About this place
Deadman Hole has 5 basic camp sites beside the Upper Salmon River. They go first come, first served.
The fishing here is good. There are restrooms, picnic shelters, drinking water, room to park and a boat ramp.
Cell service is patchy.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Roads around it
- Some need four-wheel drive
- Stay limit
- 14 days
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Toilet
- Yes, restrooms
- Phone signal
- Limited
- Type
- Set campsites. Five primitive ones, first come first served
- 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
12 miles southwest of Challis. Go south from Challis on Highway 93 for 2 miles, turn right onto Highway 75 and drive southwest about 12 miles. The site sits between Highway 75 and the river.
Coordinates 44.345, -114.2683333
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
There is another spot of ours within reach, and some better-known places further out.
- White Cloud Peak 1 Directions
- Chinese Wall Directions
- Beaverhead crater Directions
- Borah Peak Directions
- Borah Peak Wilderness Study Area 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
- Clayton, ID Directions
- Ketchum, ID Directions
Ketchum 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
You can camp here for 14 days. After that you have to move on, and 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.
Eight in this guide sit inside that 25 miles. The nearest one you could move to is Salmon River, Idaho — 27 miles in a straight line, but at least a 31 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.