About this place
The Little Jacks Creek Wilderness runs to more than 51,000 acres in all. It became wilderness on 30 March 2009, one of six Owyhee areas protected that day.
The Perjue Canyon trail is the easy way in. It follows the canyon up through alder, aspen and dogwood, and you cross the creek again and again. Look up at the rim now and then. Bighorn sheep are sometimes standing there.
The wider country here is the Owyhee Canyonlands. It is high, dry plateau, spread over southwestern Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Nevada. Deep river canyons split it apart. The rivers are the Owyhee, the Jarbidge and the Bruneau.
Few places are this lonely. People come for exactly that. Down in the canyons there are quiet pools and rough water, bare rock walls and steep slopes of grass. Keep an eye out for California bighorn sheep, and for a flower called the Bruneau River phlox.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Type
- Open area. Camp anywhere within it
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Getting there
From Grand View, head east two miles to Mud Flat Road, also signed as the Owyhee Uplands Backcountry Byway. Follow it twenty miles to the Little Jacks Creek Wilderness and the Perjue Canyon trailhead, on your left. At mile 18 you pass a wilderness kiosk by the vault toilet at the Poison Creek Recreation site.
Coordinates 42.73952, -116.31424
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
A few more of our own spots are within reach of this one, along with some better-known places.
- Little Jacks Creek Wild and Scenic River Directions
- Pole Creek Wilderness Area Directions
- Crater Rings Directions
- Cottonwood Creek Wild and Scenic River 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
- Grand View, ID Directions
- Mountain Home, ID Directions
Mountain Home 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. 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.
Eight in this guide sit inside that 25 miles. The nearest one you could move to is North Fork Owyhee Wilderness Area, Idaho — 26 miles in a straight line, but a 30 mile drive.
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.