Helende

Sad to see all thee trees that have been removed and on top of that the micro burst that took out most of the remaining trees was not expected. Not to sure about the camp ground host but oh well. Not to sure when our next visit will be after all we witnessed.

User-friendly website. My name and reservation were posted on the site when I arrived. The camp host was great. Overall excellent experience.

The camp hosts were amazing! They checked on everyone, and responded to any concerns we had. We had plenty of shade, and it was a blast. Saw lots of ground squirrels and a couple deer. I would reccomend this campsite to my friends.

The campsites are a long way from the river. We thought we could easily walk to the river, but it was a solid .5 miles to get to the nice area that wasn't a steep, rocky climb.
The campsite was very exposed - hardly any trees around ours and it was very hot.
The campsite host was really great, though!

Camp hosts are friendly, restrooms were kept clean and the camping spot was in great condition when we arrived.

Campground was clean and pretty much deserted. Despite getting one of the last reservations available, at the beginning of the year, we were the only campers in the place for two out of three nights. There was a camp host set up at one site, but he was on the premises for less than an hour over three days. For reasons unknown to us, he had a chest freezer that ran on a generator. It was a fairly quiet generator, but at night it was clearly audible. Definitely detracted from the stay.

Campgrounds in the Lowman area were heavily cleared to deal with problematic trees. These trees were safety and fire hazards, so it needed to be done, but it did leave a mess that will take time to heal. Upside is that the wildflowers were abundant. Easy access the South Fork of the Payette River from the campground.

A lot of stumps and branches from trees blown down in wind storm were everywhere. Made the campground a lot less appealing. Should have been cleaned up.

I have mixed feelings about this campground.
Pros:
-the bathrooms were clean, well stocked, and well maintained.
-the hosts were very friendly and knowledgeable.
-there is trash service and water (through a pump...good arm workout!)
-the sites were far enough away that it felt pretty quiet.
-it is close to a lot of things (hot springs, hikes, etc.)
-there is a nice area on the beach.

Cons:
-there is not as much shade as I was hoping (we were in site 9). But there are some sites with more, but there was one site we saw that had no shade at all.
-for a double site, it didn't feel much bigger than the other sites. There was a bigger parking pad though.
-the chipmunks there are VERY aggressive. If we turned our back on the food on our table for any longer than like 3 minutes, they were jumping up on the table trying to (and succeeding) in eating our food. We had to keep everything in our vehicles at all times or they would chew holes in things that were any softer than a hard cooler. Maybe if you bring a dog you'd be ok, but the chipmunks were ridiculous. For that reason alone, we may not go back...but we will see.
-there is NO service whatsoever, which can also be good, but just be prepared. There is a little restaurant about 2 miles up the road that provides wifi if you really need to get ahold of someone at some point.

All in all, we enjoyed our time there, but the dang chipmunks really put a damper on things.

Great camping spot. Bathrooms were very clean. Will be back

Do you think it is possible to smooth out the road into Helende? It is so bumpy. The camp hosts were friendly and helpful and kept the bathrooms clean.