Upper Payette Lake Campground
October 2026
About
Overview
Upper Payette Lake Campground is located 16 miles from McCall, Idaho, on the shores of beautiful Upper Payette Lake. Visitors enjoy fishing, canoeing and exploring local trails.
Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cellular service.
Recreation
Upper Payette Lake is a no-wake lake that offers great fishing, canoeing and kayaking opportunities. The paved, mile-long Shoreline Trail begins in the campground and several additional hiking and biking trails begin just across the road from the entrance.
Facilities
The campground offers two group sites that can accommodate up to 20 and 30 guests. Several additional single and double-family sites are available as well. All sites are accessible; some have lake views and some have lake access.
Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A boat ramp, day-use site and several paved pathways are located in the campground. Roads and parking spurs are gravel.
Natural Features
The lake is situated at the foot of the Salmon River Mountains at an approximate elevation of 5,900 feet. Engelmann spruce and lodgepole pine forest the site, providing partial shade. Summer wildflowers are abundant. Summer days are typically warm and nights are cool.
Amenities
Phone: 208-634-0400
Is UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND 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 UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND in Mccall, 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 UPPER PAYETTE LAKE CAMPGROUND for cancellations is the paid part.