road is open to motorized use. In the winter, park in the plowed parking lot on the left at milepost 91.2 and hike/snowshoe/ski the the remaining distance.
From Banks, Idaho, turn right off Highway 55 onto Highway 17, drive 40 miles to Lowman. Turn left onto Highway 21 and go approximately 18 miles east to milepost 91.2. Turn left on Forest Road 025RC and continue 1.5 miles to cabin when road is open to motorized use. In the winter, park in the plowed parking lot on the left at milepost 91.2 and hike/snowshoe/ski the the remaining distance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lowman, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 62°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 · a letter you can send
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 Springs Guard Station 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyRuss FulcherU.S. Representative · Idaho’s 1st district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJames E. RischU.S. Senator · Idaho
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMike CrapoU.S. Senator · Idaho
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Warm Springs Guard Station, Boise National Forest, Idaho
Dear Russ Fulcher, I’m a constituent in Idaho’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Warm Springs Guard Station, Boise National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Warm Springs Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Warm Springs Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Warm Springs Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Warm Springs Guard Station (Boise National Forest, Idaho) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Warm Springs Guard Station, Boise National Forest, Idaho
Dear James E. Risch, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Warm Springs Guard Station, Boise National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Warm Springs Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Warm Springs Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Warm Springs Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Warm Springs Guard Station (Boise National Forest, Idaho) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Warm Springs Guard Station, Boise National Forest, Idaho
Dear Mike Crapo, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Warm Springs Guard Station, Boise National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Warm Springs Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Warm Springs Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Warm Springs Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Warm Springs Guard Station (Boise National Forest, Idaho) via campanac.com