Sunny Gulch Campground

We arrived in mid September, so nights were chilly, place was pretty empty and quiet. Very clean too, cmpg host said she takes great pride in cleaning the bathrooms (!), which were spotless, not a fly on the wall. Night sky was beautiful, views to the sawtooth super nice, just a short walk down the hill to the salmon river from the campsite (#44). We didn’t look at every site but they all looked level and very tidy, maybe because of end of season. Host said other cmpg host up and quit, so just her now and half the cmpg was closed. We may stay another night for another day of fishing at the bridge down the road, didn’t look fishable right here down from the campsite, too shallow. We’d stay again for sure!

Beautiful campground with beautiful views.
Well laid out, with lots of space and clean restrooms. Good cell/data reception with Verizon.
Unfortunately there is a reason for a 3 star review instead of a 5 star review this place should have:
We arrived at our campsite after the previous occupant should have left only find a small car still parked there.
We looked around and checked with the host site to not find anyone.
However, about 10-15 minutes later the host drove up in a hurry (she also seemed a bit exasperated, which admittedly I should have noted better at the time).
She told me that the previous occupant was broken down and it would be at least 3.5 hours before a tow could get there, but she would move us to another site.
This is where it started to go astray, in that I simply questioned about this new site and pointed out that I booked the site we had online based on research that we would have no issue fitting, so I wanted to make sure we would fit (and not have damage as per my previous incident, so I had VERY good reason to ask based on a similar experience where we were told we would fit by the CG host, but did not causing damage to our trailer). She got clearly upset at my questioning of her, and when I also tried to note that the car could easily be pushed to a parking area just 50’ feet away (and downhill at that) she got even more upset and stated in a condescending attitude that we are in the middle of nowhere and it takes time for a tow truck to arrive (clearly assuming I never have gone through any of this before and in fact have been broken down in far more remote areas).
I will admit, as per my wife who is the senior customer service person where she works, that as soon as she got worked up, I should have shut up, but still all I was doing was giving my opinion/experience and attempting to make sure we could have a safe place to stay for the night (the site she did have in mind was only open for the night, not our two paid nights). After my attempts to voice my concerns/opinions, she went ballistic and stated she “did not have to take this” and was now going to call the sheriff and have us removed, to which she had the authority to cancel our reservation. My wife was able to change her mind a bit.
I later looked up and found nowhere that disagreeing or voicing concerns was reason for removal, so I found this outrageous for her to make such threats just because I questioned her and gave my opinion (right or wrong).

Late in the evening, after I prayed and gave more thought, plus my wife’s expert opinion on the subject, I felt convinced that while here behavior was wrong under the circumstances, maybe she was having a bad day and when I walked by her campsite to get water, I offered a genuine apology that I did not intend to get her upset and that I should have just shut up and looked at the new site in question.
Her reaction to this was downright bizarre and troubling, rather than accept or reject my apology, she threw her arms up and stated for me to get away as “she did not feel safe around me” (even then I was more than 12’ away).

I talked to my wife and we found her behavior psychotic and far from normal when all things are considered.
This made my wife uncomfortable, and we did not sleep well at night worrying that she might do something.
The Forest Service/concessionaire should be much more careful as to the quality of persons they have as CG hosts. In this case we are not talking just normal disagreement, but a total lunatic who thinks she has total power over everyone, especially if they simply question her.

Sites on the right as you drive in have the best views. Many first come first served sites which was great for us. Great camp hosts. Everything was clean. One criticism is that there should be a better sign on Rt 75 for this campground. There is a dispersed section for tents with a bumpy dirt road. The sign is poorly placed and we turned in there with our RV.

Great campground with over 34 first come first served sites with close to a dozen that can be reserved. We stayed over the Memorial Day weekend and had no problem returning for the Fourth of July. We figured with 34 FCFS sites and arriving a full week in advance of the holiday weekend, we would have no problem securing a site. Instead what we found were numerous sites being snagged by placing a cooler, camp chair, or small tent, but not physically occupying the site the first night. The hosts should prevent this from happening. Not happy about this at all.

We stayed here in early June and arrived on a rainy Sunday afternoon. We had reservations (there are about 8 reservation sites) to make sure we had a place to work for the week but the campground was otherwise pretty empty. It was raining and although the weather improved as the week went on, it didn't fully fill up until Thursday afternoon about 5pm. I imagine this is pretty different the later in the season it gets.

We had a site right in the middle of the campground. We had enough Verizon with a mimo antenna on the hot spot to have Zoom calls for my husband with no interruptions. We also used Starlink which had interruptions because of the trees but i was able to rely on it for work that didn't involve Zoom calls.

There are a couple paths down to the river. There is a hiking trail across the river but the river was way too high in June.

The best sites, if you're able to grab one, are at the back of the campground, above the river. Most had a little path of their own down to the river and it was much nicer up there to hear the river vs the highway (although the highway noise was not bothersome).

This was one of the cleanest and most beautiful campgrounds we have ever stayed in. The sites are large and well spaced. There is clean water available and vault toilets throughout the campground.

Great dump station with a spectacular view at the nearby Sawtooth NRA Ranger Station.

We stayed in the second loop, closest to the river. It was very quiet and we could not hear any road noise. This might not be so in the sites closer to the highway.

Good cell phone coverage 15.1 Mbps download and 3.98 upload from inside the trailer with no booster.

There are only a few reservable spots. Grab one of these if you can. Or arrive on a Sunday during a cold rainstorm like we did and you could get almost any spot.