Willow Flat Campground
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $20–$34Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 54All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1Opens May 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Willow Flat is a popular campground, located on the banks of the Cub River, in southeastern Idaho. It sits in a pretty valley, surrounded by scenic mountain views, at an elevation of 6,300 feet. Visitors enjoy fishing the river and exploring numerous forested trails. Keep reading
Recreation
The Cub River provides great fishing for wild cutthroat and hatchery rainbow trout. Numerous trails begin within the campground, including a 1/2-mile nature trail to Sam Parkinson Spring. The multi-use Cub River Trail also begins at the campground, offering great hiking, mountain and dirt biking, as well as off-road vehicle and horseback riding. The trail accesses the Highline Trail, the North Fork of St. Charles Creek and the Cub River Guard Station.
Facilities
This large campground contains six group campsites than can accommodate 24 to 100 people. Numerous single-family campsites are available at the campground as well. Some single and group sites have picnic shelters. A few single sites must be accessed via footbridges over the river from the parking spur. Amenities available at the campground include vault toilets and drinking water. An amphitheater with bleacher seating and a cement platform is located at group site G03. Roads and parking spurs within the campground are gravel.
Natural Features
A mixed forest of pines, spruce and hardwoods provides partial shade and beautiful scenery. The banks of the Cub River are lined with dense stands of willow, a favorite food of local moose. Deer and elk are often seen in the area as well.
What the agency tells you
Wildlife Caution
Idaho OHV Safety Message
An additional $6 fee will be collected at the campground for extra vehicles
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Click here for more information on the Caribou-Targhee 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.
Check-in Time is 2:00pm and Check-out time is 12:00pm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 54 · 5 tent-only, 6 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 75 ft
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…available at the campground include vault toilets and drinking water. An amphitheater with bleacher…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…the campground include vault toilets and drinking water. An amphitheater with bleacher seating and a cement…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 464th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 8 days ago, 35 km away
- Past peak
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 16
What you actually pay
“An additional $6 fee will be collected at the campground for extra vehicles” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$34 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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
54 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 54 mapped sitesAll 54 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 54 of the 54 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. 54 of the 54 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.
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 141 ft | 119 ft | 1,566 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 100 ft | 342 ft | 1,629 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 104 ft | 330 ft | 1,471 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 100 ft | 271 ft | 1,544 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 86 ft | 276 ft | 1,330 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 86 ft | 317 ft | 1,261 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 124 ft | 423 ft | 1,398 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 110 ft | 390 ft | 1,194 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 68 ft | 490 ft | 1,295 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 63 ft | 495 ft | 1,218 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 63 ft | 534 ft | 1,281 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 98 ft | 632 ft | 1,351 ft | $20 | ||
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 98 ft | 578 ft | 1,392 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 84 ft | 654 ft | 1,191 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 84 ft | 736 ft | 1,245 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 111 ft | 726 ft | 1,114 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 94 ft | 815 ft | 1,246 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 020 | tent only nonelectric | 87 ft | 834 ft | 1,150 ft | $20 | ||
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 021 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 87 ft | 890 ft | 1,237 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 022 | tent only nonelectric | 122 ft | 997 ft | 1,264 ft | $20 | ||
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 023 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 158 ft | 1,115 ft | 1,508 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 024 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 70 ft | 962 ft | 1,373 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 025 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 70 ft | 901 ft | 1,360 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 026 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 77 ft | 864 ft | 1,455 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 027 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 77 ft | 793 ft | 1,387 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 028 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 744 ft | 1,445 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 029 | tent only nonelectric | 80 ft | 807 ft | 1,510 ft | $20 | ||
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 030 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 104 ft | 679 ft | 1,505 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 031 | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 128 ft | 600 ft | 1,580 ft | $34–$120 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 032 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 68 ft | 502 ft | 1,657 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 033 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 68 ft | 545 ft | 1,695 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 034 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 92 ft | 190 ft | 1,983 ft | $20–$34 |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 035 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 92 ft | 241 ft | 1,977 ft | $20–$34 |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 036 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 62 ft | 82 ft | 1,833 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 037 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 41 ft | 105 ft | 1,780 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 038 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 93 ft | 1,741 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 039 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 49 ft | 84 ft | 1,692 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 040 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 52 ft | 79 ft | 1,640 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 041 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 168 ft | under 10 ft | 1,378 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 042 | tent only nonelectric | 172 ft | under 10 ft | 1,207 ft | $20 | ||
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 044 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 128 ft | 251 ft | 805 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 045 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 119 ft | 127 ft | 792 ft | $20–$34 |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 046 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 88 ft | 145 ft | 685 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 047 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 88 ft | 114 ft | 597 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 048 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 93 ft | 65 ft | 507 ft | $20–$34 |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 049 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 102 ft | 44 ft | 386 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 050 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 96 ft | 40 ft | 287 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 051 | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 96 ft | 29 ft | 197 ft | $34–$120 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 052 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 135 ft | 39 ft | 108 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 053 | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 60 ft | under 10 ft | 201 ft | $34–$120 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | 054 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 60 ft | 38 ft | 189 ft | $20–$34 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | G01 | group standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 130 ft | 213 ft | 1,683 ft | $34–$120 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | G02 | group standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 130 ft | 192 ft | 1,797 ft | $34–$120 | |
| WILLOW FLAT CAMPGROUND | G03 | group standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 168 ft | 158 ft | 1,410 ft | $34–$120 |
25 of 54 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cub River Guard StationCache National Forest · 2.6 mi
Albert MoserCache National Forest · 3.6 mi
NORTH FORK CAMPGROUND - St. CHARLES CANYONCache National Forest · 5.6 mi
Cloverleaf CampgroundCache National Forest · 5.7 mi
Porcupine (ID)Cache National Forest · 6.2 miFrom Preston, Idaho, head south on U.S. Highway 91 for approximately 3 miles. Turn east on the Cub River Road (Forest Road 406) and travel 3 miles past the Cache National Forest boundary to the intersection of Forest Road 406 and Forest Road 407. Bear right at the intersection, staying on Forest Road 406, and travel over a mile to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bloomington, ID
Typical weather
Typical May night 38°F, day 61°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 38°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 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
Willow Flat Campground 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 →