Green Bay Campground remains closed for overnight use until host in place

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

The ever-popular Green Bay Campground still has yet to open for overnight camping after it was closed for the entirety of the 2024 season due to renovations.

“We don’t currently have a district ranger for the Sandpoint Ranger District,” USFS Public Affairs Officer Patrick Lair told the Reader. “We’ve gotten a lot of calls about the Green Bay Campground because it’s so popular and such a beautiful spot. … The one thing we’re still waiting on and the reason we haven’t opened yet is we’re trying to get a campground host in place. As soon as the host is in place, we can reopen for the season.”

The view from the newly renovated campsites at Green Bay Campground. Photo courtesy of Patrick Lair

In 2024, after complaints about the condition of Green Bay, the USFS closed the campground on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille for a renovation project that saw several changes to the site. Crews repaved a road into the campground, as well as installed an enlarged parking area to accommodate more space for turning around. The campground expanded from 12 to 17 sites, adding in new concrete restrooms and a full-time campground host to manage the campsites now available by reservation only on recreation.gov.

The project was made possible by funding from the Great American Outdoors Act — a five-year project approved by Congress that aims to make a substantial investment in the protection and maintenance of public lands until funding runs out this year.

Lair said everything is in place to open except for the campground host in place leaving the site closed for overnight use. 

“We did an outreach on Facebook a couple of weeks ago and there was an overwhelming response from lots of people,” he said.

Once USFS staff can sort through the applicants and choose the right one, the campground will open for overnight reservations, Lair said. 

“That’s really the issue — that last piece of getting the campground host in place,” he said.

However, Lair did confirm that Green Bay is open for day-use.

“We did have a closure in place while contractors were still in there doing the work, moving in the giant concrete toilets,” he said, but that closure has now been rescinded.

“We hope to have a campground host identified shortly and make an announcement when reservations become available on recreation.gov,” Lair said.