White Sands Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 26 mi
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
2,100 foot elevation. 4 tent sites, 85 sites for tents or RVs, 2 group sites, and a playground on the Lochsa River. One campground loop is reserved for campers with horses and other stock. It has hitching rails, stock water, stock loading ramp and feeders. There is one trail outfitter at the campground. The campground is often visited by moose and other wildlife. The Lochsa River is popular in the spring for whitewater sports. There are a number of river accesses near the campground along US 12. Fishing for chinook salmon, steelhead, cutthroat and bull trout and mountain whitefish. Keep reading
Catch and release rules apply to some of these species; please check current regulations. Hiking or horseback riding on Boulder Creek Trail, Lochsa River Access Trail, Downriver Trail Scenic Overlook and Lochsa Park Trail. The Boulder Creek Trail leads to the Stanley Hot Springs, and most trails access the Bitterroot-Selway Wilderness.
Facilities
- Playground
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, River, Creek
- Horseback riding
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 3
What you actually pay
How we know this receipt · 4
rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Powell CampgroundClearwater National Forest · 1.5 miWhitehouse CampgroundClearwater National Forest · 4.0 miElk Summit CampgroundClearwater National Forest · 13 miLee Creek CampgroundLolo National Forest · 16 mi
West Fork Butte LookoutLolo National Forest · 21 mi
Lolo Creek Campground and Picnic AreaLolo National Forest · 23 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pinesdale, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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
White Sands 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 →