Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Bridger-Teton National Forest

In the Bridger Tetons National Forest, thus offering some sensational FREE campsites. Remarkable views of the Tetons at both lower and upper sites. Directions are easy and available online. Bathrooms available near parking spaces at the lower spots. Following the road up the hill leads to more sites. The road is rough, but our manual Honda Civic squeaked up there. There are not many sites available, SO GET THERE EARLY. People will try to cram into little flat spaces, but the forest rangers WILL show up and tell you to leave if you aren’t in a designated campsite.

Great option if the Curtis Canyon campground is full, or if you would prefer something a little more remote. High clearance vehicles recommended - forest road 30440 is in pretty rough shape. Town of Jackson is fairly close.

Same great views you'd expect anywhere near the Tetons; trailhead to Goodwin Lake is close by. Full Teton view is better at the trailhead, but its not far. Dispersed sites are spread out with plenty of space; although no one stayed in the site next to us on this rainy evening in June.

To get there, continue past the Curtis Canyon campground in Bridger-Teton National Forest (behind the Elk refuge) as if you were heading to the trail head. You'll start to see marked sites along the extremely rutted forest road. I would not attempt very muddy conditions.

Imagine camping under the Grand Tetons... for FREE. This campsite is part of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. You go down some long gravel roads to the entrance, where there are some campsites at the base of the mountain. There is a road that goes up the mountain- which is pretty rough. You probably don’t need 4 wheel drive to get up, but a higher clearance would make it less stressful. I still have no idea how my Honda Civic made it up... but she did. The views were worth the stress. The Tetons were right there, right across the valley from us. Gorgeous. Absolutely amazing views. All around.

WARNING Although this is National Forest this area is designated camping only!! There are only a handful of sites at the base and along the road. The rangers are super strict about this as well. We had a Ranger come up to us (right before dark) and tell us we weren’t in a designated campsite. She was super kind about it, and thankfully the folks next to us at a designated spot let us join them! So make sure to get there early folks!!! So worth it!

There were many options for camping in Grand Teton, but our choice was by far the most beautiful and remote.

We camped in Bridger-Teton National Forest when we were on our way out of the park, but it would be possible to stay here even while you are hiking and driving your way through the park itself (although you’d add a bit of driving into your day).

Dispersed camping is allowed in the National Forest, so as long as you drive out of the National Park and into the National Forest far enough, you can find a place to set up camp. We found a pull-off (on the right side of the road) that led down to a flat, gorgeous site with established fire rings and a perfect place for a tent. There was a road leading down to this spot, but we opted to park up top and hike down because of our limited 2-wheel drive vehicle. It was only a few hundred feet down.

Camping in dispersed areas are the perfect way to feel alone, even in popular areas like Grand Teton and Jackson Hole.

During our time in the park in May, we still found plenty to do: our highlights included the view from Signal Mountain, early mornings at Schwabacher’s Landing, photos along Mormon Row, hiking to Toggart Lake, and kayaking along Snake River.

You can read much more about our five days in the park on our blog: Switchback Kids (Grand Teton)

If your wanting a place that overlooks the Grand Teton National Park this is your place. The views from campsites 1-15 are absolutely unreal and overlook Antelope Flats followed by the Grand Teton's. Some of the other campsites at Shadow Mountain are harder to navigate. Around Shadow Mountain there is about 8 miles worth of 4 wheeler trails that you can bike or walk where the other campsite locations are located. 

Shadow Mountain is part of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and from May 1- Labor Day you can stay a maximum of 5 days, the other dates you can stay up to 16 days. The camp ambassador has more detailed maps of the camping areas. This part of the national forest allows for FREE dispersed camping but only at assigned campsites. There is a camp ambassador on-site near sites 1-15 to help enforce the rules(this is a busier campsite in the summer as its very close to Jackson and lots of locals come out- kind of a party spot). There is a porta-potty on site on campsites 1-15 but no water or other amenities near other campsites. 

The road to get this location can be difficult but maneuverable as there are some large ruts in spots and larger river rock makes slower travel. It can be navigated by pretty much any car type or truck with trailer. If you have an RV it may be difficult to get to this location. 

Overall we highly recommend you check out this spot as the view is absolutely gorgeous. There is animal activity in the area Moose, Elk, Grizzly so use proper animal safety,"be bear aware." The camp ambassador mentioned a few weeks prior to our stay a grizzly attached a mom and her baby Moose near campsite 14! 

Check out our video review: https://youtu.be/8mVj1dxL5t4

Campground Review:

Does waking up to Teton views, colorful wildflowers, and the chorus of all types of birds sound up your alley? Well, this is the place!

Just outside Grand Teton National Park in Bridger-Teton National Forest, these sites are a little quieter and a little more spacious than the hustle and bustle below. They are first come, first serve and no amenities, but the experience makes up for it. Numerous hiking options are nearby: Blacktail Butte, the Shadow Mountain trail, or head to the park. On the way to the site from Jackson or Grand Teton, it is very likely you will see pronghorn, bison, elk, or even a moose.

This area is popular for a reason. Get there early - these sites fill up. Getting there on a weekday will help secure the choice spots. One downside is the air traffic; this overlooks the Tetons as well as the Jackson Hole airport.

Product Review:

As a review Ranger for TheDyrt, I am honored occasionally to test and evaluate products. On this trip, I tested the ICEMULE Pro XL cooler.

What makes this cooler unique is not only its backpack style; but the ability to add insulation (and buoyancy, as we found out) by inflating the sidewalls through a valve. It's a bit similar to how a sleeping pad works. Without ice, I threw a few cold ones and some sandwiches into its cavernous interior for a day hike in Bridger-Teton. After a few hours of hiking when we were ready for lunch, they were as cool as the moment they went in. The pack itself is fairly comfortable for a short hike, with padded straps and holes to allow some air circulation.

On the way home, we decided to paddle our favorite river and decided to test the Pro XL's floatation abilities. Why my husband chose the deepest spot to throw it into the drink I will never know, but lucky for me it stayed on top of the water. Because its sealed like a dry bag, no river water got in either. Our sandwiches and gummy bears were safe!

Nice dog park for big and small dogs. At this campground, you are a little close to neighbors but they stagger the trailers so it works. Nice trees for shade. The restrooms were as clean but they were older facilities. No road noise.

This was the first place I ever camped in Wyoming and I’ve been back three times since! The views are amazing. The drive to the site is kind of rough but it’s definitely worth it.

As others have said the cabins are beautiful as is the entrance. The RV sites have all the basics you need and the park is very quiet and peaceful. The thing I didn't appreciate for the price we are paying is trash in our site and others people's pet waste that hadn't been picked up. Gross. I really hope they upgrade the sites a bit and improve the weeds to grass as it is a great location.

Beautiful place to camp. The water is shallow and surrounded by mountains. You have to wade through mud to get to the water (which is also muddy). You can also still hear the highway traffic, but not bad. We visited in August, so the fires made the area hazy. The up sides: lots of space and privacy. Camp sites are super far apart in comparison to others. Fire pits are available and drift wood is everywhere. Some spots have trees for hammocks. Pet friendly and lots of bird watching.

Teton Canyon was an amazing getaway! Travel up to the camp ground by truck or 4 wheel drive. There was still snow and ice at the end of May! This was a beautiful campground settled in the mountains alongside a stream running with freshly melted snow. The hikes are breathtaking! We even came across an old avalanche. Super relaxing place. This is an off the grid campground. No showers or running water. There were some exceptionally clean bathroom outbuildings though. Bring plenty of firewood. Make sure to use the provided bear proof boxes too! We didn’t come across any bears, but we had a moose that frequented our site every morning! Lots of beautiful wildlife to see and hear. Pet friendly campsite and hiking!

So I used to like this place in the last years but now I started to have second thoughts I don't know if I was unlucky this year, but I was surprised to have some disappointments here. One of the things was find a single RV site accommodating one RV, 3 cars, tent and multiple families. I understand if a single family brings one or two extra adult to stay in the RV with a couple of kids plus an UTV but overpopulating with an RV, multiple large cars, more than one single family and children(lots of) also building tent that's for me was a little disappointing. Another thing I was worry, even with that amount of people, there was a moment I went out and I saw they left the fire burning and unassisted. My list of concerns didn't stop here, I noticed some vehicles would not respect the speed limit of the campsite(in a place with kids! What is happening with this world!). In addition, because the kids were be walking around, they stressed out my dog which barked and I was the one reported! In respect to the facility I stayed inside of the RV with my dog(not the the way I had planned to spend my vacation and I did lots of rv travel, this was the first time I got reported for my dog!). On the other hand there were a day some kids were playing with some toy gun(not sure what kind, pellet, bb gun, whatever) that even our friend(yes we travel in group, everyone with their own rv site) who was few sites on the left of us that heard the shots of the toy gun. I just hopefully it wasn't a pellet/bb gun because we have people, pets and other kids around here. And there was the dog poop! This year it seems we got some bad dog owner, for the first time we encounter dog poop in some areas we used to walk.(again, what is happening with this world!!!) About the overpopulated RV site, I asked about the reception if they don't have restriction about the limit of people and cars, families, tents to receive on a rv site they pretty much I was told there is no restriction. So if you want to bring multiple families in several vehicles plus RV, built tents around the rv to accommodate everybody and all cramped in a single RV site to save money, this is the place to come. Another episode that startled me. The day we arrived, we started to unpack and I was laying on the ground the panels of the dog playpen on the grass near to the behind of the rv to assemble and suddenly a cart/utv comes driving over the grass toward to the panel I had just laid down on the grass. I signed the driver to watch for the panel and instead of stopping or slowing down he just drove over and neither stopped to apologize or check if he caused any damage, he just drove away. Either this drive was an employee or another bad customer that thought it was ok to drive over the grass area between the sites and the river. I never saw this happen in the past years I came here. This year unfortunately I didn't have much of a good experience here. Usually I don't write reviews but I want to make sure people that has certain expectation for their camping vacation like I do be aware of what they may experience here.