Lodgepole loops sit on the shoreline at Redfish Lake, beach on one side and the peaks on the other. Granite rises straight out of the water behind the campground, the Sawtooth wall above an alpine lake. Stanley is the town in that basin, and summer nights there go first. You can spend a week without leaving, with trails heading into the granite from the loops and dropping you back at the water while the van stays in the lodgepole.
Idaho 21 is the climb from the Boise side, with soaking pools along the Payette on the way up. From the south, US-75 follows the Wood River through Ketchum and Sun Valley, a ski-town street with the Boulder Mountains behind it and the Wood River Trail along the highway, then climbs into the same basin.
Summer at Redfish goes early. Boise campervan rentals has which loops take reservations and which you roll up to. Book the overnight before the van.
North of the Sawtooths, Payette Lake at McCall has lakeshore loops under ponderosa at Ponderosa State Park, a family lake town where the van sits in the trees and the water is the day. Hells Canyon is the Snake River gorge on the Oregon line, walls dropping to the water, a day out of Riggins if you want the rim more than another night in lodgepole. Neither McCall nor Hells Canyon has its own Outwander page.
Late summer can fill the mountains with smoke. The National Interagency Fire Center, based in Boise, is the fire news to check before you lock a week.
Idaho State Parks reserve nine months out through the state system, and non-residents pay a per-vehicle entry fee. The Sawtooth and Island Park loops book through the Forest Service on recreation.gov. Much of the state is national forest, where dispersed camping is legal outside a developed loop.
Island Park and Yellowstone from the Idaho side
Henry's Fork runs in riffles under the Teton skyline. Island Park is the overnight on the Idaho side of Yellowstone's west entrance, water and lodgepole instead of geyser basins. Idaho Falls campervan rentals is the page for that approach, including full-hookup pads near the park and the black cinder cones and lava-tube mouths at Craters of the Moon.
The park interior is a Yellowstone trip once you cross the line, a different set of roads and a different overnight than Island Park. Jackson and the Tetons from this side hand to Jackson, a Teton week if the skyline is the overnight rather than the west entrance.
The panhandle lakes and the Hiawatha
A floating boardwalk sits out over Lake Coeur d'Alene, timbered shores and a town on the water. That is the north of the state, a lake week rather than a granite one. The Route of the Hiawatha is the day out, a rail-trail of trestles with a dark tunnel mouth at each end, ticketed as its own ride.
Farragut sits on Lake Pend Oreille, and Priest Lake is farther up, two more timbered shores if Coeur d'Alene is the town and not the whole week. Silverwood's theme park and its own RV park are the family week, the van parked at the park rather than on a lake loop. Coeur d'Alene campervan rentals covers the panhandle lakes. If you are already on the Washington side of the line, Spokane is the neighboring overnight.
Shoshone Falls, City of Rocks, and the Snake River desert
When the mountains are in snow, the Snake River plain still takes a van. This is dune, lava, and a waterfall, south of the Sawtooths, a shoulder-season trip the alpine loops cannot do. The dune at Bruneau, a silhouette at dusk, and the bird-of-prey canyon along the Snake are a Nampa trip.
Shoshone Falls at Twin Falls is a curtain of water wider than Niagara, and it runs hardest in spring. Dierkes Lake sits beside it on the same rim, and the day is the falls before you keep moving.
Granite spires at City of Rocks rise out of the south desert, climbing routes by day and a dark sky at night. The reserve has its own campground, and as of September 2026 reservations are mandatory year-round. Those are standard sites that fit a van.
If you need more sleeping space than a campervan, Idaho RV rentals cover the same regions.