This is a popular, heavily-wooded campground with both reserved and first-come sites.
We arrived on Thursday night thinking we'd have our pick of sites since it wasn't the weekend yet. Turns out there was only one site available! It's a smaller campground with only 16 sites (half of which are reservation-only) and highly desirable because of its ease of access, extremely pleasant atmosphere, and proximity to both Laramie and HIGHLY primo recreation in Medicine Bow National Forest along 130. Also, my fiance and I ended up finding this place because we were looking for somewhere to camp outside of the level 2 fire restrictions currently in place in most of Colorado, and I expect there are others like us filling the southern Wyoming campgrounds right now.
It seems to me that you will have pretty different experiences depending on which side of the road your site is on. As you drive in, all of the sites on your right are along the creek and have creek access, as well as more mature trees that provide better shade. The tradeoff is that the creek access means there are tons of mosquitoes!
The sites on your left-hand side do not have creek access and have younger trees that provide less shade, but no bugs and great stargazing!
The one site that was open and that we ended up in was a left-side-of-the-road site (site 7). We had decent shade in the morning and evening when the shadows were long but almost none in midday. Aside from the plentiful trees, there were also tons of wildflowers all over the campground and in the sites at the time we visited (mid-July).
Each site has a picnic table, metal fire ring with grate, and a metal grill (like the kind you see at parks). During level 1 fire restrictions (which a lot of Wyoming is currently in), you are allowed to have campfires in metal fire rings. The sites do not have tent pads which, combined with the abundant wildflowers, meant we had to squash a couple plants to set up our tent. But what I thought was really cool is that most sites seem to have a little tucked-back clearing to set your tent up in that keeps you a little secluded and cozy.
There are a few vault toilets that seem well-maintained and which are stocked with hand sani. There are also water pumps , but they either weren't working or I wasnt using them correctly. We had heard the water at this campground was hit or miss so we had brought several gallons to be safe, so it was all good.
There is a hiking trail that leaves from between sites 10 and 11 that is fairly easy and a great way to see a lot of local nature. However, if you're not interested in leaving your site you'll still see plenty! In the two nights we stayed our site was visited by the usual birds, squirrels, and butterflies, as well as a deer and a fox (unfortunately I had already used up my entire camera battery before the fox visited our campfire)!
The small town of Centennial is about a five minute drive away. There is a general store there where you can pick up local firewood (always burn local wood!) and ice on your way in.
Oh also!
At the fee station there were booklets with information on local hiking, fishing, hunting, and other outdoor recreation nearby, as well as maps of nearby hiking trails! What a sweet thing to provide, especially somewhere where I didn't have any signal and couldn't use Google maps to find trails to check out.
Scout
