Idaho

Hells Canyon National Recreation Area

From the 50 State Visitors Guide :

Idaho Code 2025 §§18-8301 through 18-8414.  I.D.A.P.A. §11.10.03.000 through 11.10.03.012.

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

Two working days for initial registration and updates.  Transient registrants must report location every 7 days.  §§18-8307, 18-8308.

Visitors: Statutes do not address registration requirements for visitors.  However, "Temporary lodging" means any place in which the offender is staying when away from his or her residence for seven (7) or more days. 18-8323 (1)(h). “Residence” now includes any place a person visits for longer than 5 hrs./visit more than 5 times in a 30 day period (!) Updated Aug. 2026

Also, “any person who enters this state … & makes an application for an identification card or a [drivers] license in this state” is presumed to be establishing a residence. §18-8306(4). Sheriff will notify you of the 2 day obligation to register (see above).

Temporary volunteers or employees:  Must register if in state for more than ten consecutive days, or for an aggregate period of 30 days in a calendar year.  If “employment involves counseling, coaching, teaching, supervising or working with minors in any way,” must register “regardless of the period of employment.” §18-8303(6).

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

May not reside or loiter within 500 ft. of school or day care, and may not reside within more than one person also required to register, with certain exceptions.  §§18-8331, 18-8332. Updated Aug. 2026

Loitering restriction:  Schools and Day cares, unless picking up or dropping off one’s own children.  §18-8327.  Updated Aug. 2026

Duration & updates:

Lifetime.  Petition to remove – 10 yrs.  Sexually Violent Persons must update every 3 months.  All others update annually.  §18-8307.

Per Rolfe Survey, Visiting Registrants once placed on state’s registry ARE NOT REMOVED.

Deer feeding at roadside

Most recent visits: August & September 2023

I have read through Idaho’s statutes several times and still have a number of questions about it, but calling the Idaho SOR office proved useless because all you get is an outgoing message that says they only answer questions from attorneys.  Therefore in discussing the number of days you can be in this state or what restrictions might apply to you while visiting I need to err on the side of caution. 

For example, Idaho Statutes do not address registration requirements for visitors.  However, “transient registrants” must report location every 7 days (§§18-8307, 18-8308) and I notice that the Rolfe Survey claims visits of 7 days or more require registration.  Putting those two things together I conclude that if you’re in state for 7 days or more that would automatically make you a  “transient registrant” and you have to register … so just be gone by the end of Day 6.

Do partial days count?  I don’t know and they won’t answer that question, so your safest bet is to assume they do.  Idaho Statutes sets no maximum number of days per calendar month or year, and they won’t answer that question either, so I my assumption is that return visits are okay.

To add to the confusion, the Idaho legislature recently decided to redefine the word “Residence” so that it now includes any place a person visits for longer than 5 hrs./visit more than 5 times in a 30 day period (!).  The only other state that has this kind of draconian hours per visit standard is Alabama (!).

And yet (!) they apparently haven’t made any other changes, such that the definition of “temporary lodging” which allows you six days (because it’s “seven or more”) remains in place.  Notice that the new “residence” definition specifically says “more than 5 times …” so in that scenario you get all five days.  Thus, for all the legislature’s idiotic effort they have only shaved one day off your grace period in Idaho – from 6 to 5 days – and made their state more confusing than ever.

Scenic Idaho river

Most recent visit - August 2026

In August 2026 I had no intention of testing the limits of Idaho’s grace period.  I was on the return leg of a Pacific Northwest road trip that called for two partial days and one full day in Idaho.  In fact, Partial Day 1 consisted only of entering from Oregon and finding a campground in Boise National Forest.

Full Day 2 – While traveling to Craters of the Moon Nat. Monument, I stopped first at “Idaho’s Mammoth Cave and Shoshone Bird Museum,” a small private attraction that has nothing to do with either birds or the Shoshone. See photos.  It’s also near a town named Shoshone, and this was my indication that I was entering traditional Shoshone territory.

Idaho’s Mammoth Cave and Shoshone Bird Museum

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Having been so alerted, I was not surprised to see Shoshone (and Bannock) displays and references at Craters of the Moon.  Like Lava Beds National Monument only bigger (see California), it consists of vast lava beds (laid down only 2000 years ago) and twisted formations.  I walked the Devil’s Orchard Nature Trail, drove the park loop road to see Inferno Cone and Big Sink Overlook.  It’s like a dream world.

Devil's Orchard, Craters of the Moon National Monument

Little did I know that for the remainder of my Pacific Northwest trip – and a month later for the first half of my Southwest road trip – I was about to be immersed in Shoshone places and culture.  Even as I headed east looking for a place to stay for that night, I stopped to explore the Fort Hall Shoshone and Bannock reservation.  I will have more to say about all these places and people when I write a separate post about the Shoshone Nations.

Partial Day 3 in Idaho consisted only of waking up and heading for Wyoming, where I would be getting my first true wake up call about who the Shoshone Nations really are.

Bruce Hossfield, Atwo Zee Registered Traveler