Every camp below carries two numbers from the Forest Service list: how many people it holds at low water and how many at high water. They are often different, and that difference is the most useful thing on this page. 45 of the 92 camps are beaches that do not exist at high water. 4 more shrink. One exists only at high water.
The capacities are limits, not suggestions. A group may not use a camp that is rated for fewer people than it has, so a party of 12 cannot take a 10-person beach, reserved or not.
The list does not say what flow separates low from high. Treat the June runoff as high water and expect the low-water beaches to come out as the river drops through July. If you launch early, or the year is a big one, plan on the high-water numbers and check today’s flow before you fill in a request.
The Forest Service now assigns reservable camps ahead of time, by email, not at the Corn Creek launch. For launches from June 15 through September 7 the River Office emails the permit holder a camp request form 14 days before the launch date.
Trip length follows group size during the control season: up to 8 days for 1–10 people, 7 days for 11–20, and 6 days for 21–30. Rules change; the Salmon-Challis National Forest page is the authority, and this summary was checked against it on 2026-09-30.
Showing all 92 camps.
No camp matches all of that. Loosen a filter.
The first day or two. Short mileage between camps, the Lantz Bar and Devil's Teeth clusters, and the first reservable sites.
A small sloping sand beach that loses the sun early. Better known as a first-day lunch stop than a camp, but it works for a small group that launched late.
Low water: The beach gets bigger as the river drops.
Forest Service note: “Small beach, early shade.”
Upstream of Horse Creek, with the camp back in the trees rather than on a beach. Room for a full-size group at any level, and the closest big camp to the put-in.
Forest Service note: “In trees by the creek.”
On the bar just below the creek. Across the river are the remains of a pack bridge that was condemned and removed in 1970. The eddy is small, so set up for it early.
Low water: The bar is at its best at low water.
Forest Service note: “Downstream of the creek.”
A mid-sized sand beach on the left at Horse Creek, on the old pack bridge's side of the river. A low-water camp only.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water sandy beach.”
An easy landing on a small beach, with the camp up by the trail. The Legend Creek pictographs are about 500 yards back upstream on foot. Watch for poison ivy.
Forest Service note: “Campsite up by trail.”
A sloped beach leads up to tent sites on the bench beside the trail. Stone ruins left by 1950s settlers are nearby on the same bench. Small groups only.
Forest Service note: “Campsite up by trail.”
Two sand beaches split by a band of rock, the upper one the bigger of the two, just above Rainier Rapid.
Low water: The beach keeps growing as the water drops.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Large low-water beach.”
The first reservable camp on the river: a big, comfortable sand beach on the left bank across from Alder Creek. A natural first night for a large group once the water is down.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Large low-water beach.”
A small shaded beach at the bottom of a slow-water stretch. Low water only, and small groups only.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water beach, shade.”
A shaded camp up on the bench, so it holds the same number of people at any water level.
Forest Service note: “Campsite up on bench.”
The upstream camp at Lantz Bar. The eddy is large, but the Forest Service warns the camp is hard to see from the river, so know where it is before you get there.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Large eddy, hard to see.”
A camp among the trees on the bench. The landing is a rocky bar upstream of the creek.
High water: The Forest Service calls this a high-water camp, and the rocky landing is easier with more water over it.
Forest Service note: “High-water camp.”
A large bar above a sand beach, immediately above Lantz Rapid. The camp is on the bench, so it stays usable when the beach floods.
Forest Service note: “Just above rapid on bench.”
On the left immediately below Lantz Rapid, in the trees. A comfortable camp once you are up there.
Low water: The climb from the boats is rocky when the river is low.
High water: One of the dependable high-water camps in this stretch.
Forest Service note: “High-water camp in trees.”
A small low-water beach on the right below Lantz Rapid, across from Tag Creek.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water beach camp.”
A high bench downstream of the creek, reached by a trail from the river. Holds a big group at any level, but it is a hard carry in summer heat.
Forest Service note: “Trail to high camp.”
A pebble bar on the right just above Devil's Teeth Rapid. Groups float past it regularly. If you have it reserved, be on the right and looking for it before the rapid.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Pebble bar, easy to miss.”
A large, pleasant camp on a high sandy bench below the rapid, good at any level. A pictograph panel is a short scramble downstream.
Forest Service note: “High sandy bench.”
A small sand beach under the rock overhang that names it, visible from well upstream. Some boaters call it Hangover.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water sandy beach.”
A large, good-looking camp up on the bar. The bank where you tie up is rocky.
Forest Service note: “Rocky bank, camp on bar.”
A small low-water beach. Catch the eddy just above the creek. A trail on the downstream side of the creek climbs toward Chamberlain Basin.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Small beach in low-water.”
A medium low-water beach, a step up in size from the 10-person beaches around it.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water beach camp.”
A shaded sand beach with the camp on a high bench in a ponderosa grove. Named for Dr. Walt Blackadar of Salmon, known for a solo descent of the Alsek in 1971. A full-size camp at any water level.
Forest Service note: “Shaded sandy beach.”
A sand beach just above a right-hand bend, with an old engine sitting in the middle of camp. The eddy is small.
High water: Mostly a low-water camp: the Forest Service cuts it from 30 people to 10 at high water.
Forest Service note: “Sandy beach, small eddy.”
A sand beach with tent sites up on the bar, about a quarter mile below the creek and around the bend. This was the site of the Guth cabins.
High water: Drops from 20 people to 10 at high water.
Forest Service note: “Sandy beach, sites on bar.”
A large, rocky camp, partly shaded, that burned in 2000. Land at the upstream end of the bar before the river starts bending left. It sits well apart from the lower camp.
High water: A dependable high-water camp for a big group.
Forest Service note: “Rocky high-water camp.”
A beach at the lower end of Corey Bar with a difficult approach.
Low water: The beach comes out as the river drops.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity. No camp at high water, and the landing is fast if you try.
Forest Service note: “Difficult approach, beach.”
A small low-water beach on the left, the last camp above Black Canyon. Not to be confused with the larger Pebble Beach at mile 53.2.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Small low-water beach.”
Black Creek Rapid, the Barth hot springs camps, then a quieter stretch down to Bargamin Creek and the Yellowpine and Mallard camps.
A small beach with an easy landing and a view back upstream into Black Canyon. It is the first camp below Black Creek Rapid, the Class IV that formed in a 2011 debris flow.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Small low-water beach.”
A rocky landing and a medium carry up to a shaded ponderosa grove on the bench. It is across the river from the Barth hot springs.
Low water: At low water you may still be able to get across to the hot springs from here.
Forest Service note: “High camp on bench.”
The first-come camp on the hot springs side of the river. A steep trail climbs from the boats to the bench. The springs themselves are closed to camping.
Forest Service note: “Steep trail to bench.”
The reservable camp around the corner from Barth Hot Springs, and a good one. The price is the landing: strong current and rocks. Boatmen's inscriptions are carved in the rocks near the springs.
Low water: Look for the carved names and dates on the rocks when the river is low.
Forest Service note: “Fast rocky approach.”
A small beach below a high bench. Often used as the lunch stop after a soak at the hot springs.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Small beach, high bench.”
A big camp reached by a high, rocky approach, downstream of Nixon Creek and on the opposite bank.
High water: A good high-water camp for a full-size group.
Forest Service note: “High rocky approach.”
A large and well-regarded camp behind a rocky approach.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity, and the landing gets hard as flows rise. On an early-season trip, stop upstream and look before you commit.
Forest Service note: “Rocky approach, large.”
A beach in the eddy immediately below Hancock Rapid. Start working left early in the rapid or you will be past it.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Beach in rapid eddy.”
A large beach and long a popular camp. It burned in a 2023 wildfire, so expect less shade than older trip reports describe.
Forest Service note: “Large beach, burned in 2023.”
A small low-water camp with tent sites among the boulders and on the beach. The creek flash-flooded in 2024, so expect it to look different from older descriptions.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Creek blew out in 2024.”
A big camp on a high bench about 50 yards below Bargamin Creek, good at any level. A good trail runs up the creek, and it is an easy walk downstream to scout Bailey Rapid.
Low water: A small beach appears below the bench.
Forest Service note: “High bench, sandy approach.”
A nice sand beach below Bailey Rapid. Also a popular lunch stop, so expect company at midday.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water sandy beach.”
A sand beach with a lot of poison ivy. The land above the beach is private, so stay on the sand.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Sandy beach, poison ivy.”
A large beach below the Allison Ranch, a private inholding with its own airstrip. The ranch jet boat is often parked here.
High water: Shrinks from 30 people to 10 at high water.
Forest Service note: “Large low-water beach.”
A nice big camp with a carry up from the sand. A good trail leads downstream to a view of Big Mallard Rapid, and wire from the Forest Service's old crank telephone line is still strung through camp.
Forest Service note: “Sandy beach with carry.”
A sand beach just below Upper Yellowpine and just above Big Mallard Rapid. The Forest Service remark calls it a low-water beach but keeps the capacity at 30 for both levels.
Forest Service note: “Sandy low-water beach.”
A large camp immediately below Big Mallard Rapid and Mallard Creek, good at any level. You run the rapid to get here, so it is a camp for the end of a day, not a place to scout from.
Forest Service note: “Large camp after rapid.”
Homestead country: Jim Moore's place, Campbell's Ferry, Buckskin Bill's at Five Mile Bar, and the airstrips and pack bridge around Mackay Bar.
A sandy camp below the riffle, named for the moonshiner Oakie Grogg. Nobody's first choice.
Low water: The carry from the boats is difficult when the river is low.
Forest Service note: “Difficult carry at low flows.”
A large-group camp on a treed bench. There is a small beach, but the easy landing is on the rocky shoreline beside it. The name comes from a steamboat boiler that washed down from a wreck in Big Mallard.
Forest Service note: “Sandy beach and shade.”
A small low-water camp tucked among large boulders.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Small camp, large rocks.”
A small low-water beach on the left near Campbell's Ferry. The camp is the beach downstream of the rock outcrop, not the bar above it, which is the one people usually pull into by mistake.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water camp.”
A mix of sand and cobble just below the Jim Moore Place, a prospector's homestead with a cluster of buildings he put up himself. Other parties stop here to walk up to the cabins, so expect to share the beach during the day.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water beach camp.”
One of two 10-person reservable camps, and the only one that keeps its capacity at high water. A good request for a small private trip that wants a guaranteed site in this stretch.
Forest Service note: “Small beach camp.”
A large camp at Whiplash Rapid. The eddy is on the right, in front of the big rock that gives the rapid its teeth, and it is easy to wash past.
High water: The Forest Service lists 30 at high water, but Whiplash becomes a very large rapid at high flows and at least one guide calls the camp unreachable then. Scout before you count on it.
Sources disagree: The Forest Service lists a high-water capacity of 30. GoRafting says the camp is not accessible at high flows.
Forest Service note: “Large camp above rapid.”
A sandy camp just below a pretty creek, with the river trail close by.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Sandy camp, trail access.”
A rocky landing with no eddy, then a short carry to a grassy bench where you camp in the field between the buildings. Not often used.
Forest Service note: “Bench camp in trees.”
A large, exposed beach just below a rapid and just above Rhett Creek. Plenty of room and very little shade.
Forest Service note: “Beach just after rapid.”
A small sand beach at the foot of a cliff with an easy landing and access to the trail.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Small beach, trail access.”
A low-water sand beach that changes a lot from one year to the next. Have a backup.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Sandy low-water beach.”
A small sloped beach, part sand and part rock, with an easy landing and no shade. Little used.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Sandy sloped beach.”
A small reservable sand beach. The grave marker in camp is for Jack Ranger, who drowned crossing the river here in 1928.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Sandy low-water beach.”
A small beach under a cliff with an easy cobble landing and a grassy, shaded spot to camp. Buckskin Bill's, the Five Mile Bar homestead with a small museum and store, is a walk from here.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Sources disagree: GoRafting places this camp on river right. The Forest Service list, followed here, has it on the left.
Forest Service note: “Small beach under cliff.”
A pretty camp on a high bench above a small beach, with some shade at the top. The second Pebble Beach on the river, and the larger one.
Low water: The beach is steep when the river is low.
Forest Service note: “High bench, small beach.”
A large camp with a tricky, rocky approach. Aim for the big boulder sitting at the water's edge. The tent sites are on the bar just upstream of it.
Forest Service note: “Tricky rocky approach.”
A large beach with an easy landing and a long, narrow, grassy flat shaded by pines. Pull in before the river bends and the current picks up. One of the best first-come camps for a big group.
Forest Service note: “Large beach, flat area.”
A steep bench beside the Wilson Bar airstrip, the one public airstrip in the river corridor. Also called Jackson Bar. Expect planes, and a climb.
Forest Service note: “Steep bench near airstrip.”
A sunny sand beach by the Mackay Bar pack bridge. A road reaches the river here, and trucks are often parked nearby, so it is the least wild of the reservable camps.
Forest Service note: “Sandy beach, sunny camp.”
A camp near the Mackay Bar Ranch airstrip. The Forest Service sums it up in three words: air traffic overhead.
Forest Service note: “Air traffic overhead.”
The only camp on the list that exists at high water and not at low. It sits at the mouth of the South Fork of the Salmon, technically on the South Fork itself, and it is hard to get into at any level.
Low water: No camp at low water. The Forest Service calls it impossible at low water.
High water: A high-water option for a full-size group, if you can make the landing.
Forest Service note: “Impossible at low-water.”
A small, sunny beach at the bottom of the island below the South Fork confluence. The eddy comes up fast as you round the corner.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Small sunny beach.”
Below the South Fork the river is bigger and the canyon hotter. Mostly sand beaches, most of them low-water camps, and the last reservable sites before the take-outs.
A small sand beach against a cliff with an easy landing.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Sources disagree: GoRafting places this camp on river left. The Forest Service list, followed here, has it on the right.
Forest Service note: “Low-water sandy beach.”
A small camp at the top of a steep sand beach, named for Henry "Red" Harlan, a longtime river hermit.
Low water: A cobble beach at the upper end opens up more room.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water sandy beach.”
A small camp perched at the top of a steep, sloped sand beach.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Small sloped sandy beach.”
Much like its upstream twin: a small camp at the top of a steep sand beach, with room for a few more people.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Sources disagree: GoRafting places this camp on river right. The Forest Service list, followed here, has it on the left.
Forest Service note: “Small sloped sandy beach.”
A sloping sand beach with more room than most small camps and a few pines at the upper end for shade.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Sandy beach camp.”
A large reservable camp. The Forest Service's one piece of advice is to approach the beach from below.
Forest Service note: “Access beach from below.”
A large reservable camp at Warren Creek with a rocky approach and hiking out of camp. Good at any level.
Forest Service note: “Rocky approach, hiking.”
A sand beach with a grassy flat behind it, also known as Warren Bar. With Mann Creek and Warren Creek it makes three large reservable camps inside a single mile.
Forest Service note: “Sandy beach, grassy flat.”
A nice camp just below the creek, with a sand beach and an upper bench. A shady trail heads up Indian Creek toward the ranch.
Forest Service note: “Sandy beach, upper bench.”
A nice sand beach with a little shade, and a flat grassy field with trees to camp in. Low water only, but big when it is there.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water sandy beach.”
A large low-water sand beach, and the last reservable camp above the Polly Bemis Ranch, the national historic site a short way downstream on the same bank.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water sandy beach.”
A nice beach camp flanked by a few big ponderosas. The Forest Service caps it at 10 people.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Sandy beach, shade.”
A steep sand beach with no shade. Hot in the afternoon.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Steep sandy beach.”
A small low-water sand beach. Neither source says more about it than that.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water sandy beach.”
A large low-water sand beach above Bull Creek. A hot camp: plan the kitchen around the afternoon sun.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water sandy beach.”
A nice sloping sand beach with a short carry to a flat bench, and a freshwater spring with a small sitting pool. Good hiking upstream toward Upper Bull. Poison ivy grows near the creek. A strong first-come choice for a big group, and it works at any level.
Forest Service note: “Sloping beach, flat bench.”
A large, popular camp on a sprawling beach just below California Creek.
High water: Shrinks from 30 people to 10 at high water.
Forest Service note: “Moderate low-water beach.”
A moderate low-water beach just below California Creek, on the opposite bank.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Moderate low-water beach.”
A very large beach with little or no shade. The camp to ask for with kids along: there is a big sand dune to jump off into the river.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Large low water beach.”
A steep, medium-sized beach with more room on the flat bench above. The eddy is below a jumble of boulders. No afternoon shade.
Forest Service note: “Steep beach, flat bench.”
A beach camp upstream of Sheep Creek with an easy landing on cobble.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water beach.”
A beach of mixed rock and sand just below Sheep Creek that gets late-afternoon shade, which is rare this far down the canyon.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Small rocky sandy beach.”
A small beach with a carry up the slope and some shade.
High water: No camp. The Forest Service gives it no high-water capacity.
Forest Service note: “Low-water sandy beach.”
The last reservable camp on the river, a steep sand beach two miles above Long Tom Bar, good for 20 people at any level. A sensible last night if you want a short float to the Vinegar Creek or Carey Creek ramp in the morning.
Forest Service note: “Steep sandy beach.”
Every camp has an aerial from the USDA’s National Agriculture Imagery Program, which is public domain. These were flown between 21 Sep 2021 and 30 Sep 2021, with the river at 2,790–2,900 cfs at White Bird: very low water, so they show the beaches at close to their largest. Each frame is 1.2 km across with north at the top. The Forest Service publishes river miles, not coordinates, so a frame is centred on the camp’s mile along the river’s mapped centerline, which is good to about a quarter mile: the camp is in the picture, near the middle, on the bank the entry names.
What an aerial cannot show is the camp from the boat, or the same beach at high water. Nobody publishes ground photos of these camps that can be reused, so each entry has room for a low-water and a high-water photograph, and they are empty.
Mile, river side, both capacities, reservable status and the quoted note on every camp come from the Forest Service, Wild Main Salmon Campsites (2025). Camp names are spelled as that list spells them, because that is what the request form uses. The descriptions are LateBoof’s own wording; details beyond the Forest Service list were checked against GoRafting, Main Salmon River Rafting Guide, and where the two disagree the Forest Service figure is used and the camp says so.
Nothing here comes from a LateBoof trip yet. Beaches move, creeks blow out, and camps burn; a description is a starting point for a conversation with someone who was there last season, not a promise. Checked 2026-09-30.