Best Tent Camping near Cora, WY

Pro: easy access, right off the highway. Con: right off the highway, traffic noise. Located right off Hwy 189/191 about 8 miles from Hoback Junction the WEST side of the highway. I camped here for 1 evening before a Grand Teton summit trip. I chose this campground for decent proximity to GTNP (45 minutes away) and the availablity and easy access of sites. I believe there were 12 sites that all had picnic tables and fire rings. There were several other cleared sites, some without tables and grills, that had alpha identifiers other than the 12 numeric sites. Not certain how many alph sites, but looked like tent only sites. They were all $15 nightly and an additional $7 for extra vehicle. They had one site with electricity, right next to the camp host. this one site is $25 a night. The campground has pit toilets, bear boxes, water, dumpsters. The Hoback Runs next to several of the campsites. I would highly recommend getting as near the river as possible to drown out the noise from the highway. Camp hosts were very nice! I only had a $20 to pay my fee with. They brought $5.00 in change back to my campsite after I placed it in the depository. They have firewood for purchase for $6.00 a bundle. I was a runner up in a Dyrt camping contest last month. with my REI gift card I purchased the Big Agnes MountainGlo tent lights and a Sea to Summit sleeping bag liner. Fun to try these out!

Absolutely gorgeous campground with amazing hosts especially Ben the cat!!! Super quiet and sites are spacious and far enough away from others you still feel secluded. It is incredibly dark at night, I've never seen so many stars in the sky! No light pollution at all. I really wish I had brought my telescope. Very nice park approved fire rings at each site and firewood available for sale at the host lot. Also large bear resistant food boxes and large picnic table available at each site. Water is available to fill your fresh tank but there is no where to dump grey or black tanks so be mindful of that especially when you have to travel 8 miles down a rough dirt road. Hosts did however reccomend we could empty a couple buckets of grey water in the vault toilet if we had to and even offered to let us use one of their buckets. There are vault toilets available and bear resistant dumpsters. Also no cell service at all but I didn't mind. Beautiful waterfall and hot springs you can walk or drive to. Many beautiful trails to walk as well. This is real camping folks; no hookups, no wifi or cell service ...only fresh water and firewood available. Make sure to bring everything you need as it's nearly an hour from town. Generators allowed until 10pm. $15 a day and I believe it was a 16 day limit. First come first serve, no reservations.

Be sure to throttle it way down into low gear as the long in road is really rough! If you like remote with at least the basics of picnic tables, bear boxes, and fire pits, this is your place. The sites next to the creek are the nicest and most level, and all have bear boxes (and notices about mandatory food storage). While I didn't see any bears, there were quite a few mule deer in the meadow in the evening., and I had to kick elk scat out of my tent space before set up.The vault toilet was clean enough, but could have been better. The campground is very close to Granite Creek Hot Springs, a pool type hot spring with a fee to swim instead of a natural hot spring pool. Word is that there were some pools at the base of the falls, but I wan't up for the hike or the very cold fording of the "creek" as it was very full with spring runoff. The manager let me hop in to test the water (too cool for real enjoyment according to him), and didn't charge me when I got out after just 15 minutes. The whole time I was in the pool he was regaling a couple with his story of a grizzly killing an elk calf the week before a few miles away. He was quite the story teller, and had the video on his phone to prove it. It was a "grizzly" tale.

Stayed here on Sept 18, 2024. Paid $10 with senior pass. Pretty campground. Lots of pine trees. Some pull-throughs and some back-ins. Gravel campground road; may be tight in places for big rigs. Sites are dirt surface. Some leveling required. Campground accommodates tents, car camping, vans and RVs. Don't recommend large towables. Hammock camping possible. More than one vault toilet; reasonably clean and stocked. Hand water pumps, but shut off. Trash dumpsters, but locked. Some sites have easy access to the Snake River for fishing. Each site has a table, bear box, metal fire ring, and grill. Highway noise, loud at times. $20 is too high for a national forest campground fee when the water is shut off and the trash dumpsters are locked. Site 9 is large but received some odor from the nearby vault toilet. Campground host was friendly. This campground is probably a destination campground for fly fishing on the Snake River; otherwise, it's just okay for an overnight stay.

Needed a for sure spot to camp for the night as it was getting late and this was what we came up upon. Large spots without hookups, did have fire rings, picnic table and bear proof food storage. Right off the road, so traffic was noisy. Camp host was gone the entire time we were there, but the firewood was left out with a bucket to pay and you can self pay with an envelope for your site.

Bathrooms (no running water or electricity in restrooms) and water spicket were walking distance from our spot near the entrance.

If you need a place to stay for the night on a road trip and you don’t want to risk trying for somewhere that might be full, this seemed to be a safe bet and was pleasant enough to camp out, cook dinner, and head out in the morning.

Visited in mid-September 2024. $10 ($5 with senior pass). Did not camp here; just checking it out. Included some photos in this revciew. Except for one towable camper, I was surprised that no one else was camping here, especially considering it was hunting season. The campground was set back in the trees off of Greys River Road. Lots of trees here; lots of shade. Nice looking campground. Good size sites; appear to be level. Picnic table and fire ring included. Not much privacy between sites, but separation between sites was good. Two clean vault toilets. Hand well water pump. Trash service.  No other amenities. No hook-ups. Campground appears to be well maintained. I would consider camping here in the future.

 We drove through this campground but decided not to stay here. A) It’s $15/night and there is so much free camping around here and B) the sites felt very open and not at all private. Quite a bit of road noise as it is right off of the main highway. It’s a nice campground, however, and there is river access. 

Each site has a bear box, picnic table, and a fire pit. Firewood is for sale from the host at $6/bundle. There are handicap accessible unisex vault toilets throughout. Hand pump water here as well. 

There are large trash dumpsters as well as a recycling bin for the little green propane canisters, which was very cool to see! No other recycling, however. 

Very weak ATT and Verizon, and no TMobile.

This is about Cottonwood Campground, not just the group site. It's pretty small, about 16 (?) sites. It's about 8 miles up the road from Hwy 89. The road is mostly one lane, though a little wider in some spots, so if you are towing, hope you don't encounter someone coming the other direction. There are some potholes all along the road, so if you're towing, it's slow going. 

The campground is about 1/4 mile or less from the lake. Group camp is up the right hand fork (not towards the lake). The Group site is large, with room for several tents. When I was there a church group of about 18 people with 5-6 tents was there. The sign says it requires reservations. There are 2 pull through sites up the right hand fork; the rest are back in or walk in. The walk in sites do not have tent pads or even room for a tent so I'm not sure what you would do there. The left fork goes to an equestrian area with a couple of non-equestrian sites also.

Each site has a picnic table and fire ring. I collected a lot of trash from fires rings.

There were vault toilets that were very clean to start with, though a camper pooped on seat in one of them, so gross. I don't know why people are so filthy sometimes.

There are trailheads from the CG and from the south end of the lake.

No signal on Verizon.

I enjoyed staying here.