Celebration Park Campground

Things to note: a cow farm is nearby and the smell blew downwind and consumed the afternoon air, also since the site is close to the river we got swarmed with bugs at dusk.

However there’s a rocky hill on the back side of the site and that stalled the rising sun’s heat from hitting the site.

We arrived in the afternoon, paid the $5 with the envelopes and set up camp. It’s a long narrow road with 2 sites paired incrementally spaced out. We got one site and no one came to occupy the sister spot, so we had space. The site has 2 trash cans, a metal fire pit and a tent pin.

Families and others came to the spot to go fishing and have a fire but when we woke up only a few campers stayed the night.

Nice well kept camp ground. The road has apparently been upgraded since some other reviews. It was gravel but we'll maintained. A walking path along the side. Had a little bit of traffic during the day, probably fishermen. It was too hot when I stayed there to do any site seeing of the petroglyphs which I am bummed about. There are a couple vaulted toilets about half way down the road. If you have a tent you'll be setting up in gravel. Overall pleasant experience.

We stayed here 1 night 11/26/21. Was our first time here and was tricky to find. Followed our Garmin directions to Celebration Park off Sinker Road in Melba, Idaho. Parked in the large parking area and scouted the campgrounds on foot. To find the actual campgrounds, once you're in the large parking area off Sinker road you need pass behind the back side of the Visitor Center at the end of the parking lot, follow the very bumpy road straight out (don't take any of the side shoots), and then you'll come to a gate (which you are welcome to open) and that's the entrance to the camping area. FYI: larger rigs may find it difficult to turn around once you're headed into the campground. The end of the campsite area isn't very large for turning around and it would be a long way to back out. The campground itself has freshly groomed road base roadway, two enormous handicapped spots right near the entrance and an asphalt paved (ADA?) walkway that runs along the river. All sites were very clean, garbage receptacles are everywhere and appeared to be well maintained. Lots of hikers, hunters and horse-back riders come through the campground to use the Halverson Lake trailhead at the eastern end of the campground. This is dry camping. Lots of dog poop everywhere though. Recommend the County provide dog waste bags since there's ample trash cans in the park. Shoreline access at a couple points along the roadway but it's still a hike down to the water. We loved this park except for having to pickup after other's dogs. Well worth the $5.00 per night fee. Good cell reception. And highly recommend the hike to Halverson Lake.

When we were here (mid-September) there were only 1 or 2 other people camping. The campsites are across from the river and back up to a lava rock formation. Very peaceful and quiet. There is a flush toilet at the entrance (a 1/2 mile from where we camped) and they had a sign that vault toilets were coming soon. I did have pretty good WiFi on my Verizon MiFi and good cell service. There is also WiFi from the visitors center which I was able to use on and off.

The one caveat is that the flys. It’s usually windy during the day so they’re not a real hither but around 4pm-8pm there’s a lot of them. The plus side is they’re not the biting or buzzing type flys more of an annoyance than anything.

Overall, we had a good experience!

I stayed 3 days, a park pass costs $5 and covered all 3 nights. No signs to guide you to where to camp-- but I saw people camped in front of the visitor center, along sandy pullouts (where I was) and at the nice new East End sites (keep going past visitor center upstream 250 yards). Great river views and canyon cliffs, and some petraglyphs. Very friendly at visitor center(hours 10-2). There was alot of fishermen traffic on Saturday. But both Fri & Sat nights were quiet, and I felt safe.

The hoot of an owl off in some distant night, the stars not quite as bright as they may have been a few hours east, and the regular flow of traffic through the parking lot here round out the myriad of experiences one might extol about this place.

A late night fish jumping in the water, which would turn into dozens of breeching tails come morning. Regular sightings of quail, five or twelve at a time, all bunched together, growing frantic as your feet, bicycle or vehicle approaches, and then unanimously flocking away in their hilarious low level flight. The truly gorgeous sunset over the river down near the bridge. And the free campsite right beneath it. These are the things that make this place truly amazing, not just a bad one-nighter but the kind of place that makes you want to kick back and spend every single time you’re in the area here.

We never made it to the RV spots, as camping in the parking lot was allowed and put you right next to the river and bathrooms as well, plus our kids could loop the parking lot to their bicycling heart’s content. There are also petroglyphs and native people’s artifacts, this being Idaho’s first (and currently only) archeological park, according to local legend (aka, signs.)

The LTE action with Verizon and the outlet in the bathroom just iced this tasty cake all the thicker.

You can't beat the spot right on the water-and for $5/night! Keep in mind it's dry camping.

Once you get to the visitor's center, turn the corner and go down the dirt road that doesn't look like you should be there. You'll find plenty of spaces, but beware, the road is super bumpy and rocky. We have a 27" trailer and we made it, but I probably wouldn't do it again. We tried several different spots, but all weren't level enough. We ended up in the first spot on the right, as soon as you pass the camp host site. We backed into the spot parallel with the camp host (the whole site is probably the biggest in the park, but also probably the most uneven).

Some concerns: the flies were pretty bad when we were here in September. There are a lot of cow farms near here. Which brings me to my next point-when the wind blows, it might bring the smell of cow manure :( Also, as I mentioned before, the dirt road out here is really rough.

ATT service was decent on my phone (no booster). It went between 1 bar of LTE & 1 bar of 4G