Last Chance Campground

We were just discussing that it was time to find a place to camp for the night when we rounded the corner and saw a sign for the Last Chance Campground in the Payette National Forest. We acted on faith and proceeded maybe 2 miles down a dirt road to a lovely little campground in the woods. Nice large spots (24 of them, including a nice group site), beautifully positioned in the middle of massive Ponderosa pines. We were surprised to be greeted by a nice camp host who advised us on best camping spots. There were about 4 other occupied spots and the cost was right: $10 for normal sites (half that with a National Park pass). ||||No hookups. Vault toilets were fine as those go. ||||We loved the sense of being way off the beaten path and elected to stay two nights rather than one.

Beautiful campground with nicely kept vault toilets. Pretty chilly for tent camping the end of September/first part of October, but we made it through! Campground was almost deserted which made it super quiet, almost eerily so at times ha. We saw lots of lovely fall foliage. And we found striped woolly bear caterpillars, and little grey squirrels and chipmunks that kept up the chattering and braving our campsite. We also picked up a ton of those little round, disc shaped prickly stickers from bushes on our campsite, but thankfully they were fairly easy to pick off. Our family hiked to Goose Creek Falls from the trailhead at the end of the campground. We took our 9 year old, 5 year old and little dog. It took about 1.75 hrs on the way. It only took about 1 hr back as it was downhill. Thi

We come to this campground specifically for the trails in the area. I like walking the trail from this end to Goose Creek Falls as opposed to the trail up by Brundage. This way isn't as steep.. You have to cross the creek several times, so it's usually easier in late summer or early fall.. As always, leave it better than you found it, and enjoy 😉.

Loved this campground. Half of the sites are next to the river which is quite loud (but not too loud). We went in early September, mid-week and there were only a few other sites occupied. The goose trail is a 2.8 mile hike, and if you want to keep hiking it goes out about 6 miles. On the 2.8 mile hike we were able to pick huckleberries which was exciting, and the end of the hike was a beautiful waterfall, although we were on a cliff, so obviously we did not get to play in it (sad face). There are two public restrooms kept moderately clean. There is a pump water well as well as a pressurized water well - both with clean drinking water that tasted great. The camp sites were quite large, especially considering that ours was a single. All sites have a fire pit with a grill/grate attached and p

Very nice campground. Nice and quiet. No ATV or side-by-sides. The camp host was nowhere to be seen all week. His 1960's uhaul truck was there, but no one cleaned or refilled the toilet paper. There are a couple of sites with what appears to be people living there, and not paying.