Eagle Cove Campground

This park is out there, in a place with really not much else at all except for the famous dunes (for which the park is named) and an observatory. Sites are nicely laid-out in 2 separate loops, either pull-through or back-in gravel sites with picnic table and fire pit. Broken Wheel is the older loop and slightly further from the dunes, but has more trees and shade, and slightly better site separation. Eagle Cove is the newer loop and is pretty bare (tree-wise) plus pull-through sites are a tad close for my liking, but many sites have full view of the dunes. Most of the sites are electric/water, and in the newer loop many are 50 amp. During the week it's really, really quiet here (we were one of only 2 campers in our loop in a Monday), but on the weekend it (apparently) gets full. There are nice hikes around the 2 lakes and dunes. Pretty cool & outerwordly feel here, so definitely worth the visit. We 2 bars of decent, stable Verizon LTE (non-boosted) but nothing at all on ATT.

We stopped in for an overnight on a Thursday afternoon and first took a peek at Broken Wheel Campground. This is the older of the two campgrounds with slightly more mature trees. There were a few people camping in the most shaded spots, so we decided to check out Eagle Cove Campground as well. This one is closer to the dunes and had NO ONE camping there. So we chose to forfeit shade in favor of privacy. We took a perfect spot right next to the trail to the dunes and had a great view of the area. Being July, the sand was too hot for our dogs to walk on until the sun went down. But it cooled down nicely overnight and the morning was very pleasant. I didn't really miss the small amount of shade the other campground would have provided, but we live in Vegas, so we're used to the heat.
We had water and electric, and there is a dump station in the park. The sites at Eagle Cove are all nice, long pull-throughs, but I wish they were more widely spaced. Broken Wheel has some pull-through spots, but mostly back-ins. If I were tent camping I would definitely choose Broken Wheel for the little covered pavilions the tent-only sites have. Each spot has a picnic table and fire ring.
Sadly, there was a wildfire here earlier in the week that caused extensive damage. The campgrounds and facilities are all okay, but I did see on the park's FB page that they had to briefly close. I'm not sure if that or the 100 degree temps is what caused it to be a ghost town, but we still really enjoyed our short visit. It was fun to try to pick out the different critter tracks in the sand dunes, and the sunset was beautiful.

In all fairness, this was intended solely as a transit camp en route home from the Sawtooth Mountains. And temperatures over 100ºF at this low 2,600' elevation in July shouldn't surprise anyone, least of all me.

However, I was grateful for the hookups when we rolled in to find 102-degree temps at 8 p.m. The few trees in the campground are young and offer little shade from the scorching sun. We stayed in the Eagle Cove sector of the park, where there were only two other paying customers. Of course, as luck would have it the site I reserved was right next to one of those other customers, so after a quick knock on the door of the camp host we moved to site 97.

A large grass fire this summer (2017) scorched much of the grassland surrounding the park, but firefighters were able to stop the flames right at the road that accesses the camping areas.

We needed a stop over from Oregon to farther in Idaho and had heard great things about the landscape at Bruneau Dunes State Park. It did not disappoint. The dunes and the surrounding area are very unique and make for some epic photography. We thought the campground was nice enough. Water + Electric which was incredibly necessary given the 100+ degree temperatures. No shade in the Broken Wheel campground but it was a lot quieter than the other because of it. There was a picnic shelter with bathrooms and showers which we loved after a morning hiking in the sand.

Overall the price was a bit high for what we got but the experience was awesome! We'd definitely come back but maybe not in the summertime.

I stopped off on the way North to check out the place for a future visit. I stayed for one night. Important to note that there are no gas stations at the first exit to the Park when heading north. You have to go through Mountain View where there are lots of stations & a Walmart.

The RV sites have water & power. A separate dump station is easily accessible on the way out. Since I was only there for a night, I didn't get much of a chance to scramble about, but it looks worth a couple of nights, the next time I'm in the area.

Like many parks, payment is self-service with forms at the entrance. Rangers came around in the morning & there is a camp host. The baths were clean & fine for a shower. There is no Wifi. I neglected to write down cell-phone service, so you'll have to rely on other reviews.

All in all worth checking out, I'd guess especially in the spring after the winter rain & snow.

There is no question that both the Broken Wheel and Eagle Cove campgrounds at the state park are well located to enjoy the dunes and the observatory, since both are within walking distance. However, we found the setup at Eagle Cove to be less than ideal. Sites are very close together -- more like a private parking lot style than a typical public park -- despite the fact that the park is huge and there would have been plenty of room to spread the sites out. Privacy is terrible for the pull through sites, since they have people on both sides as well as front and back; it's better for the backins on the outside of the loops for rigs with large rear windows. This park attracts primarily a weekend crowd, so the best bet is to visit during the week, when a big decline in the number of campers means that the few campers in the park get a little more breathing room.

We also thought the bathhouse facilities were set up strangely. There are reservable covered picnic areas just outside the bathrooms, and I found it a little awkward to be walking through someone's party with my shower bag on my way to the bathroom. The bathroom facilities themselves were definitely showing a bit of wear and could use more diligent monitoring and cleaning.

Other than the privacy issues, the sites were fine. They are gravel but fairly level, and utilities worked well. There is a dual dump station across from the Broken Wheel campground which seemed quite adequate for the size of the two park campgrounds.

The park itself is large, but we found that one day spent at the main attraction (the dunes) was sufficient. There are programs at the observatory on weekend nights that looked interesting, but any visit with clear skies should yield great stargazing opportunities since the skies are extremely dark. Note that your camping fee INCLUDES the $5/day vehicle fee that the park charges for day use.

We had a solid two bars of LTE service with AT&T on our MyFi device, and an additional bar with the mimo antenna, though I failed to measure speeds.

Nice campground, a little on the busy side. Excellent location for night sky viewing and photography. The observatory was still open in mid October.

Arrived around midnight on Saturday 12/22. Easy to find. Place was empty and very windy. Electric hookup was working, no other services this time of year. Woke up to the sound of thousands of geese. Hiked up the nearest dune right by the observatory in the morning. Beautiful scenery... almost felt like a different planet. I’d recommend it.

It is a nice campground, we just don’t enjoy camping in such close quarters with so many people. We stayed at Site 90 it had 30amp power, water, fire ring and table. We didn’t go away from our site very much due to the Corona Virus so we didn’t check out the bathrooms or showers. Visitors center and the observatory were also closed. Wasn’t very impressed with the dump station due to the layout.

Sites are crammed in pretty close to each other, but are all level and feature pea gravel pads, campfire rings, and picnic tables.
The dunes are pretty cool and fun to hike on, but fair warning… BRING BUG SPRAY! The lake water is stagnant and FULL of mosquitoes!
The campground/park truly feels like it's in the middle of nowhere which is quite peaceful. Very quiet surroundings and at night, the sky lights up with stars. Aside from the dunes, another unique features of the park is an observatory which (seasonally) hosts nighttime stargazing. Aside from the dunes and stars though, there's little else to do in the area.