Elk Summit Campground

I spent a night tenting here to get on a local trail early for a day hike. I drove in with a Nissan Titan.

The first 5.5 miles are on an excellent, wide, gravel road. The remainder is a much narrower, winding, gravel road with pot holes and water trenches occasionally. It is a full 20 miles from Hwy 12 to the campground. I did the one way distance in about 70 minutes. Don't bother coming before mid June, and some snow years later than that.

The area is setup for horse packing. There are many trails leaving Elk Summit into some beautiful country. The campground has three loops. Loops A & B are for camping with stock. Loop C without stock. Loop C has 6 campsites.

First come camping, pit toilets (moderately clean), no water except in the creeks, picnic table and fire grates. Considering it is 20 miles, there are not many places to stay by the road on the way in. I think there were 5 possibilities in the last 7 miles.

The primary downside are all the burns of the past couple decades. But they work hard up there to keep trails clear for access to lookouts, general horse packing, and hunting in the fall. It is a pretty wet area so mosquito's are thick probably through most the summer.

Some horse packer trailers get pretty long, but I would not bring my 30' trailer in, even though half the sites in loop C would support a 30' trailer.. I would bring my 13' Scamp in though and plan on 2 hours for the drive in.

There is probably no cell service within 50 miles of this spot.