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.