The coasters at Silverwood stand over the pines in Athol, and Boulder Beach fills the same treeline with slides and pools. Families come from well beyond town for this park, sleep on the park's own pads, and walk the tunnel under the highway to the gates. Midway crowds move between the rides and Boulder Beach, still inside the same fence as the overnight. Summer weeks there book out by late winter.
Book the pad before the van. Silverwood's RV park mixes full-hookup sites with tent-only pads, and the pad type decides what you can sleep in. If you need more sleeping space than a campervan, look at RV rentals in Coeur d'Alene.
The RV park runs roughly early May through late October, and reservations open in early February each year. Those months are also lake season at Heyburn and Farragut, so the theme-park week and the lake week compete for the same vans and the same sites, and Silverwood nights and Heyburn or Farragut nights belong on the same calendar.
Lake Coeur d'Alene and Heyburn State Park
Downtown Coeur d'Alene puts you on the floating boardwalk and the Tubbs Hill shoreline, boat wakes against the hill and the docks in the same view of that busy water. South of town the lake quiets down.
Heyburn State Park holds Chatcolet, Benewah, and Hidden Lake, three stretches of water with swimming and the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes running through. Hawley's Landing, Chatcolet, and Benewah campgrounds take a mix of electric and standard sites. Reserve them through Idaho Parks and Recreation.
Beauty Creek is a small Forest Service campground half a mile off the lake near town, the close-in overnight if you want the water without the drive south to Heyburn. Sites are reservation-only, with no hookups and no walk-up guarantee. As of September 2026 it is open late May through mid-September. Book it on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests listing.
Lake summer books Heyburn and Beauty Creek early. Spring and late fall leave no developed van camping open around Coeur d'Alene, and Silverwood's RV park, Heyburn, Farragut, and Beauty Creek all close for winter.
Route of the Hiawatha at Lookout Pass
The trail leaves the dark mouth of the St. Paul Pass tunnel, which runs more than a mile in the dark, and crosses trestles high enough that the creek looks small. You roll downhill through tunnel after tunnel, then out onto the next span. A shuttle takes you back to the start.
Do the ride as a day trip from a Lake Coeur d'Alene overnight. There is no van campground to count on at the trailhead. The trail stays open into late September, then it shuts for the year. The East Portal sits off I-90 at Lookout Pass.
Farragut, Sandpoint, and Schweitzer
Farragut State Park sits on the south tip of Lake Pend Oreille. Summer is Beaver Bay, the swim beach on that shoreline, with the campground behind it. Priest Lake sits farther north, quieter shoreline than Pend Oreille or Coeur d'Alene. It is a day from Sandpoint when the two bigger lakes already feel busy.
The loops run to 265 sites, hookups mixed with standard pads, and as of September 2026 the stay limit is 14 nights in a 30-day stretch. Reserve through Farragut State Park.
Winter on this side is the ski hill. Schweitzer looks over the lake from the ridge above Sandpoint, and Lookout Pass runs winter too. There is no van camping at Schweitzer. Sleep in a plowed campground or a room and drive up for the day.
Spokane sits just west if the trip continues that way. For the Sawtooths, the Snake River plain, and Yellowstone from the Idaho side, use the Idaho campervan page.