Elk Creek Campground (Sawtooth NF)




October 2026
About
Overview
Elk Creek Campground lies just off Highway 21 in a beautiful valley at the foot of the Sawtooth Mountain Range in central Idaho.
Recreation
Elk Creek is situated in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. A myriad of excellent hiking and biking opportunities are available, with an estimated 750 miles of trails crisscrossing the valley and surrounding mountains, including the Idaho Centennial Trail, which passes nearby.
Expansive and scenic Elk Meadow is near the campground, providing a great location for bird and wildlife watching.
Facilities
This small campground offers one group site that consists of three smaller sites. If the group site is not reserved, the individual sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Campers must walk a few yards from parking area to campsites.
Vault toilets area provided. The road to the site and the parking spur within are paved.
Natural Features
Summer wildflowers are plentiful and lodgepole pines provide partial shade. Elk Creek is nearby. Temperatures are cool, with an average summer high of 78 degrees and a low of 40 degrees.
Nearby Attractions
Numerous sparkling lakes and streams, including the Salmon River, dot the area, making for great rainbow and native Westslope cutthroat trout fishing. Stanley and Redfish Lakes are nearby with great boating, water skiing, canoeing, kayaking and even more fishing.
Popular area events include an Arts and Crafts Fair in July, and Wagon Days, Salmon Festival, Quilt Fair and Fireman's Ball in September.
Phone: 928-537-8888
Is ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND (SAWTOOTH NF) fully booked?
A campground showing no availability is almost never full for good. People cancel — plans change, weather turns, someone books three weekends and keeps one — and the site goes straight back into the booking system, usually without warning and often at odd hours. The reason sold-out campgrounds feel impossible is not that sites never free up; it is that nobody is watching at the moment they do.
CampHawk watches ELK CREEK CAMPGROUND (SAWTOOTH NF) in ID for you. We recheck it every 15 seconds, around the clock, and the moment a site opens we send a text, an email and a push notification — and on Recreation.gov we can put the site straight into your cart, so it is held while you get to your phone.
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