Jefferson County Lake Campground, Rigby, Idaho

      Because of the change in the weather in Yellowstone, we opted to head south from Montana and found ourselves in a county park just north of Idaho Falls.  As it turned out, this was one of the better campgrounds that we’ve visited.  Although we avoided the snow we did hit a bit of rain while here.  But because the campground was all paved and most of the sites (ie ours) have a large level concrete pad to park on the rain wasn’t the issue it could have been.  The park features a small lake, with a paved path circumnavigating it which was just about a mile and a quarter around.  The park is utilized locally for group picnics and other events.  While we were there a cross country meet was held there by several of the local schools.  Most of their race was dry, however, at one point there was quite a downpour and the kids ran on through it.  I imagine that it is a pretty popular place to swim and such during the summer.  The photo shows how hard the rain was coming down on the lake while these kids were running by.

       Idaho Falls is twelve miles to the south, so we took a day and went and explored.  The Snake River runs through the middle of town, and yes there is a waterfall in Idaho Falls.  It’s actually pretty cool and the city has done a great job with building a waterfront park around the falls.  Also, we found a great place to eat.  (Grandpa’s Southern Barbeque) We met Grandpa (the third generation of the original Grandpa) when came to our table offering us a sample of his gumbo.  It was just too good so I ordered a bowl with my meal.  The also featured buttermilk pie, which I had never tried, so we split a piece.  I can’t even begin to describe how good it was.  Needless to say, we’ll have to go back to Idaho Falls.

        Back to the campground:  The campground was across the lake from the park area with features like volleyball, basketball, the swimming area, boat rentals, and such, so it was pretty quiet.  The sites were spread out amongst the trees and had full hookups for a whopping $15 a night.  I highly recommend it for a stopover while traveling down I-15 or Idaho 20.  We stayed three nights and enjoyed it very much even with the rain.

     (from the park's website) Jefferson County Lake is a wonderful place to spend the day with a number of amenities and low fees assessed for maintenance and improvements (fees displayed below).  The lake fills naturally and is normally full the first week of July.  Amenities include 50 campsites with water and electric hookups, bathrooms, volleyball nets, playground equipment, a tennis court, sandy beaches, a lake slide, grassy areas, walking trails, a boat ramp for non-motorized boats, picnic tables, small shelters on a first come first serve basis outside the camping fee area, and large shelters by reservation only.