About this place
Fruit trees still line the terraces where you camp. They are what is left of the Eckles Ranch. Its orchard and gardens fed the mining camps in these hills, and the men who started it are buried here on the bar.
People were here long before them. The bar sits low and warm in Hells Canyon, and Native people camped on it for hundreds of years.
Today it is a large camping area along the Snake River. There is no formal parking and there are no numbered units. Nothing is marked out. Tent campers and RVs both use it.
There is very little here: one outhouse and an information sign at the pull-in to the parking area.
Summer down here is very hot.
The Allison Creek Trailhead is across the Hells Canyon Road, and Allison Creek Trail #514 starts there.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Drinking water
- No, bring your own
- Toilet
- Yes
- Type
- Open area. No formal parking or camping units
- Managed by
- Payette National Forest
Getting there
Coordinates 45.127821, -116.738570
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
Nothing nationally famous is close. These are the landmarks nearby.
- Sheep Rock Directions
- Aneroid Mountain Directions
- Mount Howard Directions
Every distance on this page is the driving distance. A short distance can still take a long time. The road may be closed for the season, covered in snow, or washed out. Many of these roads are dirt. Plan your route before you leave home. Out here there is often no phone signal to look it up on the way.
Nearest town and supplies
- New Meadows, ID Directions
- Joseph, OR Directions
Joseph 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 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. This is Forest Service land, and each forest sets its own rule for how far you have to go, so check before you travel.
The nearest other free campsite in this guide is Hitt Mountain Camping Area and Trailhead, Idaho — 36 miles in a straight line, but a 53 mile drive. Ten more sit closer than 25 miles, if the rule here allows them.
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 Forest Service’s own records, read in August 2026; a second independent record also says there is no fee.