Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Cooke City, MT

Near the town of Cooke City. Great campground with plenty of space. Bear an off-road trail. Grizzly bear country. Cooke City was great little restaurants. Our fave is a little coffee shop in the East side of town. Great hot chocolate and coffee. The baked goods were so good!

Turn left not right. The road is easy to miss, just a little dirt road off the left side of the road coming out of the NE entrance of Yellowstone 10 minutes passed Cooke city. No service but the bistro in Cooke city will give you WiFi if you eat there and that helped us get our navigation. This is my favorite place by far. The photos will show you why.

The host was wonderful! She clearly cared about the campground and her guests. The vault toilet was the most well kept I have ever seen. Fun decorations painted on the walls, air fresheners, and a small light. The sites are level and have good privacy. A little pricey at $20 but very close to Cooke City and Lamar Valley in Yellowstone. No cell service with Verizon.

That view over the canyon of the Beartooth Range though! Can't recall of it was $10 or $20 a night to stay but was money well spent! Small hike up the creek across the road to the calls is also undoubtedly worth the trip. Short drive from Cody, WY, Cooke City, WY, as well as the northeast gate of Yellowstone. Be sure to go to the top of the beartooths and go see "The Top of The World" Store.

This campground is amazing. They only have about 16 campsites, but every spot is gorgeous. I stayed in site #10, which I believe was truly the best. If you look to one side, you get picturesque views of mountains. To the opposite side of the mountains is a raging river that you can take a short walk to. The sounds of nature will help you fall asleep with ease! There were plenty of mosquitos, so be prepared with plenty of bug spray. They provide bear boxes to store your food in too, which is handy if you don’t have your own bear canister. The bathrooms are extremely clean, and honestly they were the best campground bathrooms I’ve ever been in. It’s a relatively short drive from Yellowstone, and it’s the first campground outside of the northeast entrance of Yellowstone that allows tents. Cooke City, Montana is about halfway between the campground and Yellowstone and that little town has food, gas stations, and other little shops. It’s definitely a camp ground I’ll stay at again next time I come up here.

This was hands-down one of the best campsite areas I ever found. National forest so it was open and free to whoever. Several spots just off Beartooth highway from Joseph Highway west to the Montana boarder. Most turnoffs have places for three or four different groups to camp. Some with bear boxes and some without. Most are only a rocks throw from water. Crazy creek is a waterfall area across from crazy Creek Campground. Very worth the short hike. Yellowstone is only 10 or 15 miles to the west and the town of Cook City is there if you need any basic supplies.

We made the mistake of taking our TT down to the lake but missed the right turn going to the campground loop, wound up stuck at the boat launch area. DON'T make the same mistake we did. There should be a sign because if someone takes the first left, it is a dead end with no opportunity at all to turn around. We got lucky.

After we got turned around & went back up to the dispersed camping area, we found the ultimate spot & stayed 5 nights. There are several of these spots at the top of the hill. The last night dropped a little snow on the higher elevations so we headed down before it got any worse. We were able to get H2O from the visitors center in Cooke City, just a few miles away. We also did laundry in the Soda Butte Lodge. Kind folks in both places.

The stars were astounding at night. The view of the mountains was incredible. We had no wildlife come through during our stay but did make friends with the local chipmunks & gray jays.

This campground is perfect for exploring the beartooth pass or Yellowstone due to its location. The washboard, winding road to the top is one lane at times so use caution. We had cell signal on the top ridge so that was nice for phone calls if we needed.

We will go back again.

Right on the edge of the Yellowstone River, about 90 minutes north of Yellowstone NP. This is an RV Park, so no tents are allowed. The view of the river and the mountains is fantastic. And, it’s close to dining in Livingston if you want that. Laundry facilities and a larger than average store. Pet friendly. The sites are small. But, I would definitely go back.

Open year round  Services discontinued the end of September through May

Fees:  $10.00

Stay limit 16 days

Pit toilet   trash   fire ring bear box picnic table   camp host

GRIZZLY bear area so be bear aware bear spray is a very good idea and be prepared

Sites are flat but they are very small.  Pets on a leash.  The backdrop is amazing.  Campground is on the road to Yellowstone and you really can't beat the price unless you find a boondocking spot somewhere else.  There are horse corrals and trailer parking near.

Directions:  From Cody, travel west on US Highway14/16/20 for 28 miles to the campground.

This was the first Forest Service campground I came to that allowed tent camping heading northeast out of Yellowstone and Cook City(mostly due to bear activity in, appropriately enough, the Beartooth Mountains). It’s a beautiful campground that is close to the road, but most of the road noise gets drowned out by Crazy Creek as it flows past the campground on its way to the Clarks Fork River. I think the best sites are 12 and 14 as they are at the back of the loop overlooking the River valley below and looking straight back at the mountains. With the bear activity in nearby campgrounds and in Yellowstone, I went ahead and put everything in the bear box instead of my car (bears are getting good at opening cars like tin cans). I was equally excited and nervous to see the wild strawberries in full fruit all over the ground in a couple sites as well. The vault toilet was clean and the campground host let me know that since there is no water in the campground, I was welcome to fill a water bottle or two at his huge water tank (not sure if this was offered to all or just to me, so be sure to bring your own water just in case).

This spot was totally beautiful. Small campground after a heavily graded gravel road outside of a sweet little town. Cheap, vault toilet. Lots of aquatic life tons of caddis fly and stonefly. Fishing was fun but no bites. The views were unforgettable and the stars were never ending. We did loose our white famepoint Siamese cat here in June. We stayed in the middle site just across the little road from the river. All the sites were pretty nice.

We were touring Yellowstone and wanted to stay close. This app brought me here. This site was accommodatingm had friendly staff and laundry that was clean and not expensive . My dog loved the back acres to run and do her business too!

Road is just terrible. If you want to break your RV and drive 10 miles per hour for 15 miles- go for it. Keep in mind that you are uphill and you don’t have access to the lake. Only 3 spots have “view”. It’s forbidden to swim, fish or do anything, but boat launching. Horrible flies that were bitting our dogs like crazy.

Got into town after 6pm, wife & dog ready to settle in, had a drive thru slot near showers. Shower’s awesome, clean , camp sites less than 15 feet apart, no fire pit… Wi-Fi lacking… bandwidth issues… spinning wheel of death… T Mobile cell phone was better source