About this place
One camp pad and a toilet. Tall, dense timber screens it, so you aren't on show to the road. The Crooked River runs along the other side of that road.
This valley was dug for gold. From the 1930s into the 1950s, dredges worked the Crooked River between Elk City and Orogrande. They left the valley floor in heaps of gravel and ponds. A restoration project with the Nez Perce Tribe has since been flattening those heaps and rebuilding the river for fish.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Roads around it
- Not maintained for ordinary cars
- Toilet
- Yes
- Type
- Specific campsite
- When it’s open
- All year, though snow can shut the way in
- Managed by
- Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests
The roads around this place are not maintained for a regular car. That comes from the US Forest Service, who grade every road by the kind of vehicle it is looked after for. 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.
Rules and restrictions
Nobody collects trash here. Everything you bring in has to come out with you again, food scraps included. Bring a bag for it.
Getting there
Coordinates 45.793500, -115.531000
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
Nothing nationally famous is close. These are the landmarks nearby.
- Tolo Lake Directions
- Stripe Mountain 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
- Elk City, ID Directions
- Grangeville, ID Directions
Grangeville 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 Dry Saddle Trailhead, Idaho — 27 miles in a straight line, but a 52 mile drive. 28 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.