Lake Creek Trailhead & Campground

About

Lake Creek Trailhead & Campground sits at the edge of Idaho's Pioneer Mountains in the Copper Basin backcountry of the Salmon-Challis National Forest. The campground consists of four dispersed-style sites in an open sagebrush flat beside Lake Creek, offering a quiet staging point for backcountry exploration at around 7,800 feet elevation. The site primarily serves as a trailhead for Lake Creek Trail #64, Green Lake Trail, and access to Muldoon Canyon. Equestrian users can take advantage of hitching rails and a loading ramp located outside the campground boundary, though horses are not permitted within the campground itself. The Lake Creek ATV trail also departs from here. A single vault toilet is the only facility. Reaching the campground requires navigating roughly 40 miles of forest roads from either Mackay via Trail Creek Road and Copper Basin Road, or from Sun Valley/Ketchum via Trail Creek Road (winter-closed). The Copper Basin Loop Road is typically impassable before late May due to snow.

Directions

From Mackay, take US Highway 93 approximately 16 miles north to Trail Creek Road (#208). Turn left on Trail Creek Road and follow it 18 miles to Copper Basin Road (#135). Turn left and continue 18 miles to the second turnoff for Copper Basin Loop Road at the Copper Basin Guard Station. Turn right and follow the loop road 4 miles to the trailhead. Alternatively from Sun Valley/Ketchum, take Highway 75 to Sun Valley Road which becomes Trail Creek Road (closed in winter), then turn right on Copper Basin Road and follow directions above.