BEAR TRAP, ID

Location Overview
Bear Trap sits in isolated desert terrain roughly 15 miles northeast of Minidoka in south-central Idaho, at an elevation of about 4,716 feet. It's a state-owned public-use airstrip maintained by the Idaho Division of Aeronautics, surrounded by open desert rather than any town or development, and has no control tower.

Camping & Recreation
There are no developed camping facilities or amenities at the strip itself — it's a bare-bones backcountry airstrip with basic navigational aids such as a windsock and segmented circle, and no services or facilities beyond that. Recreation here is really about the surrounding wildlife and scenery: jackrabbits, coyotes, and rattlesnakes are the main attractions. Its bigger draw is as a safety net for pilots, since it's a welcome sight if something goes wrong while flying over the nearby Craters of the Moon.

Notes & Warnings
The single runway is 6/24, a 2,250-foot turf strip. Pilots should note there's no winter maintenance and no line of sight between the runway ends, and runway 06/24 is subject to ongoing damage — likely from ground squirrels or erosion common to Idaho desert strips. Given the remote setting, rattlesnake activity, and lack of any services, this is a strip best suited to pilots experienced with unimproved backcountry fields. CTAF is 122.9.

History
Bear Trap dates back to 1951, when it opened as a public-use airport owned by the state of Idaho. Like many of Idaho's desert and backcountry strips, it was likely built to serve ranchers, firefighters, and rural travelers in an area with few roads, and it has since been folded into the state's broader backcountry airstrip system. Today it's cared for by the Idaho Division of Aeronautics as part of that network, prized less for tourism than for the safety margin it offers pilots crossing the remote lava fields near Craters of the Moon National Monument.