Shorts Bar Recreation Site

This is BLM land with a large parking lot and pit toilets. We were able to pull our rig off the parking pad and back up next to the river. You can stay 14 days for free.

The one mile road to get you there is narrow but two lanes. Just take it slow.

This is popular spot for locals to come play in the river. We had zero issues but there will be people around. At night it thins out and was very quiet. When we were there it was 100 degrees and sunny!

Riggins was less than 2 miles away. Also, when you come down the road to Shorts Bar on the right you will see the Rodeo grounds and there are public dumpsters next to it so you can get rid of you trash.

If we travel back this way we will stop here again.

So we stayed next to the area that has the toilets and boat ramp. There is a true sand bar next to it. Wasn’t really a spot but we made it one. We were off the road so people could go around us to get to the beach. A few people during the day playing in the cold water, mostly locals were very nice. My hubby pulled a lady out of the river with his wench on the Jeep, in her Subaru, I think it was. Tried to cross over to the island. Everyone had fun! I’ll put a pic on this one. He had to back out of the spot and it was a little hard to get level but it was all worth it! This is officially a Happy Place!

Traveling through looking for dispersed camping and this popped up. Wonderful spot super close to the water. Easy to get in and out. Not perfectly level but close. We used levelers because we stayed more than one night.

The river is moving pretty fast so not the best for swimming but still a nice relaxing spot. We arrived on a Monday so it was almost empty. There are bathrooms and they had plenty of toilet paper. :)

Less than 5 mins from the town of Riggins which has a couple gas stations that carry diesel and just a few restaurants and bars which seemed to be open.

We did find some beer cans by the river where someone had too much fun but other than that very clean.

Pleas remember to pack in pack out. :)

We wanted to spend a few nights in the Riggins ID area during May 2020, but some of the RV parks there have challenges with handling a large rig, but extra vehicle....plus we like to boondock if we can. Further, since we still need connectivity, cell phone strength is always a concern. This area is essentially a large parking lot that caters to rafters and fisherman (more in the summer), so when we were there, it was not crowded at all.

We were able to park our big rig easily to have a wonderful view of the Lower Salmon river. The road adjacent to Shorts Bar is very lightly traveled, so not much noise at all. Along that thought, NF-1614 is simply a lovely drive along the river and will eventually wind it's way through the mountains.

Cell phone tower is AT&T and is at the top of the ridge closer to Riggins. We parked our RV as close as we could near the entrance so that our Weboost could successfully boost the signal.

Nice overnight on the river. Great beach and water fun if you like that. Was quiet on a Sunday overnight. Area right off paved road. Camping on packed gravel in 25 ft sprinter. Very accessible for big rigs. No mosquitoes but there are flies. Pesky but not biterS 👍. Has pit toilets that were pretty clean. There is vzw cell coverage but we got mostly 3g. Was better at night a little.

A lot of people come here in the summer for rafting and float tubing. Good free BLM spot. Just a large dirt lot. With a good booster you can get reasonably good Verizon and AT&T here. The town of Riggins is around the river bend. Small little place with some bars and restaurants that specifically cater to the river going crowd. It's Idaho rafting capitol. Good clean vault toilets. Not too much trash but it's a pack in pack out spot with no trash service.

This is a nice spot. Even though it's a big parking lot area, you can park right along the river. Any size rig could get here easily and find a place to park. 1 bar LTE for ATT and 2 bars 4G for Verizon. Zero OTA channels. Riggins is a cute town with a few restaurants and a grocery store. There is an elk ranch across the street. We would stay here again.