Bruneau Dunes Campground

The Great Outdoors

Bruneau Dunes State Park’s topography lends itself to some pretty unique outdoor activities when you’re renting an RV. Sandboarding and sledding are the most popular sports on the dunes, and you can rent equipment from the park’s visitors center. There’s also the option of hiking on the dunes, but know that walking in soft sand can be quite the workout. Lack of development around the park has also led to very low light pollution, giving it some of the darkest skies in Idaho – perfect for stargazing (there’s an observatory just down the road from the RV campground).Looking for some more natural oddities on your motorhome camping vacation? You won’t need to go too far; Craters of the Moon National Monument is only two hours' drive away. It’s a massive lava field, but unlike the ones in Hawaii, you won’t find any big volcanoes nearby. Instead, it was created by deep cracks in the earth, which allowed molten rock to slowly spill out 10,000 years ago. Hiking through the fields and experiencing their vastness is the most popular activity in the monument, but if you’re up for a little spelunking, you can also go underground to explore the massive lava tubes.For some great paddling, there’s the Snake River Canyon an hour's drive from Bruneau Dunes. The section near Twin Falls is quite tranquil and has spectacular scenery to enjoy with nearly 500-foot rock walls rising up on each side. It’s also where Evel Knievel made his ill-fated jump with a rocket-powered motorcycle in 1974. If whitewater is more your style, check out the human-made whitewater park in Boise, which features three big surf waves.

Exploring the City

The dunes can feel pretty isolated, but civilization is actually just half an hour's drive away in the town of Mountain Home. Its location on busy Interstate 84 means there are quite a few truck stops where you can take care of any business with your rental RV (fueling up, emptying the tanks, or picking up essentials). There’s also a small museum detailing the local history of Mountain Home, but for any major attractions, you’ll need to head down the highway to Glenns Ferry.Glenns Ferry was a stop on the historic Oregon Trail, where pioneers could cross the Snake River while also restocking supplies and having a good meal; there’s a museum dedicated to its role on the trail in the downtown area. A yellow caboose outside the museum highlights the town’s changing role as the transcontinental railroad came to connect America’s coasts and make the Oregon Trail redundant just a few decades after the town’s founding.Should you decide to take a trip into Boise when you book an RV in Owyhee County, you’ll be rewarded with an abundance of great urban amenities. The capital has an excellent restaurant scene; far from the meat and potatoes menu you’d expect from Idaho, Boise is populated with delicious seafood, hipster coffee outlets, and all sorts of flavorful ethnic restaurants thanks to its newfound role as the melting pot of the northern Rockies. A great example of this is the Basque Cultural Center and Museum; Boise has a Basque population of over 10,000 residents, one of the largest outside of Spain; the museum highlights their unique history (the Basque lived in Spain before the Spanish) and culture.