Beauty Creek Campground — Hotel in Coeur d'Alene

I stayed here years ago when it was a nice little rustic (and cheap) campground. You can go up the road to the mountain ridge where there are some nice woods, trails, and cool views. The lower part of the creek goes underground (dry) most of the summer every year, but you can find it further up. There is a foot trail going up the mountain if you feel athletic. Along with most of the other locals, I stopped going here when the USFS turned over management to "American Land and Leisure" like just about every other easily accessible campground in the area. Because they are close to a main highway and alternatives are so expensive, they gouge people 23 bucks for an old style campground with little privacy, a dry creek, your choice of a swamp or rocks to get to the lake, few toilets, and pump your own water. Oh yeah, and yellow jackets. (Note: the picture is out of date, rates have gone up...again) I just stayed in a much bigger, nicer campground in another area with running water, a nice swimming hole, and a paved road to it for $12 a night. There are many campgrounds in North Idaho and Montana in the $12-$16 range better than this one. Sorry, but just installing a nice host doesn't compensate for that. I think the high rates and online reservation system discriminate against lower income people when the National Forest should be here for all to...

FYI, there is no creek, but a very dry Creek bed. Someone mentioned that it's underground.

Camp host was wonderful. He even helped us haul wood to our site. They have nice fire pits with a grill over the top side.

BYO flashlight for the vaulted toilets. They are well distributed along the one way road into the camp sites.

This camp does have potable water. Problem is they only have one functional pump located just across from campsite #5. I stayed at #19 (last site in the park) for one night and #5 for two nights. It is quite a trek to haul water from the pump to #19. Site #5 & #6 are very close in proximity. Love thy neighbors. Haha. Camp site #4 has a covered picnic table/shelter, (luckies!) Saw people hanging their hammocks on the shelter to sleep in at night. Perfect for bike trekkers. There are other campsites with shelters, but they don't all have one. The table at camp #8 is rotten and disintegrating... be aware of that one.

The low numbered camps are in a meadow. Perfect for young kids to run around. The higher numbers are more secluded and are home to many cottontail rabbits, not easy to keep kiddos in your line of sight.

Great little campground for my layover between...

The road from I-90 has twists and turns, and then once you turn onto the road for beauty creek, that road is paved but Hs some significant pot holes. The campground is a one-way road through it. It's not very big, but the sites are all decent-sized and have decent privacy. ..except site 10 which is supposed to be a tent site, but we were allowed to use it for our 24ft class c. That site is right along the road with no privacy. The campground hosts are gracious and very accommodating. The creek itself is bone dry due to a very dry summer. It's not far from the lake and supposely there is a nice trail that leaves from the end of campground. There are no hookups of any kind. Pit toilets, and the only water pump we found was a hand pump with a weird output that made it hard to collect water. On the bright side, Idaho lifted their burn ban so we could...