The Fourth of July weekend finally came and I got to spend it at a little campground high in the mountains of southern Idaho with my son and his family. Lower Penstemon Campground is located roughly 27 miles south of Hansen, Idaho, on Rock Creek Road. It is probably less than a mile or so from Magic Mountain Ski Resort. The road is paved the entire way, but it is a bit twisty. The campground is highly accessible to people with any vehicle.

There is a creek near the campground, but while we were there, it did not have a lot of water flowing through it. There is a trail that leads out of both campsites #3 and #2 that takes you to a beaver dam if you follow far enough, but the water did not appear to be deep enough to swim in. I did, however, spot two fish in the water, so a little fly fishing might be a great way to pass a little time. There are a couple of campgrounds further down hill that had more water and holes that looked deep enough to get yourself fully wet in.
Speaking of water, there is no water available at the campground. There is also no garbage service, so be prepared to pack out whatever you pack in. There are two vault toilets within the campground. These are cleaned and stocked every morning. For the $8 nightly fee, I feel that you are getting a pretty good value for your money.

Asides from fishing, there are a few hikes in the area that beg to be explored. Ross Falls trailhead is located down stream a short ways and appears to be a short walk to view the falls. There is a hike from Elk Butte Springs to the Pike Mountain viewpoint. There is a also a hike that is above the campground. While I cannot remember where the trail leads, it is a 3.3 mile hike to the endpoint. If you go the ski resort, you can embark on the snowshoe trail. Bring your disks and engage in some disc golf with some great views. Some of the holes look a bit tricky, so good luck.
For the motorized community that has off road vehicles, it looks like there are quite a lot of snowmobile trails that are groomed and ungroomed in the winter time. In the summer, there are a lot of gravel roads as well some OHV trails to explore.

I would be remiss to not tell the tale of the moose that came to visit our camp. I do not know if this is typical to the area or not, but we had a very close encounter with what appeared to be a young moose on our last night camping. It stood and watched us from about 20 feet away for about a minute before casually walking around our camp and continuing up the valley. The next morning, a pair of them again walked around our camp as they headed down the valley. It was a very awesome experience, and I am glad that they were young and not protective mothers. Other wildlife that I saw included a red headed wood pecker, a humming bird, various other little birds, deer, chipmunks, and a skunk.

Overall, this is a great campground, asides from the road noise. This is yet another campground that is right next to a road. There is a lot less traffic than a freeway tho, so it is not horrific and did not interfere with sleeping anywhere near as much. There is a lot to see and do in the area, which makes it a prime location for a several day trip. Be aware of the fact that the elevation is close to 7000 feet, so temperatures at night do drop a fair bit. It looks like the campground is fairly busy in the summer months, so reservations are something that I would recommend. You can go here to reserve a site. The official forest service site suggests that you can also reserve through reserveamerica.com, but that site says it is unable to do reservations for the campground. I know recreation.gov works as that is how I reserved my sites. There is an $8 fee for reservations, but I think it was worth the extra cost to ensure having a site. If you live in the area, I hope that you are able to get up to this campground and have a great adventure exploring everything it has to offer.

Official forest service website here.

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