Glacier View Campground

Redfish Lake is a 5-star destination with nice enough campgrounds.

Redfish Lake campgrounds are all about proximity to how you'll spend your time there. Besides a few sites, most of the sites at Glacier View don't have views, but it's still the closest campground to the dog beach, lodge, and hiker's shuttle. Sockeye and Mt. Heyburn have obstructed lake views and are closer to the boat launch and beach. Reservations are hard to get in the area, and if you're planning on hiking or doing other non-lake activities you're fine to stay elsewhere and daytrip the lake.

Glacier View campground itself is Forest Service standard and most sites have good spacing. With no electric hookups you'll hear purr of generators throughout the day.

Stayed July 11-14 2019. No hookups, so you're paying for the guaranteed spot. (There is a large amount of dispersed camping around redfish off the highways for free.) These reserved campgrounds fill up fast though, make sure to reserve 6 months in advance when recreation.gov opens reservations. You'll wanna be spamming the reserve button at 8am 6 months ahead. I'm not jk.

Really easy to get into and close to pretty much everything around redfish lake. There is a nice beach area that has far less people than the lodge within walking distance of the campground. Fishhook trail (a must) is really close and could be walked to. Lodge is easily accessible via a shoreline path as well. Site was level with a paved spot for the trailer and a level gravel pad for tents (or kids dance parties). There was a tree at the end of my paved spot to let me know when I was backed in all the way :) The sites are at an angle so backing in is easy. This was our very first trip in our camper and first time backing in. Sites are large and spread out. Firepit is safely away from your RV and tent site. Campground has a small playground for the kiddos. Redfish marina has rentals for boats, pontoon boats, kayaks, sup boards, etc. It was pretty quiet when we were there with the occasional generator.

I would've preferred dispersed camping, especially as Glacier View has no hookups, but there is no dispersed camping permissible anywhere near this must-see lake with a jaw-dropping Sawtooth Mountains backdrop.

Space between sites is adequate, and despite the forested setting we were able to lock onto Dish Network satellites in this site via a long, long coax cable. The noise level was quiet and sites immaculate. The lake is just a couple of hundred yards away, and hats off to the Forest Service for designating an off-leash dog beach right near the campground. That made campground rules about leashes a bit easier for this boondocking devotee to swallow.

There's a two-slot dump station at the entrance to the lake that services the multiple campgrounds here. Drinking water is available, and a coin-op laundry and coin-op showers are situated next to the dump station. The dump station is marked for a $5 drop fee, and it's not clear if that fee is included for registered campers.