Agency-listedUSFSFeeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Porcupine
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · ID · 42.09495, -111.51831
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 as a developed campground. Expect marked sites, a fee station or a reservation, and the usual campground rules. The dispersed-camping freedom of the surrounding forest does not apply inside it. 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 — Porcupine · Caribou-Targhee National Forest · ID
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 30461 (Porcupine Campground), 10 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as asphalt surface and maintenance level 4 – moderate degree of user comfort.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 30461 (Porcupine Campground), 10 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 30461 (Porcupine Campground): “01/01-12/31” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
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 Porcupine
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 6,755 ft.
Fire & smoke — around PorcupineNIFC · 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 Porcupine · Caribou-Targhee National Forest · ID
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater0 mi
- FFuel7 mi
- +Urgent care9 mi
- @Mail9 mi
- OOutfitter9 mi
- GGrocery11 mi
- EVEV fast charger11 mi
- HHardware11 mi
- DDump14 mi
- ShShower15 mi
- MMechanic17 mi
- RxPharmacy18 mi
- LLaundry20 mi
- AAir-up26 mi
- PPropane30 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 7 mi out.
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 — Porcupine
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
6,755 ft
Ground slope
14.2% · noticeable
State
ID
Coordinates
42.09495, -111.51831
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Porcupine · Caribou-Targhee National Forest · ID (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSaint Charles Creek · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townSt. Charles · ~6.7 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~0.5 mi
- FuelFuel · ~6.8 mi
- Propane / LPG7-Eleven · ~29.5 mi
- Dump station~14.1 mi
- GroceriesParis Country Store · ~10.7 mi
- PharmacyPreston Drug · ~18.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicBeaver Mountain Ski Patrol · ~8.8 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~11.4 mi
EV charging — from Porcupine · Caribou-Targhee National Forest · ID — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger11.3 mi straight-line SE — Mike's Market - Tesla Supercharger (Car Charging Pros), Garden City, UT (at a grocery store) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-07-15 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach4 within 25 mi · 15 within 50 · 84 within 100 · 171 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS11.3 mi — MIKES MARKET BERT, Garden City
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO11.3 mi — MIKES MARKET BERT, Garden City
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)10.9 mi — El Camino Donuts - Tesla Destination, Paris, ID · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 2 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 charger$0.48 per kWh (as listed by AFDC)
- 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 462737 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Porcupine · Caribou-Targhee National Forest · ID — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletPorcupine · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletCloverleaf · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMinnetonka Cave · ~0.5 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletNorth Fork Campground · ~0.8 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Porcupine · Caribou-Targhee National Forest · ID
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Saint Charles Creek as a perennial stream, under 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 14.2% — noticeable. 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 Porcupine elsewhere
Other camps near Porcupine
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- North Fork Campground~0.8 mi
- Davis Canyon Overflow~1.4 mi · fee
- Saint Charles Campground~3.9 mi · fee
- Beaver Creek~5.2 mi · fee
The unit that manages Porcupine
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Porcupine are set by Caribou-Targhee National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Franklin Basin at 8,140 ft, about 5 miles away. It sits about 1,385 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 — Porcupine
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
Developed FEE campground (not free) - review | auto:usfs-fee 2026-08-20: US Forest Service developed campground, agency coordinates, agency states a fee. No dollar amount in the agency record -- expect a charge and confirm the current rate before you go. Not field-verified. | Fee 2026-08-21: $20 per night for a standard single site and $40 for the group site, for the 2026-05-22 to 2026-09-06 season. The forest page publishes no amount and defers to recreation.gov; listing 233976 (PORCUPINE (ID)) also carries a third $34 tier that it does not label. Sources: https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/233976 and https://www.fs.usda.gov/r04/caribou-targhee/recreation/porcupine-campground (last updated June 30, 2026).
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 Porcupine
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.
- Whether that MVUM road is the way in, and the last stretch beyond it
- Whether the site itself closes on its own schedule — only the road's season is on record
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 — Porcupine
Winter vs summer roads →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Reading your camp page →All field notes →