Best Tent Camping near Big Horn, WY

Reservations: 877-444-6777 or recreation.gov 

Sites: 25 15 single with electric 9 single without electric 1 tent site 

Fee: $18.00 $23.00 for electric $10.00 additional vehicle 

Reservable sites: 16 single (14 with electric) 

Open: June with electric, during winter electric loop is closed 

Limit: 14 days 

Bear Aware, potable water, pit toilets, host on site, bear box, lantern pole, picnic table, fire ring, grill, fish cleaning table. There is a "small" lake in the campground. The pit toilet is very clean. While closed for season the amenities are closed the campground remains open. It runs on a Pack it in, Pack it out. Beautiful pine forest with amazing mountains for the backdrop.

 LNT

 BTYFI 

Travel safe

Camp Host on Site

Fee area $19.75   

Reservations 877-444-6777 or recreation.gov 

Open June close Sep

14 day limit 

20 sites 11 single 1 double 8 tent only 

Picnic table drinking water fire ring/grill fish cleaning station lantern pole trash wood for sale tent camping site only (loop A) 

Campground is covered with pine for nicely shaded sites. Gravel and not exactly level. Most are not conducive for solar. 

Lake View lives up to it’s name. We had a beautiful view of the small lake and the mountains behind. Access to the lake is by walking a distance or going out to the highway and driving a short distance to the boat ramp which is about 1/10 of a mile. The boat ramp is also a day use fee area with a pit toilet. 

Directions: From Ten Sleep, WY take Highway 16 for about 21.3 miles, turn right at the campground sign

LNT

Better than when ypu found it

Limit:  14 days

June 1 - October 1

Sites:  15 single accessible 

Fee:  $17.00 per night, additional vehicle fee $9.00

Reservations:  877-444-6777 or recreation.gov

In season there is potable water, trash service, out of season NO water, NO trash.  Pack it in Pack it out, Host on site.  Picnic table, fire ring, lantern post, ped grill, pit toilets.  The views are amazing with the beautiful mountains for the back drop.  Sites are dirt and short and close together.  Some shade and some sun.  There is even a place to off load 4 wheeler out of back of truck without ramps.

LNT

BTYFI

Travel safe

On Highway 16 across from the lake. There are great views of the mountains with nice wooded sites. The vault toilets were really clean and there was some bit of privacy between sites. Each site had the usual picnic table and fire pit (no bear boxes). In the evening there was a lot of wildlife in the meadow to watch, so try and get a site on the outside of the loop so you can watch. Because it was early in the season (the campground had only been open for a week when I arrived), they were not collecting fees yet (I double checked with the campground host). North Cove was across the street from the entrance and was very popular with fishermen and boaters.

At first we couldn't find this place because Google Maps will take you to the entrance of Sitting Bull Campground down the road. Follow the directions on reserveamerica.com or just head west from Sitting Bull Campground about 4 miles and turn on West Tensleep Lake Road.

It's a dirt/rock road and you'll be on it for 7 miles. Along the route is a half dozen other campgrounds. Each time you approach one you'll get excited thinking it's yours but it isn't. Don't worry. West Tensleep Lake Campground is better than those campgrounds.

Finally, you'll arrive at the last campground on the road which is also the trailhead. It is only 10 spots that are tent only. Half along the lake-side and half road-side. If you can take a lakeside spot (you can reserve these). The road side ones aren't bad but they are more exposed and a bit less wooded. Each site has a parking spot, picnic table and fire-pit with grill. Camp is at 9000+ elevation so when you search for weather reports they will not be accurate. The nearest town, Tensleep, is about 4000 ft lower in elevation so the weather can be dramatically different.

There are vault toilets which are probably the cleanest toilets I/we have ever seen in a campground. They were clean when we got there, cleaned while we were there and still clean when we left. There is a by the book Park Ranger who will sell you wood (if you arrive at a weird hour or don't want to wait stop by the second campsite on the road and you can buy wood there). He will also give you a speech about bears and a massive hefty bag for trash which seemed like major overkill, not to mention a lot of wasted plastic.

The lake is shallow (snow dependent?) but beautiful and teeming with beavers, fish and usually at least one canoe. It is deceptively large, and you can see Big Horn National Forest surrounding it and mountain peaks in the distance. There is a trailhead where you need to fill out some paperwork when you leave on a hike and then trails heading off for miles in a few different directions. We followed the lake to the northern end and then followed the path along creek/river into the woods. It was easy hiking, but really beautiful and worth the effort to get down that long road at the beginning.

On a 5625 mile road trip through forests and parks this campsite was a highlight. Stop in Tensleep on the way out of town. It is worth a visit.

There are only small sites available and the road up would not accommodate a very large rig. Any car could make it as long as there isn't any snow or ice. All sites are next to a small beautiful stream. All sites have picnic tables, fire rings and small trails between sites along the stream. The falls is maybe less than a mile up the trail. The trail was moderately easy with few obstacles but some small grade climbs. My 9 year old made it fine. There is a single vault toilet in the center of camp and no other facilities. Once they close the highway for the season access will be cut off until thaw. Great place to get away for a few days, daytrip to medicine wheel, Burgess junction, big horn canyon, shell falls, wild horse range and several other smaller attraction. Probably three hours from Yellowstone. Id recommend it for a quiet get away or a stop on the way through. It's about 30 minutes to the nearest store. Bird and wildlife watching, reflection and solitude would be the things you could find easiest here. Very pretty scenery. Cannot stress that enough.

I got lucky here and scored site #18 which was very private and at the end of a lollipop loop. While this site is further away from the creek and closer to the road, it was still quieter than sites on the creek(which were all taken anyway). There is a little trickle of a creek nearby that did a nice job of drowning out the road noise in the evening. There was a nice little trail that went up the hill and overlooked the bigger Prune Creek and all of the people floating and tubing down the creek. If you want a site on the creek, the best ones seemed to be#6-9. My site had the usual picnic table and fire pit, and nice hammock trees. I did find it interesting that while the dumpsters were bear proofed, there were no bear boxes at every campsite. There were two bear boxes and both were next to the water pumps. The vault toilets were not especially clean, most likely due to the heavy use by creek floaters and tubers. While walking down to the creek I noticed that there was some dedicated parking for fishermen, which I guess means that there may be some people in the campground that are not camping.