Idaho

Grandview Campground near Ashton, Idaho is a really nice, small US Forest Service campground about 14 miles outside of Ashton. The campground only has 9 electric-only sites, meaning no water and no sewer. The cost of a single site was $31/night and $62 for the double sites. It’s set in a beautifully wooded area of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest on the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway which is off US-20 in eastern Idaho.

The Henry’s Fork of the Snake River runs right behind the campground, but the river is not accessible from there without some serious bouldering over hundreds of yards of Mesa Falls Tuff and then repelling down shear cliffs. There is a dirt road leading from the back of the campground that intersects a picturesque, narrow footpath through the woods leading to both the Lower Mesa Falls and Upper Mesa Falls overlooks, which are approximately one mile apart. Upper Mesa Falls can also be reached by driving one mile north on the Byway.

The falls were quite spectacular during our July 2024 visit, with lots of water flowing over the 65-foot Lower Falls and 114-foot Upper Falls. You can almost walk right up to the Upper Falls via a well maintained boardwalk. There is a $5.00/day entrance fee to the Upper Falls unless you have an America the Beautiful, Military, or Senior National Park pass, then it’s free.

The tiny town of Ashton is northwest of Grand Teton National Park and southwest of Yellowstone National Park. With a population of less than 1200, Ashton only has a few restaurants, one small, family-owned grocery store, a family-owned hardware store, and a couple of gas stations.

Ashton is surrounded by rolling farmland with expansive views to the mountains. We saw lots of grain and potato crops being farmed during our visit. It was very picturesque driving over the undulating hills and around the long sweeping curves. You could see for miles.

We stayed at Grandview Campground for 6 nights and booked our reservations 6 months ahead of time on Recreation.gov. A couple of the campsites are first come, first served, so there are always campers driving through looking to grab one of the available sites. Our site, Site 6, was perfect. It was plenty long for our 43 foot RV even though it was a bit tight backing in due to rocks and trees on either side of the drive. The site had 2 stands to put grills or coolers on as well as a very nice, gravel tent or seating pad.

The campground is in grizzly bear territory, but we didn’t see any signs of them as it was 85-95 degrees every day, and they’ve probably moved up to higher elevations. The mosquitos, even during midday, are ruthless, but our 30% Deet wipes and spray kept them at-bay.

The only wildlife we saw at the campground were numerous bird species and several squirrels and chipmunks, but we were always on the lookout for bears. I so much wanted to see a grizzly in the wild. The woods were full of wildflowers at this time of year, and we enjoyed identifying some of them using the “Seek” app by iNaturalist that identifies plants and animals using your cell phone camera. Even though we were only about 100 miles from Yellowstone, we decided we were not going to go this trip due to kitchen slideout issues.

We had light rain several times plus a major lightning storm with very heavy rain that lasted for an hour or so. Penny DID NOT like it one bit. Most of the rain showers came and went within 10 minutes and barely wet the ground. The weather was hot and humid the entirety of our visit with temps hitting 85 every day except for one.

The campground is dog friendly as long as they are on a leash. Penny and Little Bit loved the walks, especially through the woods while I continuously called out “Hey bear”.

If you stay here, BE BEAR AWARE! Carry bear spray. I would assume that in cooler weather or during early spring and late fall, you have a pretty good chance of seeing grizzlies here. We thoroughly enjoyed this campground and will return the next time we’re in the area. The camp hosts were friendly and helpful and did a great job of maintaining the campground.