Payette National Forest ~ New Meadows Idaho
Cold Springs Campground
We were glad to find this spot. The Memorial Day holiday kind of snuck up on us and we weren’t sure we could get into a place. We wasted all morning at Les Schwab getting some air in a tire, we weren’t really looking for a designated camp spot, but it’s how things worked out.
There is a reservoir about a mile farther up the road, and it looked to have dispersed camping—who knew. This was a lovely spot, not too many bugs, there were signs about keeping your food stored away so as NOT to attract the bears. Each site had a picnic table and grill/fire pit. They have the sites staggered for privacy and there were tons of trees for that too.
Cost: $5 with Access Pass
RV/Camping: RV or tents, No Hook-ups
Phone T-Mobile: Zero
Internet Verizon: 1 Bar but not enough to connect
Noise: You are allowed to cut any of the fallen trees you want for firewood. There were lots of chainsaws going during the day. Some ATV’s and motorcycles, going through the camp to get to open areas. It was Memorial weekend so maybe it’s quieter during the week. It was very quiet at night, but if you had a noisy crowd, you would be able to hear them from anywhere in the loop.
Restrooms: Vault
Water: 2 hand pump stations, for filling containers, no hose bib.
Dump: NO
Trash: Pack it in Pack it out
Location: West off US Hwy 95 just South of New Meadows
N44.948419°, W116.441103°
Show on mapMay 24th ~ Day 49 of our 2014 Road Trip
Great pics!
Randy had Harpster on our itinerary to check out, and Orofino is on the same road. We’re hoping to be able to see all this area!
It was just so gorgeous, I only posted a fraction of the pics I took. Thanks so much for looking at our “travel” photos! LoL
That’s a nice looking spot. Plenty of fallen wood for making fires and keeping the women happy. That’s a nice handheld plugger you have dad. How does it do with cloud and tree cover?
We cracked ourselves up watching all the other campers cutting and stacking wood, the two guys across the loop were camping with their wives and about 8 kids, the wives looked quite unhappy in the morning when they crawled outta the tent, but the guys worked as a team with the next camper over who had a chain saw, their kids brought in the logs and he cut it, by the afternoon they had near a cord of wood stacked beside the pit. Me and your Mom were saying “Boy, those guys sure know how to make their women happy!”
Plugger huh? It don’t work at all inside our aluminum camper, I didn’t realize that clouds and trees were gonna be an issue, it seems to do alright, but I haven’t tested it, that particular forest was the first real tree cover we have seen, and this was only the 2nd walk I took it along on. It is an older model I won on ebay, the day we left, for $59, I chose it for the software that came with it, “Topo 7”, so we can do mapping when we don’t have internet.
well HEY! i see you finally found some trees in ID. and a nice camp area. my map book naturally falls open to Idaho now. i rather use that than to google it.
i bet you didnt have a fire unless it was a small one. probably all the down wood was taken by others already there. so where did you finally post this? since you had no bars there.
We don’t really do fires. I think I’m allergic to the smoke, whenever there are campfires around us, my head gets all stuffed up and just pounds. The idea of sitting and gazing into a blazing fire tempts us though.