Wilderness Gateway
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 12 mi
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $14From, per site
- Sites
- 6933 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Wilderness Gateway Campground provides direct access to the Wild and Scenic Lochsa River. Visitors enjoy a variety of recreational opportunities, including world famous whitewater rafting. Hiking and horseback riding trails abound in the nearby Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area, which is the 3rd-largest in the lower 48 United States. This large and unique campground offers respite for a variety of campers, including those with horses, horse trailers and RVs. Keep reading
Recreation
The Lochsa River is world famous for its exciting whitewater rafting opportunities. Visitors do not need a permit to float the Lochsa, but technical expertise is a must. The river is also a destination fly fishing experience for cutthroat and rainbow trout, chinook salmon and steelhead. There are a number of river access points near the campground, along Highway 12. Highway 12, also known as the Lewis and Clark Highway, winds along the narrow river canyon through evergreen trees and large rock outcroppings. Visitors to the area enjoy the scenic drive and historic sites along the way. Elk, deer, moose, bear, cougar and mountain goats make the steep canyon country their home, as well as other wildlife. A variety of birds are also active in the area. Boulder Creek cascades down into the campground on its descent from the neighboring 1.5-million acre Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area. Several trails head into the wilderness from the campground, including the 15-mile Lochsa Peak Trail and the 27-mile Boulder Creek Trail. A 1-mile birding trail loops around the campground and the half-mile Downriver Trail leads to a scenic river overlook. All trails are open to hiking and the wilderness trails are also open to horseback riding. The Lochsa Historical Ranger Station, a living history visitor center, is located one mile southwest of the campground.
Facilities
The campground offers dozens of accessible, single-family campsites and a large-group site, available for tent and RV camping. Utility hookups are not available and parking surfaces are paved. The group campsite can accommodate up to 208 people and 52 vehicles. If the group campsite (Loop A) is reserved, a combination code will be provided in your confirmation email to gain access to the site. Loop D hosts equestrian sites, which provide access to hitching rails, a watering and feeding station and staging area. Please only reserve Loop D if you have stock you intend to bring with you. From April until June 1 of every year, individuals with boats or campers are allowed to camp in the site. After June 1 - no other campers are allowed. All campsites are equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Accessible vault toilets, flush toilets and drinking water are provided throughout the campground. Firewood is not provided, nor is it always available at the campground. Some sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. An adjacent, accessible group shelter is also available and can accommodate up to 200 people. If reserved, a combination code will be provided in the confirmation email. the code is needed to access the utility room which has a converter plug for the use with your personal generator. Access to the utility room is required to run the lights and electrical outlets in the pavilion. The pavilion is equipped with a stone fireplace and multiple tables. The Accessible flush toilets and a parking area are adjacent to the pavilion.
Natural Features
The campground is located in heavily wooded forest in north-central Idaho at an elevation of 2,100 feet. It is adjacent to the Lochsa River. Lochsa is a Nez Perce word meaning "rough water." The 70-mile river and its tributaries have no dams and flow is unregulated from its headwaters near the Powell Ranger Station in the Bitterroots, to Lowell, where it joins the Selway River to form the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River. The Lochsa is one of the world's best for continuous whitewater. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (208) 942-3113. Nearby Attractions *1 hour from access to the National Historic Lolo Trail Corridor *1 mile from the Lochsa Historical Ranger Station and Visitor Center
What the agency tells you
There is no cell phone service within the campground; the nearest town with reception is Kooskia, ID, 49 miles away.
A $2 fee is charged per day, for extra vehicles
A minimum of 32 people is required to reserve the group campsite
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Click here for more information on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 69 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 99 ft
- Paved pads
- 31 of 69
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 71 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 1 of 71 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Water sports
- Whitewater rafting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 55th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 1
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 33 of the 69 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
“A $2 fee is charged per day, for extra vehicles” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $14 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
71 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 65 mapped sitesAll 71 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 65 of the 71 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. 69 of the 71 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.
| AREA WILDERNESS GATEWAY | HOST | host pad | 50 ft | 277 ft | 172 ftLochsa River | 383 ft | $14 |
| GPAV | 001 | day use | 361 ft | under 10 ftLochsa River | 252 ft | $14 | |
| GROUP LOOP A | Group | group standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 277 ft | 372 ftLochsa River | 200 ft | $280 |
| GW B | B | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $14 | |||
| GW B | B03 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 110 ft | 153 ftLochsa River | 248 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B05 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 129 ft | 203 ftLochsa River | 296 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B07 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 93 ft | 345 ftLochsa River | 272 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B09 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 103 ft | 371 ftLochsa River | 194 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B1 | standard nonelectric | 110 ft | 121 ftLochsa River | 216 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B10 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 126 ft | 251 ftLochsa River | 320 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B11 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 166 ft | 292 ftLochsa River | 292 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B11-N | standard nonelectric | $14 | ||||
| GW B | B12 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 103 ft | 435 ftLochsa River | 128 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B13 | standard nonelectric | 152 ft | 462 ftLochsa River | 217 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B14 | standard nonelectric | 165 ft | 643 ftLochsa River | 220 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B15 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | $14 | |||
| GW B | B16 | standard nonelectric | 142 ft | 694 ftLochsa River | 148 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B17 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 86 ft | 570 ftLochsa River | 19 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B18 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 86 ft | 598 ftLochsa River | 102 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B19 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 93 ft | 688 ftLochsa River | 153 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B2 | standard nonelectric | 139 ft | 295 ftLochsa River | 123 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B20 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 123 ft | 676 ftLochsa River | 268 ft | $14 |
| GW B | B21 | standard nonelectric | 124 ft | 552 ftLochsa River | 213 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B22 | standard nonelectric | 123 ft | 625 ftLochsa River | 338 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B23 | standard nonelectric | 139 ft | 478 ftLochsa River | 260 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B24 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | $14 | |||
| GW B | B25 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 433 ftLochsa River | 125 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B26 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 395 ftLochsa River | 48 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B27 | standard nonelectric | 154 ft | 254 ftLochsa River | 108 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B4 | standard nonelectric | 104 ft | 340 ftLochsa River | 253 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B6 | standard nonelectric | 93 ft | 356 ftLochsa River | 329 ft | $14 | |
| GW B | B8 | standard nonelectric | 136 ft | 193 ftLochsa River | 414 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $14 | |||
| GW C | C1 | standard nonelectric | 93 ft | 258 ft | 304 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C10 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 168 ftLochsa River | 201 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C11 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 75 ft | 249 ftLochsa River | 241 ft | $14 |
| GW C | C12 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 85 ft | 180 ftLochsa River | 296 ft | $14 |
| GW C | C13 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 282 ftLochsa River | 321 ft | $14 |
| GW C | C14 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 323 ftLochsa River | 352 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C15 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 50 ft | 240 ftLochsa River | 365 ft | $14 |
| GW C | C16 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 270 ftLochsa River | 316 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C17 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 74 ft | 355 ftLochsa River | 279 ft | $14 |
| GW C | C18 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 330 ftLochsa River | 224 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C19 | standard nonelectric | 131 ft | 377 ftLochsa River | 101 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C2 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 177 ft | 276 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C20 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | 136 ft | 236 ftLochsa River | 101 ft | $14 |
| GW C | C21 | standard nonelectric | 116 ft | 280 ftLochsa River | 79 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C22 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 111 ft | 176 ftLochsa River | 191 ft | $14 |
| GW C | C23 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 93 ft | 115 ftLochsa River | 293 ft | $14 |
| GW C | C24 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 93 ft | 97 ftLochsa River | 376 ft | $14 |
| GW C | C25 | standard nonelectric | 102 ft | 151 ftLochsa River | 435 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C26 | standard nonelectric | 130 ft | 237 ftLochsa River | 261 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C3 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 264 ft | 214 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C4 | standard nonelectric | 94 ft | 201 ft | 183 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C5 | standard nonelectric | 96 ft | 248 ft | 74 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C6 | standard nonelectric | 96 ft | 165 ft | 87 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C7 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 222 ft | 76 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C8 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 155 ft | 135 ft | $14 | |
| GW C | C9 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 238 ft | 168 ft | $14 | |
| GW D | D | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | $14 | |||
| GW D | D02 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 189 ft | 931 ft | 438 ft | $14 |
| GW D | D04 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 164 ft | 665 ftWest Fork Boulder Creek | 756 ft | $14 |
| GW D | D08 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 85 ft | 1,223 ft | 132 ft | $14 |
| GW D | D09 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 85 ft | 1,268 ftLochsa River | 60 ft | $14 |
| GW D | D1 | standard nonelectric | 189 ft | 881 ft | 527 ft | $14 | |
| GW D | D10 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 111 ft | 1,161 ft | 256 ft | $14 |
| GW D | D11 | standard nonelectric | 111 ft | 1,204 ft | 268 ft | $14 | |
| GW D | D3 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 1,012 ftLochsa River | 252 ft | $14 | |
| GW D | D5 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 1,069 ftLochsa River | 177 ft | $14 | |
| GW D | D6 | standard nonelectric | 164 ft | 548 ftWest Fork Boulder Creek | 920 ft | $14 | |
| GW D | D7 | standard nonelectric | 112 ft | 1,172 ftLochsa River | 77 ft | $14 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night: 1 it files as day use and 1 it names a host pad. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 71 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Liz Butte CabinClearwater National Forest · 7.6 mi
Castle Butte LookoutClearwater National Forest · 7.7 mi
Liz Creek CabinClearwater National Forest · 9.7 miKnife Edge Campground and River AccessClearwater National Forest · 11 miGlade Creek CampgroundClearwater National Forest · 13 miApgar CampgroundClearwater National Forest · 14 miFrom Lowell, travel east on Highway 12 for about 25 miles to the campground.
The campground is located 120 miles east of Lewiston, Idaho; and 100 miles west of Missoula, Mont. It is located at milepost 122 on Highway 12.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pierce, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 40°F, day 61°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 29°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
Wilderness Gateway 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 →