Agency-listedUSFSFeeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Sam Owen
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · ID · 48.21973, -116.28437
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 — Sam Owen · Idaho Panhandle National Forests · ID
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 647 (Sam Owen Park Rd), 20 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 647 (Sam Owen Park Rd), 20 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 647 (Sam Owen Park Rd): “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 Sam Owen
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,101 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Sam OwenNIFC · 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 Sam Owen · Idaho Panhandle National Forests · ID
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- GGrocery1 mi
- FFuel1 mi
- MMechanic12 mi
- EVEV fast charger13 mi
- @Mail13 mi
- RxPharmacy13 mi
- HHardware13 mi
- +Urgent care13 mi
- OOutfitter14 mi
- WWater21 mi
- DDump22 mi
- LLaundry29 mi
- ShShower35 mi
- PPropane44 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 21-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 1 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 — Sam Owen
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
2,101 ft
Ground slope
4.9% · gentle
Nearest rail line
~0.7 mi · main line
State
ID
Coordinates
48.21973, -116.28437
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Sam Owen · Idaho Panhandle National Forests · ID (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLake Pend Oreille · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townEast Hope · ~1.5 mi
- Nearest rail line~0.7 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelHoliday Shores Resort · ~1.2 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~22.5 mi
- GroceriesGrocery · ~0.7 mi
- PharmacySandpoint Super Drug · ~13.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicKaniksu Community Health · ~13.1 mi
- HardwareIdaho Implement · ~13.0 mi
EV charging — from Sam Owen · Idaho Panhandle National Forests · ID — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger12.6 mi straight-line W — Northern Lights Inc, Sagle, ID · LOOP · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-07-15 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 10 within 50 · 62 within 100 · 91 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)42.5 mi — Coeur d'Alene, ID - Tesla Supercharger, Coeur d'Alene
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO33.0 mi — V.C. STATION BF FAST CHARGER, Bonners Ferry
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)13.7 mi — Best Western Plus, Ponderay, ID (at a hotel) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-11-13 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — City of Sandpoint - Tesla Destination, Sandpoint, 12.5 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
- Pricing at the fast charger$1 activation fee; $0.30 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 348822 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Sam Owen · Idaho Panhandle National Forests · ID — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Flush restroomSam Owen · at this camp · USFS
- Flush restroomSam Owen · at this camp · USFS
- Flush restroomSam Owen Boat Dock · ~0.3 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletGamlin Lake - Vault Toilet · ~4.3 mi W · BLM
Coming out here — Sam Owen · Idaho Panhandle National Forests · ID
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Lake Pend Oreille as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.2 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 4.9% — gentle. 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.
- Rail line mapped ~0.7 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in 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 Sam Owen elsewhere
Other camps near Sam Owen
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Porcupine Lake~4.9 mi
- Lees Point~5.2 mi
- Huckleberry~6.0 mi
- Huckleberry Campground~6.2 mi
The unit that manages Sam Owen
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Sam Owen are set by Idaho Panhandle National Forests, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Bear Mountain at 5,460 ft, about 11 miles away. It sits about 3,359 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 — Sam Owen
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. || 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 2382741, site "SAM OWEN" (recreation area "SAM OWEN"), WATER_AVAILABILITY = "Yes, drinking water is available from a hand pump". 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. Agency site page: https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/232202
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 Sam Owen
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 — Sam Owen
Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Reading the aerial →All field notes →