Broken Wheel Campground

We ventured off 1-84 in southern Idaho to stay overnight in this park and were very pleased with it and wish we could’ve stayed longer. If you love sand dunes, hiking and wildlife, you’ll like the park and the campgrounds are nicely organized with well-spaced, private sites. Trails connect the campground loops and the dunes. We stayed in the Broken Wheel loop but all the others seemed nice, although many sites are dry-camping without services. The views out across the landscape from here are very nice. The onsite observatory offers regularly scheduled tours and programs to take advantage of the dark skies in this remote region. Unfortunately, we missed these but they seem really interesting. Cell service is spotty.

We hiked the dunes starting at 9 am, which is an ideal time. 75 degrees by mid day. Definitely bring trekking poles for stability and traction in the deep sand. If you're fearful of heights, bring a calm partner!

Wagon wheel CG is spotless, sparsely populated. Thoughtful layout, hot showers. Internet spotty but good enough considering the remote location.

It is very hot here during the summer! Pricey spot for just water and electric. The dunes are cool but at sunset, mosquitoes get insane and even with OFF on they don't leave you alone. My kids said there were flying ants on the dunes too.
We did have an accident there the morning we were going to leave. My son was riding his bike down the loop behind us and the road was super bumpy. He hit a bump and wrecked on his bike and broke his arm. There is NO service there and we had no help from anyone at the office on letting us know where to go. A camper did help us and pointed us to a little town near Bruneau to the only hospital within 50 miles of us. Even if we hadn't had an emergency situation, I doubt we would have gone back to this place because of the price and nothing else to do there.
They do have an observatory there at night that you can do but it was only on Friday and Saturday so if you stay during the week like we did, we couldn't take advantage of that cool feature.

Showers were pretty clean, decent price, everyone there was super friendly. It is hot and people do seem to stay up past the 10pm quiet time but that could have been due to the amazing meteor shower that night! The sky is so beautiful, even without the meteors.

A lot of bugs, bring bug spray. You cannot off-road in the sand dunes and from what we could find the lake is only for fishing, not swimming.

This was our second time staying at Bruneau Dunes, early or late in the season is the best time due to the temperatures. We spent most of our time on the Dunes playing in the sand and riding sand boards, (think snowboard but for sand). The boards or sleds can be rented for the day at the Visitors center for $25. The visitor center does have a small selection of "gift shop" items but does not have any supplies for sale.

There is not much around the park for about 20 miles, gas and a small store/diner are in the town of Bruneau a few miles down the road. Expect small town in the middle of nowhere prices.

One of the wheel drums on our trailer started coming apart as we entered the camp ground, 3 of the studs had sheared off leaving the wheel barely holding on. With some quick help from the camp hosts we were able to re-center the wheel on the remaining 2 studs and limp to our spot. With a few tools and a 30 minute trip to a trailer shop in Mountain Home, ID we were able to get things fixed and make it back home.

The observatory located in the park (near the 2nd campground) was open weekends in March through the end of the season. There is a 45minute presentation in one of the class rooms covering constellations and some of the basics of astronomy. If the weather is clear enough staff will open up the observatory itself (24" telescope) and point it at various sights. The fee is a few dollars per person or $20 for a family.

Cell phone coverage with Verizon was acceptable at the campsite in the broken wheel campground, outside the campground or on the dunes it was spotty or non-existent.

Dunes are great. Clean and comfortable campground.

Site 7 is Ada so no fire pit.

Dunes get hot in the summer so you have to go early in the am. Spring is,the best time to go.

We came here for an overnight stop on our way to Stanley, ID then came again on our way to Oregon! The first time we stayed we were in Broken Wheel and only bad 4G on ATT, but the second time we were in Eagle Cove and had 2 bars of LTE. Make sure you stay for the observatory activities on Friday/Saturday it is WELL worth it! We didn’t get to do much on the sand dunes since the sand was hot and we have 3 kids but they do offer boards and helmets. We did the junior ranger program and the kids learned a lot. Definitely a fun stop!

This was a 'check the box' local trip in close proximity of home and the weather was not conducive for a higher elevation campground. There are probably 3 main reasons to stay at this park; Fishing, Sand Dunes, and Observatory. Although one could add Bird Watching, Kayaking, or Canoeing. The sand dunes are remnants of the great Bonneville Lake some 15,000 years ago. The large dune, is ~470 high and is reported to be the highest in North America. There are 2 small lakes in the park, one larger than the other, and its reported that there are trophy size bass to be caught. There are also bluegill but the water is too warm for trout. There are primitive trails that go around each lake, and the lakes are not quite joined. The trail around the big lake starts at the picnic area and its probably best to go counter clockwise around the lake as the prevailing wind will be at your back for most of the time. Mosquitos are quite thick and aggressive nearest the lake where both the lakes are surrounded by groves of mesquite and cottonwood trees. The trail around the big lake carries the hiker at least on side of the large dune, and one can hike to the top if so inclined. Kids will 'sled' down the dunes when the temperature is not too hot to do so. The trail around the big lake is ~2.5 to 3 miles long, There is an observatory with a large reflective telescope where night celestial programs are held. However, in this time of Covid-19, you might guess that the observatory was not having any programs as of this date.

There are 2 campgrounds, Broken Wheel and Eagle Cove. Broken Wheel is the more developed campground where partial hookups with 30/50A and water can be found. Of course not all sites have 50A, but if 30A will do, then #18 and #20 would be my first choices next time as there is shade, but the trees maybe a problem for taller rigs at these sites. Some of the sites will have a nice windbreak shelter over the picnic table which is handy when the blows at 35mph, as it often does when a front is moving through. There are showers and flush toilets at Broken Wheel. However, I noticed that while the Men's toilets had 3 sinks, 1 urinal, and 2 stalls installed, only 1 stall and 2 sinks were operable. Soap was found in only dispenser. I will say that the Men's toilet was found clean. There is a 2 station Dump Site that serves both campgrounds. However, if you want to flush out your black water tank like most people do, you will need to put your own water hose on the washout arm as the park keeps only a 6 ft garden hose with no end fitting affixed. There is also garbage bins located across from the Host Site in Broken Wheel.

There was a bit of a hassle upon our arrival. I had reserved #8 online the night before and when we arrived, I found another name affixed to the site stake. The camp host was nice, but he was not able to help resolve the issue as he was not able to get online to get the matter cleared. Rather, he directed me to the Visitor Center, where a lady was able to move me to another site. Please know that while most or all sites in Broken Wheel are advertised to be 50ft., I would say that is questionable on some sites, in particular #8 looks to be about 35 to 40 feet, but admittedly I did not actually measure the pad. All pads are gravel and the loop and connecting roads are paved.

Our site had 30A/50A electricity, water, sand tent pad, picnic table, and fire ring. All sites in Broken Wheel are back-in, but Eagle Cove has some pull-throughs that are similar to many commercial RV parks. Eagle Cove is also closest to the small lake, and one could carry a canoe, float tube, or kayak to the small lake. But, there are ample parking at both lakes where you can leave your rigs while you are fishing or boating. There are no good beaches for swimming and cattails skirt both lakes in the shallows.

There is a Visitor Center that reportedly has Wi-Fi connectivity and they sell certain sundries, water and have some interpretative exhibits and taxidermy of critters.

We received very little AM/FM signals, but did have about a half-dozen TV stations, including IDPTV which is the Boise PBS station. Cell phone coverage, at least for Verizon, was sketchy at 1 to 2 bars.

We basically had 2 days of periodic rain showers and very gusty winds. We felt sorry for the campers in tents as there were nowhere to get out of the wind unless you were lucky enough to have a site with one of the wind break canopies.

We didn't care much for these campgrounds which are fairly uninteresting, treeless and crowded. We didn't visit the dunes or try any walks, so that might have added to our enjoyment.

I camped here about a week ago. I’m not sure how the reviewer below me only paid $15. A basic tent site is $34 for non-Idaho residents, even with no amenities in the winter! All of the signage says this and i even confirmed with a ranger in the visitors center. Electric sites were only $2 more per night, so I just went with an electric site. It was a bummer to not have access to showers, I was really looking forward to one. The pit toilets were clean but always feel a little gross.

At night you could hear the hundred of geese on the nearby lake, and a few coyotes. It was nice, not unpleasant. No AT&T cell service in the campground though.