The road opened for the summer about 6 hours before we arrived and camps 1-6 were already full. We pulled in at camp 7 which has 1 site about 7 miles up the road. Each camp has picnic table fire pit and pit toilet, and some have multiple sites. Beautiful drive and views, and the sites are quite secluded, just try to get there early because it fills up quick!
Grassy Lakes Road still closed on 6/10/24
Not open as of June 11
Road to camp was closed. Not open for the season yet.
There are about 8 camps along this well maintained gravel road, located just outside the south entrance to Yellowstone. Because of this, they were all taken, of course. Some were pretty sizeable but the sign said “1 site” even though you could probably fit two or even three. Each had its own pit toilet. Unfortunately, it’s a burn area so not as pretty as it probably used to be.
As many have said, there are about 6-7 spots…some multiple sites per spot some are single but each have a bathroom, fire rings and bear boxes. We traveled in September and those were all full so we had to drive quite a bit (still on Grassy Rd) into Caribou Targhee National Forest. We found an amazing spot but about 30 min down - right in the valley at the start of the reservoir. No bathroom no bear boxes. Primitive. Lots of wooded/shaded area. Private. Beautiful. Road coming in was mostly maintained but some moments of rough terrain but we made it in our 13 ft travel trailer.
I would give this place 5 stars had it not been for the mosquitos. We were at site #6 in which there was only one campsite at that one (others have multiple sites per parking area). It was perfect for us. Lush forest, a little creek, our own vault toilet and garbage (never had that before), and a large bear box. The mosquitos were a bit pesky when setting up our tent, but we've never let that bother us before. Once settled it seemed to get worse and worse. We sprayed ourselves with OFF, wore long sleeves, pants, hoods, etc., but they were EVERYWHERE no matter what we did. We went to bed early to get away from the mosquitos and had to kill at least 50 in our tent!! I'm guessing the first handful of sites were better as they were more open and not in thick forest, but don't know. We packed up as quick as possible in the morning and enjoyed that our memory of that mosquito place was now in the past!!
Once you enter on this road, you’ll start seeing campsites (8 total) and within each campsite, there’s 1-4 spots available. I drove about 7 miles down the road and camped at site 6 which only has 1 spot. I had a vault toilet which was clean & stocked, trash can and bear storage box. It’s very quiet here and you’re surrounded my nature. There was a fire ring and picnic table. No AT&T service so nice to unplug. The road turns into dirt/gravel and is wash board at the beginning but actually got better as I went along (in a camper van). The only downside of this area are the mosquitos. I don’t mean a few pesky bugs. I mean step outside in long sleeve and pants for 15 minutes and get eaten up with 20+ bites after covering myself in repellant. You might thrive more in a camper but in a van, I like to keep my doors open & that wasn’t an option unfortunately. Wonderful campsites and thankful for it being free with so many amenities! Sites 1-5 are closer to the water and is more open field like with sun. 6-8 is lush forest. No animal activity for me other than a deer and squirrel.
Lots of areas, keep driving and you’ll find a nook for yourself
Turn into Headwaters lodge and cabins at Flagg Ranch and take the first right onto Grassy Lake Road. There are 8 designated camping areas along the snake river heading to Grassy Lake Reservoir each camping area has between 1-4 sites a pit toilet picnic tables and fire rings. If you keep driving past camp #8 you enter the National forest and you can pretty much camp at any turnout you like- some spots will have nice fire pits but no other amenities. We ended up out here late on a Thursday night and all the designated sites were taken but we found a great spot to share with some other campers right near Grassy Lake.
We drove back 10 miles but pretty sure it went back another 10-15. Great dispersed camping. Roads were well maintained. Drove the pickup back in for tent camping this August. Would recommend for a close spot by Yellowstone National Park.
Great Yellowstone Basecamp just a few minutes from the entrance.
There are a ton of awesome campsites along snake river with about 2 sites per pull-off. Actually, most of these are a little bit more than a mere pull-off. On gmaps, the sites seem to continue all the way on into Idaho. The one we took, we almost missed because as usual, we arrived at nightfall and we turned onto a dark uncertain path with a lone RV parked off to one side, and sure enough, the was an empty space right there waiting for us, complete with trash, toilet, and even a bear box. Each pull-off has 1 toilet and 1 trash, but has a firepit, table, and bear box for each designated camping spot. The river seemed perfect for fishing. I hope to come back one day.
