Dog Creek Campground

Nice, quiet campground with very clean pit toilet bathrooms. We enjoyed the sound of Dog Creek from Site 001. Wish there were trails to the creek instead of having to pick your way through the ferns, hoping to not crush them!! Only downside is the river is too far away (across the highway, really no good access within easy walking distance). And right now their water system is down (boo!), but we came prepared so it didn’t bother us much. Overall an enjoyable stay!

My wife and I were forced to make last minute changes to our camping trip this year (thanks to the Wapiti 2024 fire in Stanley) and Dog Creek was the only campground available on the dates we had set aside. We had been up to Pine once before but had never explored past the town. The campground itself is quiet and away from the main road but it is directly parallel to the South Fork of the Boise River. There are a TON of ponderosa pines and other various pine trees so the campground looks small because of the dense tree cover. From the main road, the main drive is a fairly narrow paved dirt/gravel road and not bumpy at all so most vehicles shouldn’t have an issue with it. The camp sites themselves are a little close to each other but you’re not shoulder to shoulder or directly on top of each other. The camp host greeted us upon our arrival, filled us in on the fire restrictions and said to let him know if we needed anything. We had reserved sites 10 and 11 but in reality, they might as well call it a group site because there is no separation between the two, you even share a "driveway”. There were fire rings, tent pads (at some sites) and picnic tables, along with shepherds hooks for hanging trash off of the ground. There were also metal tables at every site that we think are intended for camp stoves. (The picnic tables are wood)The fire rings were well cared for (none damaged that we saw and they all had adjustable grills)….but our fire ring was very close to the bushes which was a little sketchy. This campground is nice and quiet and full of trees. But unfortunately, for us, that’s where the appeal ends. In order to get to the actual Dog Creek from the campground, you have to hope that sites 2 and 5 are not occupied and even then, the creek isn’t super exciting. It’s pretty but it’s a climb down into a ravine of sorts and it’s not deep enough to lay in and there aren’t any places to setup chairs to just enjoy it. The water flowing through the creek is clean and it is pretty to look at, but that’s about all it’s good for. As for other things to do at the campground, there isn’t much. There are no hiking trails as far as we could tell, but if you go across the street to the river, you can actually enjoy your stay, assuming the banks of the river aren’t packed with dispersed campers and their ATV’s. The campground does have water spigots and the water tasted fine. The restrooms (vault toilets) were impeccable in terms of cleanliness. Some of the nicest Forest Service campground restrooms we’ve used and the camp host does an awesome job of keeping them clean and bug free. Speaking of bugs, we didn’t see many mosquitoes but we did see a good amount of bees, wasps and yellow jackets and there were traps setup throughout the campground so bring an epi pen if you’re allergic to any of them. We lost cell service just after the reservoir (T-Mobile) but my satellite communicator worked fairly well at the campground. There are dumpsters to take your trash just inside the entrance to the campground, which is a little annoying as you have to walk quite a ways to dump it, but there were also no critters hanging around the sites. Dog Creek campground is the type of campground where you setup your camper or RV and leave for the day to do other things. Whether it’s boating at Anderson Ranch, taking the ATV’s up into the mountains or try to find hiking trails. The campground itself is very pretty BUT it doesn’t offer much in terms of things to do while there. However, if you are looking for some peace and quiet, with very little noise from the outside world, it’s great.

Super friendly hosts and very clean bathroom. Little bit uneven at site 6, but rain runs right off.

Fairly nice campground. We were in site #1 and it was nice to be able to hear the creek running not far from the campsite. One negative to our time there was that a LOT of people who were camping across the road kept making several trips up and down the road into the campgrounds to use the toilets even though the toilets are supposed to be for campers on the Dog Creek campground only. There were some who made the trip on foot, but most of the time they would be riding ATVs up and down the road--sometimes with 6 or 7 people on one ATV. Nothing too major, but would be an annoyance to not be able to get into the toilet for a while during their pilgrimages back and forth.

Rose, camphost, is absolutely amazing! I give her 5 stars for going above and beyond to make sure we were comfortable. Her husband Tom, and Rose work really hard to keep this campground clean and quiet. Unfortunately, disbursed camping guests disrespect camp boundaries and speed through to use restrooms and dump trash. Once weekend was over and people cleared out, it was really quiet and peaceful.