Pipeline Campground

What an insane night. At first this place was solid. We didn’t get one of the first four main sites but we drove down the road (potholes but not too bad). There was lots of trash - like previous reviews mentioned. This place must clearly be a local teenage desert party hangout or something. The bugs were bad but the sunset view was amazing. We took a beer to the water and waded around. But then evening hit. We tried to go for a walk to see the area. We got 100 feet before being completely swarmed. We realized we’d be spending the rest of the night in the RV because it was insane. Unfortunately we didn’t realize that one of our vents was open. Within ten minutes we had an entire swarm of these flies in our RV. COVERED the ceiling inside our RV. We desperately tried everything to get them out. Long story short we had to leave and stayed at the nearby RV park, which is gorgeous and no bugs. I would not put myself through that hell again.

Overall this is a great place to camp. There’s trash left behind in several camp sites but that’s at almost any free place unfortunately.

The road in is very good, a mix of gravel and paved but no major ruts, dips, or potholes. It would be an easy drive in for bigger rigs.

There are 4 primary campsites when you first pull in. The first few are do-able for rigs up to probably 30ft with some creative driving. Larger rigs will probably want to camp near the boat ramp. Another option is to continue down the dirt road past the bathrooms to a few other potential campsites. They don’t appear to be managed so there’s no metal fire ring or picnic tables but the road is sandy but good and the spots are pretty level. Bigger rigs could probably fit in those as well.

Verizon cell service was spotty sometimes but manageable. I used band locking on my MoFi and was able to get on average 5Mbps but it did drop to 0.5Mbps for periods before going back up.

There are a ton of different kinds of birds here! I use an app called iNaturalist to identify things and I saw over a dozen different kinds of birds during my stay, including a bald eagle. There are garter snakes around, I saw 3, so be sure to watch step as they’ve got really good camouflage.

I would definitely stay here again.

I needed a quick spot not too far off the main road for a place to grab some sleep before moving on. Pulled in way late after dark and found a suitable spot. I imagine this place is frequented by locals due to ease of access. Good spot for a stop but can't say I'd stay for a week. Or even 3 days... arriving in the dark did lead to a wonderful surprise in the morning when I saw my view!

Some larger TTs but not really large rig or big rig friendly at all.

No generator rules. Several still running at 1am. (But hushed by the sounds of the river)

A scrubby but pleasant site right on the Snake River. Lots of shore birds to watch (a hallmark of the town it's in, American Falls). Boat ramp. Clean bathroom, easy access to the campground, but except for two sites adjacent to the boat ramp, the others are rough to get into. We used the first one as you come in, very picturesque. But the loop to get in and out if the campsite is not graded and full of big ruts. We ended up backing out when we left, up an incline. Thank goodness for four wheel drive. Many bugs but not too many that bite. Ground around site was a dusty dirt, so be vigilant.

I took some pics that show the turn off to get there as we got turned around. Maps show it is off Neely, but as you can see in pic it's Eagle Rock.

When you are relocating and stopping just one night in a place, sometimes you find yourself in a cramped RV park, or a Walmart parking lot. Sometimes you stumble on a beautiful free BLM campground. That was the case at Pipeline Campground near American Falls in Idaho.

We just needed an overnight place to break up our journey and ended up spending a magical evening sitting on the end of a pier watching the sun go down and the beautiful birdlife. The campground is less than 2 miles from the freeway. There are just 8 sites here, some are not suitable for RVs, but a few of them are. There were a couple of uninhabited RVs there, and some people using the boat ramp and fishing people when we arrived. But as the sun went down it was just us and the pelicans!

The flies are monumental but they were not biters! We managed to enjoy the sunset with minimal interference. Just be careful when opening the doors.