NFS CG's around Stanley, Idaho

This blog post may be of interest -- lots of photos:

Boondocking near Stanley

4runnerguy - there are A LOT of boondocking areas and you'll seem them exploring the FS roads I gave you using Google Maps. As you can see, we have a FW and that's our area to go to for camping. Some of the smaller backcountry CGs, that happen to be free, are too remote for our FW so we take a tent, but we now have a small popup we tow with our Jeep.

IDman - we've had very little snow this year in the valley's meaning normal in the mountain so you'll be ok.

1. Excellent chances. Even on major holiday weekends, if you arrive Thursday or early Friday, you can get a site at a FCFS site.
2. Lots of areas for boondocking. Using Google Maps, check out the Lola Creek Road, NF 083, same turn off of Hwy 21, check out NF 008 and beyond Beaver Creek CG. Check out Bull Trout CG, FCFS during the week, but lots of boondocking sites along Bull Trout Lake Road back to it. Along the road to Stanley Lake are some boondocking sites and in fields on the West side of the road before you get to the Stanley Lake turn off. Check out NF 195 just after Thatcher Creek CG. Closer to Stanley, if you turn north on Hwy 75, you come to several FS CGs only the highway either close to the hwy or on the other side.
3. We've seen some fire damage on the road to Beaver Creek CG, but other than that it's spotty.
4. We hike the Kirkham Ridge from Bull Trout and also, behind Stanley Lake is a great trail to Bridal Veil Falls.

Enjoy.

If you have any other questions, let me know, but I'm sure other's from the area can chime in.

We were exploring that area last year in mid June. Surprisingly, the only CGs that were 1/2 full or so were around the bigger lakes. We were not impressed with the sites, as they were small and with little privacy.

There are some nicer CGs on the river going east of Stanley on the way to Clayton. They were not crowded and were much quieter.

Be aware that if their snowpack is big like last year, there could be flooding from the snowmelt. There were some CGs that were closed due to mud from snowmelt floods.

If I were to go again, I would NOT make reservations for two reasons: 1) you probably won't need them, 2) you might not like the campground when you get there.