South Fork of the Snake River: Camping

Floating and camping along the South Fork of the Snake River is a great experience. Camping right next to the river is amazing – sleeping to the sounds of the rushing water, seeing the clear night skies into the depths of the stars, being among the wildlife and fishing from early morning until night.

The South Fork has several designated camp sites along the canyon stretch. There are sign-in sheets at the Conant put in. This is right behind the South Fork Angler’s shop along Highway 26. Camp site maps are available here also. The camping is free and so are the maps. You do however; have to pay $3.00 per day for a recreation pass for parking. You fill out the information on the envelope and put in the needed money or check. You rip the flap off the envelope and put it on the dash of your vehicle. The envelope with the money goes in the indicated slot.

For the camping you indicate on the form which sites you plan to camp at. This doesn’t reserve the site and you may decide during the float on a different site. Someone else may be at the site or you may want to stop sooner or float longer than originally intended. I have always floated during the week, not on weekends or holidays. I have never had a problem finding a site. Each site actually has a few camping spots so there usually isn’t a problem.

There are a couple of requirements for camping along the river. One is that you must have some type of sealable “porta potty”. A bucket with a sealable “gasket” will do. I have a bucket with a gasket seal where the middle actually screws off to make it easier to take on and off the lid. I also have a plastic toilet seat lid I put on while doing my business to make it more comfortable than just sitting on the side of the container. At the end of the float at Byington, there is a place to clean it out. The use of plastic bags for human waste is illegal except for WAG BAG and RESTOP 2 bag systems (biodegradable and approved for landfill disposal).

The second thing needed is a fire pan. The pan needs to be big enough (at least 12” X 12” with a 1.5” lip) for fires and to cook on if wanted. It also must be used off the ground. Rocks on each corner will work if you don’t have a stand. The idea here is to pack out all the coals and ashes and to prevent damage to the ground, plants, etc. It also helps prevent forest fires and litter. One thing I’ve noticed is that these camp sites are well taken care of and are neat and clean. They usually have wood piled up at each spot. I was very happy with the camp sites. I had a small hatchet which helped cut the wood and split the logs. On my last trip I bought a foil pan that is used to cook turkeys in that met the above description. I didn’t use it however, and used a sterno cooking apparatus for warming up dinner instead. A little propane stove would have worked well for quickly warming up a can of stew as well. For me, being able to quickly warm up a dinner and spend my time fishing is desirable over spending time preparing a fire and the clean up involve.

I have arrived to the river too late to put and float to the first camp site. There is a camping site between Conant and the bridge near Swan Valley. This is a nice campsite. You do have to fill out an envelope, put in the required money (about $15) and pick out your site. When I camped here a year and a half ago there was a bull moose in the camp site which provided wonderful pictures and much excitement.