Calamity
October 2026
About
Overview
Calamity Campground is located along the Snake River drainage at the north end of beautiful Palisades Reservoir at an elevation of 5,700 feet, just 55 miles east of Idaho Falls, Idaho. Visitors enjoy boating, water skiing, fishing and canoeing.
Recreation
Palisades Reservoir offers excellent boating, water skiing, swimming and canoeing. Lake and shore fishing are very popular here as well, with wild and stocked cutthroat trout as the predominate species. Kokanee salmon, brown and Mackinaw trout can also be found. A boat ramp and large parking area are located on-site.
The Palisades Creek Trail begins nearby, leading hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders to beautiful Upper Palisades Lake and expansive views of Swan Valley.
Facilities
The campground offers several campsites on three loops. All sites are equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring with grill. Some sites have a few stairs from the parking spur to the site pad.
Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided, but there is no electricity. Firewood is available for purchase from the host. Roads and parking spurs are gravel.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on a hillside above Palisades Reservoir, affording scenic views from many sites. A mixed forest of lodgepole pine, spruce, fir, aspen and maple trees partially shade the campground. Summer wildflowers dot the landscape.
Contact Info
For facility specific information, please call (541) 351-1182.
Nearby Attractions
Big Elk Creek Trail, for hiking, biking and horseback riding, begins at nearby Big Elk Campground and meanders up a beautiful canyon brimming with wildflowers, towering trees and views of the surrounding mountains.
Swan Valley and the Snake River offer more great fishing and boating opportunities, as well as rafting, canoeing and numerous trails for hiking, biking, horseback and ATV riding. Fall Creek Falls is 20 miles away, and the Fall Creek area has hundreds of miles of such trails.
Amenities
Phone: 208-270-0150 OR 541-351-1182
Is CALAMITY 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 CALAMITY 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.
Searching is free and needs no account — the calendar above is live right now. Watching CALAMITY for cancellations is the paid part.