Agency-listedBLM · dispersedUnpriced · confirm
Great Rift Backcountry Area
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · ID · 43.00578, -113.25943
Inside a national park unit
Great Rift Backcountry Area sits inside Craters of the Moon National Preserve — a national preserve run by the National Park Service.
Park rules apply, and they are stricter than dispersed camping: inside a National Park Service unit you camp in a designated campground or on a backcountry permit, not wherever you find a flat spot. Check the park before you go: nps.gov/crmo ↗
This page calls it a dispersed camp because that is what the source record says. Inside a park unit that word does not mean camp anywhere.
Our record names BLM as the land manager; the Park Service’s own boundary map puts this point inside the unit. Two agencies disagree about one spot — ask the park first.
Placed by point-in-polygon against the National Park Service’s own boundary layer (NPS Land Resources Division, 442 units, fetched 18 Sep 2026; this unit’s polygon edited 2017-05-31). Nothing about the price or the legal status on this page was changed by it.
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 →Bureau of Land Management 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.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Great Rift Backcountry Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4,861 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Great Rift Backcountry AreaNIFC · 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 Great Rift Backcountry Area · Bureau of Land Management · ID
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel26 mi
- MMechanic26 mi
- @Mail26 mi
- GGrocery26 mi
- LLaundry26 mi
- EVEV fast charger26 mi
- +Urgent care34 mi
- WWater35 mi
- HHardware38 mi
- RxPharmacy41 mi
- OOutfitter42 mi
- ShShower43 mi
- DDump43 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 35-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 26 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: 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 — Great Rift Backcountry Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
4,861 ft
Ground slope
2% · flat
State
ID
Coordinates
43.00578, -113.25943
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Great Rift Backcountry Area · Bureau of Land Management · ID (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~25.5 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesKen's Food Market · ~25.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicPower County Hospital District · ~25.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Great Rift Backcountry Area · Bureau of Land Management · ID — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger26.0 mi straight-line SE — American Falls, ID - Tesla Supercharger (at a grocery store) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 14 within 50 · 33 within 100 · 76 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS26.1 mi — VALLEYWIDE COOP VALLEYWIDE COOP, American Falls
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO26.1 mi — VALLEYWIDE COOP VALLEYWIDE COOP, American Falls
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)40.8 mi — Burley, ID - Rivergate Crossings (at a public site) · RIVIAN_WAYPOINTS · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- 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 398004 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Great Rift Backcountry Area · Bureau of Land Management · ID — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomSportsmans Park Recreation Management Area-Precast Restroom 1 Building · ~24.6 mi E · BoR
- RestroomWest Boat Ramp Recreation Area-Precast Restroom 1 Building · ~24.6 mi SE · BoR
- RestroomWest Boat Ramp Recreation Area-Precast Restroom 2 Building · ~24.7 mi SE · BoR
- RestroomSportsmans Park Recreation Management Area-Precast Restroom 2 Building · ~24.8 mi E · BoR
Coming out here — Great Rift Backcountry Area · Bureau of Land Management · ID
- No named surface water mapped within 1 mi of the pin in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset (data refreshed October 2022), and none within about a mile and a half in our OpenStreetMap pull — which is not proof there is none, only that neither map has one. Plan to carry washing water as well as drinking water.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 2% — flat. 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.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- 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 Great Rift Backcountry Area elsewhere
Other camps near Great Rift Backcountry Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Great Rift Isa Wilderness Study Area~17.7 mi
- Bear Den Butte Wilderness Study Area~18.9 mi
- China Cup Butte Isa Wilderness Study Area~20.7 mi
The unit that manages Great Rift Backcountry Area
Great Rift Backcountry Area is in the Shoshone Field Office, Twin Falls District, Bureau of Land Management. Stay limits, permits, road closures and fire restrictions are set there, not at the campsite — check before you go. Its page maps every camp in it.
How we know this — Great Rift Backcountry Area
Source
Bureau of Land Management 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
BLM RIDB record, agency-listed. Its fee field is empty -- no fee statement -- so the cost is unpriced (field read 2026-09-19). Access not field-checked (assumed drive-up).
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 Great Rift Backcountry Area
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 — Great Rift Backcountry Area
Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Dumping grey & black →Picking a spot →All field notes →