Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Dubois, WY

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.

We stayed here for a couple weeks in June.  The sites were big and Allen the owner/host was great!  Close enough to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons along with other great stops. The town of Dubois is a great little town with some great places to eat.  We would definitely stay there again!!

Closest Town, Dubois Wyoming

This is a primitive campsite, with no running water, fire rings or fancy tent platforms, but there is a vault toilet about 200 yards away in the parking area for the New Glacier Trailhead, aka Glacier Trail 801. There is room for several tents spread out among the trees and scrub, and a few spots right next to Torrey Creek, as we chose. They are not numbered and there is to my knowledge, no way to reserve a spot. That said, we were the only ones there in July!

Glacier Trail 801 is located at the end of Forrest Road #411, and branches off along the way to Whiskey Mtn Trail 804 and Lake Louise Trail 806. This campsite made a great jumping off point for day hiking. The hike to Lake Louise is worth every step! (even if you haven't acclimated to the altitude yet and less than 4 mile loop feels more like 15, just saying ;) Don't forget to log your name in the register before setting off on the trails.

Technically speaking, this campsite is right on Torrey Creek, at Glacier Trailhead 801.1.

Adjacent to this area, is a turn around that can accommodate RVs, with maybe 6 spots give or take. No hook ups, but there are bear boxes on these sites.

What to know: Bear Country, you know the shpeel. Mosquitos, affirmative. Remember Torrey Creek is glacial melt and is likely to be heavier later in the day than in the morning, and sounds incredible to sleep by at night.

How to get there: Heading South out of Dubois, WY, take US-26 for about 3.5 miles and turn right on Trail Lake Road (look for the Fish Hatchery sign, which is small and easy to miss). Stay on Trail Lake Road/#411 at the fork. Continue on #411 all the way to the end and you will find yourself in the parking lot for Glacier Trail 801. See the vault toilet and look a couple hundred yards past that and beyond the horse corral to Torrey Creek for the campsites. You can drive all the way too it, past the horses, but beware it is really rutted.

True Story: I am relatively certain I am the only person that actually wears bear bells when I hike. But hey, I sound pretty dang cheerful everywhere I go!

We did not have a reservation for this site, rather we stumbled upon the best lake side camping spot in Pinnacles campground on Brook Lake. The tent door opened perfectly to the setting sun, which bounced yellows and pinks off the lake and surrounding cliffs. The camp spot had perfect access to the water to enjoy fly fishing or an evening paddle board session. The camp host was pleasant and very helpful, plus the outhouse was the nicest outdoor facility I’ve ever seen, not to mention its directly across from the camp site. If you ever find your self outside of Dubois, WY snag the #3 spot at Pinnacles campground.

We happened upon the Pinnacles Campground by fluke, coming out of Dubois we saw the sign for Brooks Lake and just decided to take a peek. So glad we did!

It's a gravel road and we made it in a Kia Sorento just fine.

The first night we scored a spot (#4) across from the lake on the interior of the campground. In Grizzly Country, we fondly refer the interior campsites as surrounded by the 'Bear Buffer Zone' (aka exterior campsites ;) When we woke in the morning, the RV that was in the lakeside spot (#5) across from us left, so we scooted our stuff over for the lakeside spot. Got to be THE best view for morning coffee we've ever had!

The camp hosts, Joe and Deb make it a priority to make everyone feel welcome and at home (please see photo of vault toilet; Not your average outhouse!)

Things to know: It is windy! The wind dies down overnight and the morning is calm, but the wind picks up midmorning and keeps up till sunset. Mosquitos…PLENTIFUL and aggressive! The wind and temperatures don't seem to affect their determination to swarm your face constantly. But, effective bug repellant will keep them from biting you.

Also good to know (and we didn't): We are strictly tent campers. No one said anything to us, but I've since read that in that area it is supposed to be hard-sided camping only. (Yay Bear Buffer!)

Last but not least: If you are looking for a shower and a chance to wash your clothes, Dubois is about 23 miles South with a retro shower/laundry facility. Best $3.25 worth of hot water I've ever had :)

I camped here for one night in early October, 2020. Cool campground that has apparently been "shut" for the season, so the normal fee doesn't apply. The forest service kept the campground open for hunters, etc. and aren't charging, so that's a win.

It's a somewhat small campground with two loops. When I got there all but one site were claimed, so I got the center site (#5) which doesn't have tree cover or much privacy. Definitely not the site I would have picked if I had more options - some of the other ones looked much cooler and more private, tucked back in the trees. Still, even with only one site to choose, it was still a really nice area. 

There are gentle hills all around, and a nice creek running right next to the campground. Toilets on-site, but I didn't have to use them so I'm not sure if they've been locked for the season.

Heads up - it was nice and warm during the day, but the temperatures plunge once it gets dark. I was tent camping and it got COLD. If you're headed this way later in the year, be ready for that. The water bottle I left out froze, and everything was covered in frost when I woke up, including my tent. 

Bear area, so bear lockers are provided. It's very dry, but apparently fires in the firepits are OK as long as you completely douse them out before you leave the site or go to bed. Given how cold it got, the fire was a godsend.

No cell phone reception on Verizon. About a 15 - 20 minute drive to the town of Dubois if you need to pick up supplies, although Dubois is quite small so you aren't going to get a lot of selection.

All in all, nice little campground. Would definitely camp here again, especially if I could get one of the more private sites.

We enjoyed our stay and will definitely be back and also recommending this place to anyone we know heading to Dubois. 

GENERAL: very spacious, wide gravel roads, 60 aces- hiking; biking; ATV and off road accessible; great customer service and got discounted rate when scheduling over the phone vs online. All sites are back-in, but plenty of space to navigate. 

SITE: Very spacious, very few neighbors and spread out when you do have neighbors; 50 amp only, but we have an adapter to 30amp so no issue; The starts at night were insanely beautiful! 

WIFI: We work remote and the wifi was surprisingly strong and good for working remote. Occasionally spotty for video calls, but good otherwise. We looked out to Hamburger Point. You feel you are alone in the great outdoors with a beautiful setting. 

OTHER: Walkable to downtown(about 1.5); Fishing and great walking path right across the street. We went to the rodeo on Friday night and the grounds are right across the street. The small town was historic and nice to walk around. Check out the Rustic Tavern and/or Outlaw Saloon for a drink while you're there! Very windy most of the day so we didn't keep our windows open unfortunately. Too much dust whipping around and gusty, although the roads were gravel, everywhere else around is dessert and dirt. Grocery is nearby- a bit pricey and the produce isn't that great, but was good for the necessities while in town.

Nice views of the Tetons. Cell signal very spotty. No trails to walk with dogs. Spots are spacious. Bring your bug spray.

We are full-timers and have a 36 ft Class A with a Cherokee Trailhawk tow and had scouted the area before arriving with the RV. The road to Soda Lake, Willow Lake Rd, is hard packed gravel and pretty smooth. The loose gravel and dirt road around Soda Lake is also in pretty good shape. There are many dispersed sites around the lake, but most were taken when we arrived. We found a decent site(42.962406,-109.850254) on the North side of the lake, but the“neighbors” to either side had loose dogs and our dog has had altercations with dogs off leash before. The site was surprisingly level too, almost didn’t need to level at all. Two days later, a nice large site opened up on the other side of the lake(42.965274,-109.840282), near the old boat launch, so we moved there. The nearest neighbors were considerably further away and no loose dogs that we could see. The area around the lake is completely void of trees, so all of the sites are full sun, but there was a good breeze/wind most days. Others have mentioned mosquitos and gnats as an issue, but we had few of either, though there were a few petty flies. There are a number of hiking trails in the surrounding area. We saw a fair bit of wildlife in the area as well; pronghorn, horses, hummingbirds, bald and golden eagles, osprey, hawks, sea gulls, grebes, beavers, a plethora of ground squirrels, and a lot of cows on the hike to Little Soda Lake. The mountains are beautiful and we had some of the most amazing sunsets. AT&T service was poor without a booster, with 0-2 Bars of 3G service, but nearly no data throughput. With our weboost, it got a little better with 3-4 bars of LTE and speeds up to about 0.5 MB/s. T-Mobile service was good with 4 bars of 4G/LTE, but I didn’t check the data rate. We were able to get DISH coverage on all three western satellites at our site. Also, there were no OTA channels to be had with our fixed omni antenna.

We stayed in a riverfront spot and we would definitely recommend! These are very large spots that are back in spots and the Wind River is right outside your door. They aren’t 100% level but we really enjoyed the spot. Our 3 year old daughter loved chasing around the prairie dogs around the park as well!

We chose this site for easy access outside of Jackson as we were arriving later on a weekend. The road was great (but people were driving pretty fast so kept the dogs close).

The sites were pretty spaced out with many along the creek. Some of the pull outs had multiple areas to camp within. There were some pullouts in the trees along the water that looked cool, but were taken. Lots of bugs!

The first night the wind was blowing a little bit and the mosquitos weren’t too bad. I thought the reviews were being a bit dramatic. Our second night the weather was still and the bugs were INSANE. We covered up and had bug spray but we (including the dogs) got eaten up. Besides that, this is a beautiful place. A little busy, as it was a weekend in July, but we had no problem finding spots. There are 27 sites, some with A and B locations. 4-6 is on the right side of the Y, 7-27 on the left. We drove around looking at all of the spots and Site 27 was unreal. Great location outside of the Tetons. Easy to get to. Roads weren’t bad at all. Ranger was driving around checking on everything.

Arrived at New Fork Lake Campground on Thursday before the eclipse, the prime spots with good views of the lake were already taken. We chose space 6 since it had some aspen trees that would provide some shade and had extra space for a tent. Had a nice path down to the lake.

Outhouses were clean and had no issues with them. Camp spaces were clean and could tell in some of the others they had come through recently to cut down some of the tall grasses. Camp fire rings were in great shape and cleaned out, grates movable and useful. No potable water in the campground, could use the lake to filter if necessary.

Day use area with small beach (large snow year so lake was fuller than normal) is very nice for kids to play, launch paddle boards, paddle boats, canoes, etc. was a quick walk from the campsite

We were able to leave our well behaved dog off leash (but still carried it at all times), other campers and animals were friendly.

We stayed at site 10 on Forest Service road 30290. No markings on the road. Good gravel road until you hit National Forest. There is a very large gravel parking lot area for big rigs. We have a 24’ toyhauler. We stayed right and followed the road down until a T, then went left. And came across site 10. It already had a camper in it and had plenty of space. The current occupants were not keen on sharing but took our name and number if they were going to leave. We shortly got a text saying we could stay. They ended up leaving that day while we were out. Everyday since then other people have squished into our site. Every time we leave, we come back to more people. There is space but several people seam to share one spot. I guess it’s ok, but it is kinda weird people don’t even ask. It’s hard because we boondock for space and because we have a dog. But everyone is friendly so we decided may as well make friends. Fingers crossed nobody blocks us in.