Camping in Idaho

yarn · 08-26-2004

We're headed up to the Idaho this weekend and are looking for a place to camp up by the payette. I've seen some sites posted with the forest service. If those are good spots, great. But if anyone has been up there and knows of some quiet spots next to the river I'm all ears.

Thanks for the help.

rivergod · 08-26-2004

There are lots of forest service campgrounds along the road up the south fork of the Payette. Hot Springs is kind of cool because of course it has a hot spring. It is fairly convenient for the canyon run, staircase or the north fork or main Payette. If you head further up the south fork, past Lowman, there are other nicer campgrounds which also have hot springs, but of course these are further from boating this time of year. Baumgartner is a pretty nice one. If you want something less frequented, and want to drive a bit, there are great spots along the road to Grandjean.

dvanhouten · 08-26-2004

A little past mm 11 (11 miles from Banks, just past Crouch) on the SF Payette is a road to the right. Cross the bridge and turn left (this is the only bridge across the SF for many, many miles). Anything after about mile 1 that looks like a campsite is g2g. Alot of river runners use this area and there are LOTS of campsites right next to the river. Just no campfires. Just got back from an awesome weekend out there. Most of the FS campsites will probably be full, but some are near hot springs. Lots of hot springs along the river as well. If you have any questions, email me at dvanhouten@grandtarghee.com. Have fun!

Doug

ID Surfer · 08-26-2004

The spot Dvanhouten is talking about is Alder creek rd. It is just after Garden Valley on the right. Its cool and convenient for the Payette. If you are going to paddle only on the NF you can go just N of Smith's Ferry and shoot up the forest roads. One of them leads right down to the river and is probobly the most secluded spot in the area. It isn't the closest to Banks or the SF though. If you are interested in paddling the deadwood, which should still be running this weekend, you can camp up that way. Look at the map and you'll see where to go. It's all forest up there and g2g. If you want to run North Fork, we will be gittin er done Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon.........and until they turn it off!! Email me yakitup@earthlink.net

Cory

yarn · 08-26-2004

many thanks...I'm looking forward to heading up there.

sending you an email IDsurfer...

riverunner · 08-26-2004

Hey ID surfer, you say you're hitting the North Fork this weekend. AW gauge shows it at 200cfs. Are they releasing this weekend? If so, do you know what the level will be? I had the awesome opportunity of hitting it on my last day of a Middle fork of the Salmon trip a couple of months ago. Had no idea what it was running when we did it. I don't think I stopped smiling from the time I put on though 3 or 4 PBRs after I got off. What a blast of a run! I was under the impression that it was done for the year...hopefully I'm wrong. Let me know if you have any Beta.

Eric

Todd · 08-26-2004

I paddle the payette every day, river flows seem to be very accurate on payetteriver.org

ID Surfer · 08-27-2004

Riverrunner,

I paddle the NF Payette 3-4 times a week. This river is runnable 8 months out of the year, starting in late March (with very low flows), April and May bring run off (still low flows by our standards), then in June they turn in the water out of Cascade Res for irrigation. This runs until the 1st or 2nd week of October. It ran 2000+ until last week when they droped it to 1600. This is still a super kick ass level, espeacially (sp?) if you are a little timid up top at the larger flows. Come on up, I love this river, I paddle with people from CO every year that I meet on the Buzz. They always leave smilin'.

Gotta go, it's Friday, and the start of another four day weekend on the NF!

Cory