Colter Bay Campground at Colter Bay Village - Grand Teton National Park

This review is for the basic campground at colter bay in grand Tetons. Not the RV park which is very dense parking RV to RV. Not the cabins. Just a plain national park campground. Each site has tent pad, table, and fire ring. Flush toilets and sinks in building within each campground loop. Water spigot near rest room. Depending on site, it may be 500 feet to restrooms (like site C60). Sites are well screened from adjacent sites with dense trees and bushes. Star watching is limited due to trees. Every site was full mid week mid September. Very friendly campers from all across US, Canada, and Europe. It is a bear area black and grizzly. Bear spray recommended on hikes. Great wildlife viewing on local trails, or near Jackson lake dam and various sites around the park. Moose, bears, elk, beavers, raptors,… Easy to spend 3-4 days enjoying the park and viewing wildlife Note this site turns into a big puddle after a solid day of rain. Tent pad raised with gravel and logs was above water. Many sites likely have similar issue. But not all. Very limited T-Mobile if any.

Trying to reserve a site during the first summer following COVID lockdown was tricky and required us to stay in multiple standard non-electric sites over the course of five days. While our trailer arrangement didn’t require electricity and water, in hindsight it would have been worth trying to stay in the separate full hookup section of the campground.

The sites are mostly pull through which is fine as long as your site is on the passenger right (passenger) side of the one-way road. Otherwise, your living quarters side will be facing the road instead of the inner campsite. Due to emergency evacuation policy, camp staff/rangers prohibit you from parking your rig against the flow of traffic.

The bathrooms are dated but typical of a big national park. Showers are not provided at the bathhouse; you have to pay for them at the central Colter Bay visitor center/store.

Sites (the pull through) are mostly level, but not true for tent pads within the interior of the sites. A lot of the sites in loop A seemed to have suffered moderate erosion resulting in exposed roots.

Cell service is essentially non-existent and only available at the visitor center.

Strict on checkout times, but that’s understandable with the number of people trying to get into the park.

CG is centrally located to make for a relatively easy travel time to Jenny Lake or north to Yellowstone.

We booked two nights in the O Loop (346). Prior to booking the site looked level. Our site was so slopped I could barely get the stability bars off the trailer. We used our spare tire as a step. When we extended our slide our we were 8 or 9 inches from the roadway. If you have a camper I would book a power site, which are level.

I was like one of a few tent campers in the section of the campground apparently they have a separate just tent only section if you want but I opted for this section as it had it was closer to the lake but it was a generator section and things like that it's kind of noisy because you have a ton of RVs and just a warning it's super super busy there are other surrounding campgrounds other than this 1 that I would have opted for how I known but this is a decent it's got showers but it is just hella busy so if you're not into that scene try to find one that surrounds colter Bay campground

Colter Bay was a gem to stay in. I stayed in a few different loops during my time there and had a great time at all of them. All of the spots were level and close to bathrooms (super clean and had dishwashing stations which was a huge plus). It was easy to pack up in the morning and head out on hikes early in the morning which was amazing. Some of the sites are close to each other and can be annoying if you have noisy neighbors but overall was a great choice for spending my time in the Tetons.

Colter Bay is great for any type of camper. Walk in sites available on a first come first serve basis but the campground has many sites available. Some of the sites are located on the waterfront which makes for a great view but the water is a short walk away for the other campers. Certain sites also offer great views of the peaks across the water. We used a tent for camping which was around $30 per night. Restrooms and showers are also located nearby.