Idaho State Parks

Idaho's state park system has 30 parks spread across the state's diverse geography — from the Coeur d'Alene lakefront to the Bruneau Dunes to the Thousand Springs volcanic corridor.

Bruneau Dunes State Park
The highest single-structured sand dune in North America — a 470-foot dune rising from the Snake River Plain floor. The park has a small fishing lake at the base of the dunes. The Bruneau Dunes Observatory (open Friday and Saturday nights) is one of the best public observatories in the US — the Snake River Plain has exceptional dark skies. Sandboarding on the dunes is allowed.

Farragut State Park (Lake Pend Oreille)
Idaho's largest state park — on the southern shore of Lake Pend Oreille (one of the deepest lakes in the US at 1,158 feet). The park was a WWII Naval Training Station (Camp Farragut) — the US Navy tested submarine sonar here (the depth and clarity of Pend Oreille made it ideal). Now a recreation park with camping, boating, and the Lake Pend Oreille watershed's exceptional trout fishing.

Thousand Springs State Park (Hagerman Valley)
Along the Snake River north of Twin Falls — springs emerge from the basalt canyon walls where the Snake River Plain aquifer surfaces. The springs (some flowing 200+ cubic feet per second) feed the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, which has the world's richest fossil record of horses from the Pliocene epoch (3.5 million years ago — the Hagerman Horse, Idaho's state fossil, is the oldest known ancestor of the modern horse).

Massacre Rocks State Park
Near American Falls on the Snake River — the park commemorates an 1862 Oregon Trail attack. Register Rock nearby has hundreds of emigrant names scratched into the basalt. The park sits on a narrow passage through basalt formations where the Oregon Trail funneled wagon trains — hence the name.

Priest Lake State Park (Panhandle)
On Priest Lake in the Selkirk Mountains of northern Idaho — a clear, cold mountain lake surrounded by old-growth cedar and hemlock forest. The park has three campground units and excellent fishing for lake trout (Mackinaw) and landlocked cutthroat.