Overview

Bear Lake State Park is a Bortle 2 scale site with excellent dark skies due to its distance from cities and other light pollution.

The park is located in the southeastern corner of Idaho near the Cache mountain range, with 1/2 of the park located in Utah and the other half in Idaho. There are roughly 15,000 annual campers that come to Bear Lake. The lake is 20 miles long and 8 miles wide. Known for its intense turquoise colored water, the lake is often called the Caribbean of the Rockies. A gradual slope to the lake bottom provides an enormous swimming area in the summer.

A $7.00 Motor Vehicle Entrance Fee (MVEF) is required for every vehicle entering Idaho State Parks (including visitors to campers).

Location

• How far outside of Boise? ~343 miles depending on the route taken. This make the drive around 5 hours and 30 minute drive depending on traffic and stops.
• Google Maps Location

Overnight Accommodations

The park has a total of 49 sites, 47 are electric, and 2 are group sites.

Costs:

	Resident Costs	Non-Resident Costs
Electric Sites	$28 per night	$31 per night
Group Sites	$175 – $280 per night	$195 – $310 per night

You can book stays in any Idaho State Park for up to 9 months in advance from today’s date.

Weather

The current weather can be found here.

Current Seeing Conditions/Forecast Charts

The following cleardarksky chart provides a forecast/clear dark sky chart for the city of Bern, which is 30 miles away from the park.

The following clearoutside.com chart will provide a great resource for the skies for those who want to visit.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and make sure to view our other unique astronomy sites such as this one for more places to view astronomy in the Pacific Northwest.