Farragut State Park

Great location to camp. Showers were very nice and you can tell the place is well kept. Roads were paved with plenty of space between sites. Kids weren't overly impressed with the swimming area, but beyond that, was a great place to stay.

Wow! What a beautiful spot! Loved this park and the lake! So pretty! Especially loved the little water hole for kids to play in. The museum was informative and fun too. Great rangers and great price at $5 for a day of play and hiking.

We chose Farragut state park as our first full-time camping location and haven't been let down. The pull through spots are easy to maneuver and offer 50 Amp service and water. We ended up with the spot right next to the bathrooms, which is a plus and a minus. The nice part is we can do business in the bathroom vs. our black tank and they have private showers with hot water, the negative is there is a lot of foot traffic right in front of our site. We had some good area for the kids to setup a hammock and the pad is big enough for 2 tents, although we didn't use it that way, it offers that flexibility. The picnic table can be moved for flexibility in layout. We found the nearby swimming hole to be a great place to cool down and the museums offered plenty of history for the kids to absorb. The monarch mountains and nearby Lake Pend Orielle promise to not disappoint with views and majesty galore. We stayed in Gilmore loop and there is a dump station across the main road. Verizon coverage seems ok, but you'll be sharing the bandwidth with others from a limited number of towers in the area.

Farragut is Idaho’s largest state park, and has three campgrounds with hookups and one primitive campground. When we elected to stay in the primitive campground in mid-September, we were told to “just go down and pick out a site; there’s no one down there.” Okay, this is a 61-site campground with two big loops, so I didn’t take that literally. I should have. The campground was completely empty except for one guy tent-camping with his dogs. As he was in the B loop, we picked a site in the A loop so that we could each have some privacy. 

And that’s how it was for two nights: two campers in a 61-site campground, each with his own loop. Quiet doesn’t begin to describe it. The only campsite activity was deer foraging, which we watched in the evenings.

We understand that Farragut is a busy place in the summer, but it was very quiet during our early fall visit. The park’s centerpiece is Lake Pend Orielle, the largest Idaho lake and the fifth deepest lake in the country at 1,150 ft. This glacial lake is beautifully crystal clear, and our dog jumped in for swims at every opportunity.

The park also has over 45 miles of hiking/mountain biking trails that wind around the lake and through the surrounding forest and hills, which we had to ourselves.

We did not find usable Verizon coverage in the primitive campground; it was better (~3 bars) in the other campgrounds. Ease of access also differs significantly among the campgrounds, with the hookup campgrounds offering wide, paved roads and pull-through sites. Roads through the primitive campground are narrower and gravel.

We only got to stay a couple nights in this massive state park near Coeur d'Alene, but it's definitely on our list to go back to. There are tons of miles of hiking, walking and biking trails and access to Lake Pend Oreille and the campsites were lovely and quiet nestled in the woods. It's very popular in the summer, so a good idea to reserve a site.

We used to live in Coeur d'Alene so between going there to tent camp when we were locals and staying there in the RV when we are back visiting we have been to Farragut State Park many times.

As other posters have said in the summer this park is incredibly busy. It is tough to just drive up and snag a space, especially for more then a few nights. You definitely have to plan ahead and be prepared for crowds, both in the CG's and at the boat ramps and the beach. On the shoulder season though it is one of the most quiet and serene places you can visit.

Lot's of history here. It was originally a Naval Base, actually the largest in the world at the time. I find a massive naval base in the woods of North Idaho pretty intriguing myself. There is lots of info about it in the ranger station and there is a museum on site with lots of history as well. So I highly recommend, at a minimum reading up on some history about it online before going, it will make your visit that much more intriguing as you picture what it must have been like in the middle of WWII.

The state park is large and has a total of 4 campgrounds (not including the group camp and some cabins in a separate area).

None of the loop have sewer, but there is a large sewer dump station in the park that can accommodate multiple rigs at once.

The largest loop is Waldron and it has three loops. This is very easy access for even larger rigs and is where we go with our current 5th wheel. Our favorite is site 196, it can fit the truck and trailer with plenty of space to spare and is super private. Almost everyone staying in Waldron is there in an RV of some sort, rarely do you see tent campers in Waldron.

The next loop is Gilmore which has 2 loops. Gilmore still has power, but it doesn't have as many big spaces as Waldron and has more trees. If you like to feel a bit more remote but have a larger rig, try to score one of the spaces that will accommodate you in Gilmore.

The next campground is WhiteTail. It is a primitive CG with 2 loops. There is fairly heavy tree coverage in this campground so don't think you are going to be able to use solar. This CG is mostly used by tenters, though there are sites that will accommodate small trailers. I love this CG but I think the only spot we would fit in is the host spot...something to consider for the future...lol.

The last campground is Snowberry. It's most easily described as having two loops. It is also under a heavy tree canopy and you are not going to get solar there, though they do have power. The downside is there are some tight turns inside this CG and I think that unless you don't mind scratches or are incredibly skilled you are probably going to be limited to a medium sized rig.

You will only be able to get cell coverage (even with a booster) in a few areas, it is very spotty. The needles on the trees there are almost the same exact wavelength as the cell signals so they really heavily interfere with the signal and they are tall trees, so you aren't putting an antenna above them. I recommend planning on no coverage and consider it a bonus if you get any.

Unfortunately we have to work as we travel, so I can't be off grid for very long, and that is why I give it 4 stars. If I had good cell coverage in the park I would give it 5.

Our site was large and easy to back into. Privacy was only okay as we were on a corner. There are a lot of things to do both in the park and outside and this park very busy with families and groups.

We stayed in the Snowberry loop campground in spot 122. The roads in the campground were a bit tight but we did fine (we have a 20ft trailer. Saw bigger ones going through fine too!). The camp spots were spacious, clean, and secluded. The campground was quiet for how busy the park was. We enjoyed the park itself, the museum, and nearby Bayview. Definitely recommend this place!

This is a beautiful park in gorgeous northern Idaho. There are lots of hiking and biking trails in the park with amazing views of Lake Pend O'Rielle. We stayed in the Waldron campground in site 165 with a 43 ft. 5th wheel. There was plenty of room on the roads coming into the site and our site was spacious with a good amount of privacy. It's about 30 minutes to Coeur d'Alene and also to Sandpoint, both were wonderful to visit. The only problem for us at the campground was lack of cell coverage. We are non-retired fulltimers and need internet to work. We have hot spot devices for Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile and usually at least one of those works, but they did not work at this park except for sometimes in the middle of the night or early morning. Verizon & AT&T both looked like they should have service with 3 or 4 bars, but they just didn't work at all or were painfully slow. We ended up having to leave the campground each day and find places where we could connect and work. Just 4 miles down the road in the town of Athol all 3 cell services worked fine. So we would probably not stay here again unless we could come back at a time when we don't need to work. The park really is awesome except for the lack of cell coverage.

Other reviewers did a good job describing this park. A couple things to add though.

We held a family reunion campout in one of the group sites (Scott Field) that could accommodate 250 people. Huge “grassy” area, covered pavilion, newer pit toilets, water, large paved area, central fire pit. Each vehicle will have to pay a $5 daily fee.

We then wanted to stay an additional night. 4 spots could accommodate our big rig on a Sunday night in July. There was a site in Gilmore that had FU, it is not as forested, so we decided to take #102 in the Strawberry campground. It was a bit tight, the road was narrow. We actually backed out when we left since we were at the beginning of the loop. Paved roads, dirt parking, water, power, flush toilets, free showers.

Other things not mentioned: No campsites are on the water, there are 4 disc golf courses, model airplane field, equestrian area, swimming area.