UPDATE 4/22/2009: Idaho State Parks has contracted with www.reserveamerica.com.
UPDATE 01/04/2009: The Idaho Parks website is reporting that the online reservation feature is temporarily halted due to complaints and system performance issues. The number to call to make a reservation at any Idaho State Park is: 1-208-630-5050.
Over the Independence Day holiday we decided to take a one night respite at Farragut State Park in Idaho. Located at 13550 East Hiway 54, Farragut State Park is situated near the quaint little vacation town of Bayview, ID.
Farragut is a pretty good sized park with 4 campgrounds. The campgrounds are:
Snowberry: 44 Full Hook up sites Whitetail : 61 Non Hook up sites Waldron : 73 Full Hook up sites Gilmore : 43 Full Hook up sites
There are also two group camps named Thimbleberry and Buttonhook. We literally could have spent at least a week there exploring the park, but we didn’t have that type of time.
Farragut has a nice boat launch there, an amphitheater, a large day use area, and for you disc golf enthusiasts there is a 18 hole course in the park. Farragut also has a very extensive trail system. If you have horses, be sure to check out the corral equestrian area.
Don’t forget the Visitor Center; there is a little interpretive display there where family can visit while you wait in line to check into your site. If you are a geo-cacher, there are about six geo-caches hidden in the park including an underwater cache for those scuba divers out there.
Farragut State Park is only a hand full of miles away from Silverwood Amusement Park, and if you can, I would recommend you stay in Farragut if you plan a weekend at Silverwood. Silverwood has an RV park across the hwy from them but its too close to the hwy and there is too much noise.
We stayed in the Snowberry campground. This campground had a paved loop, so it was a great place to supervise your little ones if they bring their bikes. Your best bet when you stay at Snowberry is of course to try and reserve the outer loops of the campground.
We stayed in space #101 which was a pull through site. It was the only site the entire park had available and now I know why. It was very close, almost too close to the neighboring spot.
Each of the four campgrounds has a camp host who are responsible for their respective campground, and at least at Snowberry (because that was the only campground I experienced) the camp hosts did a fair job keeping the sites clean. Remember folks; clean up after yourself when you break camp. It makes the camp host’s job that much easier.
One thing I didn’t like about Snowberry aside from how cramped some of the sites were to each other was the fact there was only one restroom area for all 43 sites. Come to find out, there is one bathroom area per campground including the whitetail campground which has 63 campsites.
When the campground allows a maximum of 8 people per site, you can imagine the strain the sewer system would take at any given time, and honestly with all those people in a campground you’d imagine it doesn’t stay clean for long. Which reminds me about a question I’ve had? Why cant people who use campground bathrooms treat them as if they were in their own bathroom at home and clean up after themselves?
We didn’t take pictures on this trip – there is just so much and it’s so spread out, please visit this link on the http://visitidaho.org website to learn more about Farragut and also more about what Idaho has to offer.
Here is a list of campsites at the Snowberry Campground that offered the maximum privacy and were not too close to other campsites, which are two criteria at least I look for when making my reservations. #102, #107, #108, #114, #118. I’ll say #102 is my most preferred out of those five I listed.
I suppose the jury is still out for me in regard to a comprehensive review of Farragut State Park, but I would definitely visit the park again. If you are planning an out of state trip to this park, you better plan way ahead because Farragut fills up fast. You can make your reservation by clicking on the Idaho Parks website.
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We've stayed there twice in the last 4 years. We have a 25' trailer and prefer site 118 on Snowberry. It offers lots of privacy and trees.
We'll be back again and again!
Beautiful park!
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