Stanley Lake Campground

My favorite stop in the Stanley area. Paved road to the campground, and then gravel. The newer section of the campground, sites 20 through 30, are well spaced and on well draining gravel. The older spots, some of which have views of the water, are cramped together and can become a bit muddy in the spring rains.

Arrived on a Friday early afternoon in June, plenty of first come sites available but it did fill up for the weekend. Virtually empty midweek.

Spotless vault toilets.

Did not have any Verizon service this time.

Nearest dump station is at the Stanley ranger station off of Highway 75.

Nice asphalt road from highway 21. Lots of shady spots are reservable, I did a first come on a Monday and was able to get a spot in the newer area where the pitches are super large but super exposed to the hot summer sun. Great for solar!

Lake was refreshing and excellent trails led right from the campground.

Text only on Verizon, did not use the facilities, campground host was very on top of things.

Plenty of dispersed camping along the access road if the campground is full. First come sites did fill up by 5:00 p.m..

We drove through this area over the Memorial Day weekend to check it out for a July 4th holiday camping. There is a new section that is out in the open, yet still over looking the lake and all are FCFS. When we arrived a week in advance of the 4th, all sites were taken, but not all were occupied and the next day we drove through again with the same multiple sites only being "occupied" with a cooler, chair, and tent. The hosts are not enforcing the "first night occupancy" rule for FCFS. Not very happy about this. As a result we ended up staying in the dispersed camping about 3/4 of a mile down the road which ended up being really nice and free. That was the upside to this trip. This site says there are 19 sites, but there are many more with the addition of the new section.

We stayed here from 8-23 to 8-30/2020. We had stayed at Redfish Lake a couple years ago but we decided on Stanley Lake Campground as Redfish was so overrun, busy and crowded. Our campground filled up each night with reservations but many no-shows left some sites vacant. The scenery around this lake and Redfish Lake is breathtaking. The lake had much activity and the shoreline is predominately sandy and kid friendly. There are many hikes around Stanley Lake and the surrounding area. All facilities are in the town of Stanley or at Redfish Lake including a coin operated laundromat, showers and a store. There's a decent grocery store and Idaho state liquor store in Stanley but the merchandise is not always in great supply. There's a dump station with potable water at Redfish lake on the way to the visitor center or south of Stanley at the Stanley Ranger Station. The vault toilets were spotless and cleaned frequently.

There was an earthquake in March 2020 that wiped out the Inlet Campground, (see attached photo) and the lower beach area, a former favorite day use area.

Our first several days at Stanley Lake CG the sky was filled with smoke from local and California fires. It did clear about when we left.

Although the Sawtooth Recreation Area (SRA) and the NFS both indicate that there are two campgrounds at Stanley Lake, but there is really just one campground, albeit bifurcated with 2 different names, Stanley Lake Campground and Lake View Campground. Both are serviced by a common campground host and entrance off of the service road. Lake View Campground is a first come, first serve section that has a few sites large enough for moderate size trailers, but some sites are better left to the smaller rigs and tent campers. Be careful at the cul-de-sac at the end of the Lake View to make sure you swing wide enough to clear the shrubs and trees in the middle with any trailer you may be towing.

Stanley Lake Campground itself is part reserved camping in the older section, closest to the lake, and part a first come, first serve newer section a little further north and a little further from the lake. None of the roads or campsites within the campgrounds are paved. Services include water via hand pumps, the cleanest vaulted toilets I've seen, garbage and recycle dumpsters.

The reserved sites go quickly online, and as of this writing and was mostly booked up through Labor Day weekend. The ~15 sites that are first come, first serve within the Stanley Lake Campground section are well spaced with 4 vault toilets, serviced by a very dusty gravel road with a wide cul-de-sac turnaround at the end. There is a trail and a short walk to the lake from this section of the campground. This a new section that was completed a couple of years ago, so it looks a little bland in comparison to the older section as the small lodgepole pines have not had much time to mature. Most of these sites have a fairly long gravel footprint for larger trailers or motorhomes, and a sand tent pad. Sites also have a nice wooden picnic table, and fire ring.

Please be aware that there are no speed bumps within the first come, first serve section except for the one just as you enter. The Area Manager for this campground and others within the SRA, is in a site right at the speed bump, so he doesn't get much of the dust that others in this section get. The posted speed limit within the campground is 10 mph; however, the Area Manager has no problem driving faster than that kicking up dust to make his daily rounds. Appropriately, the nice camp host drives a golf cart which does not go very fast and kicks up very little dust. She is also very friendly and accommodating. To avoid some of the dust, it is recommended that you find a site closer to the end, closer to the lake outlet. Many of the other campers drove too fast and simply did not care about the dust they were causing. While there are a few reserved sites within Stanley Lake Campground and most of Lake View Campground that have a view of the lake, there are really none in the newer first come, first serve section. However, you will be able to see the beautiful McGown Peak from just about everywhere.

If you are looking for one of the first-come, first serve sites within either campground, I recommend that you disregard the 'FULL' sign that you will undoubtedly see as you enter into the campgrounds from the paved service road that comes in from ID 21. We were just about to leave the area after seeing the 'FULL' sign when I asked a trailer leaving the campground looking for a RV dump if there were any available sites, and he said there were plenty.

Speaking of RV dump stations, there ain't none here. The closest public dump station is at the ranger station just south of Stanley, about a 20 - 25 minute drive from the campground. We drove all the way to Idaho City before we were able to dump our water.

The check-in procedure for the first come, first serve section is to find an empty site that you want with no date tag on the post and go ahead and park and set up. The nice camp host will be by in her golf cart to get you registered and collect your monies. She also sells firewood.

There are dispersed camping areas before you enter the campgrounds off the service road which are free, widely spaced and fairly close proximity to the lake and other trails in the area. They would suffice for most campers If you don't need the vaulted toilets, garbage cans, hand-pump water or lake front proximity.

Stanley Lake is a beautiful place for boating, fishing, swimming or just hanging out by the water's edge reading a book or throwing sticks in the water for your yellow lab. Unfortunately, motors are also allowed on the lake and we saw one personal water craft tearing about ruining all serenity one afternoon. There are trails close by which gets you into the Sawtooth's.

There are mosquitos at night but not many in the morning. We were also told that bears sometimes come into the campgrounds if food or grills are left out. We had about 2 bars of cell service, a couple of FM radio stations and no TV from our antennae.

If you have an older NFS map, there maybe a symbol for a campground called Inlet Campground. I recall pitching a tent at this campground some 40 years ago, but it has since been discontinued and is now mostly under water due to the recent liquifaction of the inlet side of the lake as a result of a 6.5 earthquake in March 2020, which actually made Stanley Lake just a little larger with the sinking ground.

One of our luckiest experiences on scoring a walk up site. We just planned to take a peek at the campground and then move along as we never though we would get a spot in a popular reservation campground on a weekend in July! But as we were pulling up to the entrance of the campground the host was at the sign flipping it from Full to Vacancy.... say what??? A last minute cancellation, sad for someone, but good luck for us..... we scored a prime lakefront site! Our site was site #5 and I do not think it could have been much better. Solar charging was great in these lightly forested sites. Minimal bugs, which is a positive in my book. Water access to the shoreline was a little steep, but worth it for the private lakeside spot. No cell service! There was construction going on, and by 2019-2020 there will be several more sites at this campground, could make the shoreline and lake a little too busy in years to come? Glad we experienced it when we did!