Agency-listedUSFSFree
Mackay Bar
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · ID · 45.40104, -115.47908
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 — Mackay Bar · Payette 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 Mackay Bar
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,259 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Mackay BarNIFC · 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 Mackay Bar · Payette 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 care30 mi
- FFuel30 mi
- GGrocery30 mi
- @Mail30 mi
- WWater38 mi
- OOutfitter40 mi
- ShShower44 mi
- HHardware45 mi
- MMechanic45 mi
- EVEV fast charger45 mi
- RxPharmacy46 mi
- LLaundry55 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 38-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 30 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 45-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 — Mackay Bar
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
2,259 ft
Ground slope
18.6% · steep
State
ID
Coordinates
45.40104, -115.47908
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Mackay Bar · Payette National Forest · ID (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSalmon River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- Fuelnone within 30 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Groceriesnone within 30 mi
- Hospital / clinicElk City Clinic · ~29.5 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.
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Mackay Bar · Payette National Forest · ID — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger45.4 mi straight-line SW — MCCALL CHARGEPO MC CHARGE 2 · 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 · 5 within 50 · 11 within 100 · 78 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)45.4 mi — MCCALL CHARGEPO MC CHARGE 1, McCall
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)46.0 mi — Shore Lodge, McCall, ID · Blink Network · 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 325581 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Mackay Bar · Payette National Forest · ID — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletMackay Bar · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletHalfway House · ~7.8 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletSams Creek · ~9.5 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletChamberlain Basin · ~13.6 mi E · USFS
Coming out here — Mackay Bar · Payette National Forest · ID
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Salmon 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 18.6% — 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 Mackay Bar elsewhere
Other camps near Mackay Bar
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- USFS dispersed camp — ID #499~1.5 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — ID #678~2.2 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — ID #8~2.7 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — ID #785~3.4 mi
The unit that manages Mackay Bar
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Mackay Bar are set by Payette National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Mackay Bar
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 || Water 2026-08-24 (nightshift fire 120): USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse Recreation Sites layer (apps.fs.usda.gov/arcx/rest/services/EDW/EDW_RecInfraRecreationSites_02/MapServer/0), extract cached locally as data\_mt_water_edw.json, objectid 2355490, site "MACKAY BAR" (recreation area "MACKAY BAR"), WATER_AVAILABILITY = "Water can be treated or filtered from nearby water sources". Matched to this camp on coordinates (0.0008 mi from the agency point). Agency record only -- not field-verified, and no natural water here is claimed to be potable.
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 Mackay Bar
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 — Mackay Bar
Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Off-grid communication →All field notes →