Lake Elsie Campground

We stopped along our drive home, so it was a little slower that we expected for a quick overnight but the road was in great shape. Larches were changing and the views were amazing. OHV area, but only one other group camping and they were early to bed/park the rigs. Site was clean and lovely. Lakeside spots were pretty open and flat, definitely OHV with flat dirt mostly. Ridge-side sites were private and nestled.

Exactly 10.4 miles from Big Creek Exit, outside of Kellogg, ID. Winding hard packed dirt road is very good, but 4 Wheel Drive is recommended. Some brought trailers up but Forest Road is narrow in places and you need to have room to back up if you run into oncoming vehicles. (periodic turnouts) allow for letting bigger rigs to go by, but be prepared to back up to let others pass. Edge of road is literally on side of mountain...so theres not much room for error. besides that, easy road to manuever. Camp ground is first come, first served. 6-7 lake side spots which are beautiful...5-6 off lake spots...most have rock fire rings for campfires. we went up Labor Day weekend (Friday) and got a lake spot, so we were lucky. Filled up Saturday. Surrounding Area/ Lake has many ORV trails and im not gonna lie, it was loud at times with all of the dirtbikes and ORV's, but when it was quiet..it was fantastic. Our Friday was heavenly..no noise at all..Saturday/Sunday the ORVs were a bit much..but it was beautiful.
My boys and I caught 40-50 Rainbow trout "5-8 inches" (from shore) but kayakers went to deeper side of lake and caught very nice 10-14 inchers. We only kept the legal ones..but fishing was awesome. One clean toilet..stocked with Toilet paper, so no probs there..but no power or water..so bring your own in. Swimming in Lake was fine but bottom of lake is very muddy, so hard to walk in water. Fallen logs, bogs..but again, ultra peaceful and the stars were outstanding. Will go again in a heartbeat.

The lake is located 12 miles off I-90. The first two miles are paved and the final 10 miles are on a single lane dirt national forest service road. There are very few places to pull over if you encounter another vehicle coming in the opposite direction and one of you will have to back up to allow the other to pass. We would NOT attempt this again in our 30' fifth wheel hauled by an F250. The drive is not for the faint of heart. We were the only large rig camping there. Everyone else was in truck campers or tents. The road to Elsie is ok if you are driving a car, SUV or Class B van. Any larger vehicle should avoid this location. There are about 7 campsites and all but one were full when we arrived on a Thursday afternoon. This location is very heavily used by locals. However, the lake is beautiful and the there is good trout fishing. There were also a lot of ATVs and dirt bikes zipping around so it was noisy at times.

Came here on the 5th of July after using Campendium app to see if I would risk having a site on the craziest weekend possible.
What a pleasant surprise - forest service road with a few dips in it to get there - beautiful drive - you can take a camper make sure it has a bit of clearance - cross a little creek to get in - lake is amazing - you can swim, kayak, canoe, fish (rainbow and brook trout) and the water is so clear you can see them swimming 🤠 hike, pick huckleberries.
Pack it in pack it out - 14 day stay - absolutely beautiful.
Only down side was the people staying there - many left messes and decided to ruin the the amazing sounds of the evening creatures with country music for all to hear.
Next time I go I’ll shoot for mid week; I bet it will be even better but also considered it was the weekend of the 4th.