Clark Fork Drift Yard

Arrived after dark. The dirt road is easy to miss if your map app doesn’t give sufficient warning for the turn off.

Washboard, single lane road coming in, but opens up to a nice space with plenty of room to turn around. Ours is 25 footer, but looks like even a big diesel pusher could maneuver in the area.

It’s nice and quiet at night. I heard a train, but no train horn. There were. few other campers, but plenty of space.

If for some reasons it’s full, there were plenty of roadside turn offs between this location and Sandpoint which could be used for an overnight.

In this video, I show you free camping at Clark Fork Drift Yard on Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. I provide a walking tour of the three day free camping area at Clark Fork Drift Yard and showcase the amenities available at the recreation site. Clark Fork Drift Yard is administered by the Idaho Department of Fish and Wildlife. Verizon cellular service clocked in at 18.3 Mbps download speed and 11.0 Mbps upload speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 2.85 Mbps download speed and 1.11 Mbps upload speed. There was no T-Mobile cellular service at this location.

Beautiful, well maintained waterside area. If you have a kayak or paddle board, you’ll love the easy put-in.

When we showed up mid-day Saturday in the middle of summer, we were worried there would be no spots left. The best spots close to the water were taken, but there was still plenty of room for us. We had no problems!

5 or 10 minutes from the town of Clark Fork. We liked stopping in at the Cabinet Mt. bar and grill for Saturday night karaoke and inexpensive drinks.

Note there is a 3 day maximum.

There is a nearby train, but it wasn’t too loud. It didn’t bother us.

Great Verizon internet - no issues streaming. AT&T was spotty and slow.

Easy access on gravel road to this large, level gravel parking lot for water users which allows free camping for three days. There’s also a dirt road loop from one side of the parking lot to the other, that goes to a kayak access to the lake and more camping away from the parking lot. Quiet other than the noise of distant traffic and occasional train. No services except a porta-john, boat launch and dock. Pack it in, and pack it out. There are some dirt roads to walk a dog, please pick up dog waste, it seems a lot of people aren’t. Excellent Verizon signal. Beautiful views of Lake Pend Oreille and the surrounding mountains.

This was the first spot we took our new trailer to. The 1/4 mile dirt road off the highway to get to the site was a bit narrow with several average sized pot holes but passable in a couple spots for rigs going opposite directions.
There were several locals parked along the road collecting driftwood. We arrived early afternoon and there was plenty of space in the big gravel lot to park and setup. We were disappointed to find the gate was locked preventing us from setting up right by the water. The water level was extremely low which allowed for lots of beach to walk the pups on and explore. There was 1 other camper in the lot and a couple tents setup in the distance. Plenty of space to spread out. Looking forward to going back and spending the weekend when it gets warmer to do some kayaking and paddle boarding.