Agency-listedUSFSFree
French Gulch
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · ID · 45.77931, -115.38501
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →U.S. Forest Service lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — French Gulch · Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest · ID
No MVUM road within 1 mi of the pin; access may be a county road or unmapped.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at French Gulch
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4,218 ft.
Fire & smoke — around French GulchNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from French Gulch · Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest · ID
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- +Urgent care4 mi
- GGrocery31 mi
- WWater33 mi
- @Mail36 mi
- MMechanic36 mi
- FFuel36 mi
- OOutfitter37 mi
- HHardware37 mi
- RxPharmacy37 mi
- EVEV fast charger38 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 33-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 31 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 38-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Dump, Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — French Gulch
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
4,218 ft
Ground slope
21.7% · steep
State
ID
Coordinates
45.77931, -115.38501
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around French Gulch · Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest · ID (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureRed River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Also mapped (OSM)Galena Creek (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townElk City · ~4.1 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- Fuelnone within 30 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Groceriesnone within 30 mi
- Mapping is thin out hereAn empty row means nothing is mapped within that radius — not that nothing exists. Small stores, seasonal resorts and single fuel pumps out here often never make it onto the map. Treat these as unconfirmed and ask locally.
EV charging — from French Gulch · Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest · ID — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger37.9 mi straight-line NW — GRANGEVILLE KOOSKIA 1 · ChargePoint Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 4 within 50 · 19 within 100 · 58 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)69.4 mi — MCCALL CHARGEPO MC CHARGE 1, McCall
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)37.3 mi — Super 8 by Wyndham Grangeville - Tesla Destination (at a hotel) · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 3 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 450760 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around French Gulch · Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest · ID — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletDitch Creek · ~4.8 mi SE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletRed River Ranger Station · ~5.2 mi SE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletRed River Rv Dump · ~5.3 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletKirks Fork · ~5.4 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — French Gulch · Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest · ID
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Red River as a perennial river, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 21.7% — steep. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open French Gulch elsewhere
Other camps near French Gulch
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- USFS dispersed camp — ID #697~0.2 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — ID #383~1.3 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — ID #710~3.9 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — ID #754~4.3 mi
The unit that manages French Gulch
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at French Gulch are set by Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Mountain Meadows at 6,340 ft, about 9 miles away. It sits about 2,122 ft higher than this camp, so treat it as a guide rather than a reading for this spot. We do not repeat a depth here, because any number we stored would be stale by the time you read it — the station publishes today's.
How we know this — French Gulch
Source
U.S. Forest Service recreation data
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
Free but developed (not dispersed) - review
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about French Gulch
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — French Gulch
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Reading the aerial →All field notes →