About this place
Battle Creek runs through a narrow canyon 200 feet deep, and it meanders a great deal. In 2009 about 23 miles of it were set aside as wild, in the same law that created the Owyhee River Wilderness.
The walls are rhyolite, nearly continuous and vertical, about an eighth of a mile apart.
Over the next 20 miles the canyon widens to no more than three eighths of a mile and deepens to as much as 500 feet.
Between the cliffs and the stream there is thick growth: willow, chokecherry, dogwood, alder, rose, currant, sedges and grasses.
This creek and the river below it hold most of the bighorn sheep in the Owyhee Canyonlands. Watch the cliffs.
It makes a fine walk for anyone floating the Owyhee River.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Roads around it
- Recorded as four-wheel drive
- Type
- Open area. Camp anywhere within it
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
The roads around this place are not maintained for a regular car. That comes from the Bureau of Land Management, who record the kind of vehicle that uses each route. Those records cover the roads nearby. They do not cover the last stretch in to the campsite, and nobody has checked that part. Treat this as a warning. We are not promising what you will find when you get there. If you have driven it, tell us what it was like and we will say so here.
Getting there
It runs from the meeting with the Owyhee River as far as the edge of the Owyhee River Wilderness, in southwest Idaho.
Coordinates 42.3825, -116.3661111
Open in Google Maps Agency page
Nearest town and supplies
- Owyhee, NV Directions
Owyhee is big enough that you’d normally expect fuel and somewhere to buy food. Nobody from here has been to check, so don’t count on it if you’re running low.
Why “at least”: this route is hard to measure. We worked the drive out twice, with two separate mapping tools, and they gave different answers. That usually means there is no road close to the campsite, so the drive doubles back a long way. The figure above is the longer of the two. The real drive could be further still, so check the route before you set off.
Why the drive to town is usually twice what the map says — what we found measuring every campsite in this guide.
When it’s time to move on
On most public land you can camp for 14 days before you have to move on. Check this site’s own limit before you plan a long stay. When you move on, the Bureau of Land Management usually wants you at least 25 to 30 miles away. So the free campsites closest to you are the ones you cannot use.
Eleven in this guide sit inside that 25 miles. The nearest one you could move to is Bruneau-Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness Area, Idaho — 39 miles in a straight line, but at least a 52 mile drive.
Why “at least”: there is no road right at this campsite, so the drive is hard to measure and the real one could be further. Check the route before you set off.
This guide covers five states and does not list every free campsite, so there may be something closer that we do not hold. Check this site’s own rule before you rely on it.
Have you been here?
Fees and access change, and the records do not always keep up. If you have been, tell us what you found.
Thank you, that is recorded. It helps the next person.
Add road notes for this site
The thing we cannot get from any government record is what the drive in is actually like. If you have done it, this is the most useful thing you can leave behind. We read everything before it appears, and we print a first name with it if you give one.
Thank you. A person will read it before it goes on the page.
Where this information comes from
The description on this page is ours. The facts in it, and the fee and facility details below it, come from the Bureau of Land Management’s own records, read in August 2026.