Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Medicine Bow-Routt NFs & Thunder Basin NG

This review is for the abundant dispersed camping, not the two official camping loops.

I love this place. With an asterisk. This seven mile dirt road is filled with sprouts of other dirt roads that is stunningly beautiful and fairly quiet. Beautiful spots to camp and you can tuck yourself away behind a rock formation and far from your neighbors. 

Great rock formations for climbing, mountain biking, abundant Aspen trees for your hammock and right on the edge of Curt Gowdy State Park, which has a broad network of wonderfully maintained mountain bike and hiking trails and plenty of motorized and non motorized water sports. Showers and flush toilet bathrooms and a camp store can be found in here in non-COVID days. 

The animal life is great too. We've had moose and pronghorn deer right at our campsite. And that gets me to…the asterisks. Not only are moose around, but so are mice. In 2 of my 7 visits here we have taken on mice. The last time it was a lot of mice. I mean a lot of mice. I now carry mouse traps with me because of this place. We had tens of mice inside our camper for two days straight. Eating our food and gnawing on wood. Ended up bringing some of them home with us too. The cat got 3. I trapped another 5. Our garbage can was like a Civil War photograph for mice. Also, this place has become popular and can get a little overrun on the weekends with people running generators, shooting shotguns and running around on OHVs. Hard to be more annoying. Last, Wyoming is synonymous with wind. So be prepared for that possibility.

Leave no trace (and run no generators)

We stayed here for a night with our dog while passing through Wyoming. The area is BEAUTIFUL. Lots of wildlife and scenic views. Bathrooms were clean and conveniently scattered throughout the sites. Easy to find if you just follow the signs for camping! We made it back pretty far in our all wheel drive lower clearance Subaru. LOTS of mosquitoes though, so make sure to bring bug spray or cover up!

This place is down a long dirt ride through private property so be kind and mind the hours. When you get to the end, take the right fork and you’ll find two, rather close together, camping areas. When nobody is here it’s wonderful - right next to a creek, dogs can run around, and it is so very quiet and secluded. If I’m ever in Wyoming I’ll head back to this little spot.

There’s also a boat ramp, and I imagine if you fish, the creek would be a nice little spot to fish.

We went camping mid August and pulled into our campground that was pre-paid for and was tagged with our reservation about half an hour before our check in time. We started unloading and setting up. We brought our two large dogs with us and they were anxious and barking. After constantly consoling the one that kept barking, he was starting to settle in. It had only been about half an hour since we arrived. The hosts at the campground drove up and stated that we could not camp here because it was reserved. Neither of them asked our names or if we had a reservation. We explained that, yes, the reservation was made by us. Next they went on to explain that someone had called and complained about our dog barking. One of the hosts stated, your dogs will need to be quiet or we will have to call animal control... We all stated that they would settle down once they got used to their surroundings and that would not be necessary because if they continued barking we would take them home. The campsite was great overall, clean and easy to get into. As for the hosts, they could use some manners and maybe a better approach to making all their guests feel welcome... even the furry ones! There were dogs barking all over the park the rest of the weekend, but it didn’t come from our site.

Nice clean campground. Kid friendly. Dog friendly. Only reason for 4 stars is the highway noise from I80.

This spot was nice and just a quick drive outside of Fort Collins. There was tons of shade and easy access to trails. Loved the river nearby to play in and let dog swim.

Something for everyone. My dog could swim in north Michigan reservoir. The kids could ride bikes in trails and throw rocks in the water. Hiking was fun. Beautiful views. Bathrooms close and super clean.

This campground had great facilities and sites, especially for only$10 nightly. If you stay at the loop furthest from the highway, you feel like you’re deeper in wildness because you no longer see or hear the highway traffic. We camped here because it’s so close to the nearby world-class rock climbing. It did get pretty windy during or stay(gusts up to 30mph) but otherwise our stay in mid-August had comfortable temperatures. The bathrooms were pristine. Campsites has ample distance between each other and we had no issues with noisy neighbors.  Plenty of well-behaved dogs - dogs are allowed everywhere as long as they are leashed. Unfortunately the water hookup has been off for a couple seasons, so you need to drive 15 minutes away to get potable water. The scenery is beautiful during the day and night. We plan to stay here again!

We stayed at The Laramie KOA in August 2021. This is a FHU RV Park which offers a variety of sites including premium extra large pull-thru sites. We opted to save the added expense of the premium sites and stayed at a regular pull thru-site. These sites are very close together which was difficult to negotiate into with our fifth wheel. The sites are so close together that I had my neighbors sewer hose directly in front of my camp chair between my legs. 😳👎🏻 Next time we will opt for a premium site because this is a very nice, well maintained KOA with an excellent staff. There is a nice dog run here and lots of green space to walk dogs. We were able to receive mail here, also. All in all, we would recommend this park and enjoyed our stay here. If you would like to see videos of this park and others, please check out our YouTube channel: Jeff & Steff’s Excellent Adventure.

If you like camping, rafting, and fishing, then this is the perfect site! We've gone back year after year and it never disappoints. Each site has a picnic table, a fire pit, and a drive way that can squeeze 2 cars and trailers if they aren't huge. You have to find flat ground to set your tent on, but it exists. We love that there is a boat ramp right on site so we can push off from there and go as far as we want. There is some firewood, but bring an axe to break it down. Each pit has a grilling platform which makes it easy to grill out. Freshwater can be filled at the gas station in town for free. They are super nice and make sure to purchase something from there at least once during the trip. Dogs are allowed but most people don't have theirs on a leash, so be aware if you dog is one that may not get along with others well. The bathrooms are a toilet over a hole in the ground. Bring extra TP just in case. There are some great hiking areas around as well, just be aware of bears, mountain lions, and moose. Absolutely love this site; can't wait to go back this summer.

This place is unreal! Designated Dispersed camping at its best. We camped near the Devil’s Playground rocks and even though most of the better sites were full, we found quite a few open sites on a Saturday. Can’t do that in Colorado anymore! The wind picked up at night and we sure were thankful to NOT be in tents. The Rocks are awesome for scrambling and even the dog had a blast!

Over nice Guest services— dog run, small fitness center, shop, playground, laundry, Wi-fi, cable. Those running the KOA - were very helpful and pleasant. Sites are pretty small- our slide hung over the picnic table and if someone was next to us with slides might have been very tight. Little noisy by the interstate but we had one of the sites next to it. Doesn’t bother me and was to be expected. Overall good place to just stop for the night.

State parks were full so we stopped over in Laramie. Originally planned on a tent site but once we saw how open the tent space was, we decided to grab a dog friendly cabin instead. It was cozy with air conditioning and a mini fridge. Kind of a weird location between a neighborhood and hotels.. but it did the trick. Nice community fire pit for us to relax next to in the evening. Staff were friendly and helpful and bathrooms were clean.

Beautiful Aspen groves surround you as you roll on endlessly down well maintained dirt roads. I've put in specific coordinates, but you can follow any of these FS roads after you pass through the "town" of Columbine. I prefer to go up to the right along 550. But you can't go wrong. 

Free range sheep are being guarded by Great Pyreneese dogs, Moose and Pronghorn are all abundant. Bears too, so lock it all up. 

Great easy MTB on the roads and some smaller trails.

Leave no trace.

This wooded campground has a very narrow season. Gravel roads (starting at Albany) were snowed in 4 miles out in late May 2019, While there are gendered vault toilets (TP stocked), bring your own water for cooking and cleaning. This fact alone makes it better for RVs than tent campers like us. There are loads of sites, well spaced with fire rings and picnic tables. We got rain and small hail on the 3rd weekend in July and it got to 40 F or below overnight. Deer, chipmunks, and a bald eagle were spotted. There were mosquitoes. There is a boat ramp into the reservoir. Heavily ATV traffic. Dog friendly but must be on leash. Gunfire noted early and late across reservoir. With proper prior planning, you will probably have a pleasant experience.

We travelled to Vedauwoo on a suggestion from friends and were tremendously surprised by the beauty of the area nestled between Cheyenne and Laramie.

We camped on the dispersed area just to the east of the campground in a pleasant spot in the trees and boulders a good distance from the dust of the road. One of the great things about dispersed camping in this area is it affords some distance between campers and gives you a sense of your own space.

August weather in Wyoming is plenty warm during the day and cool in the night and it met our expectations. The fabled Wyoming breeze was actually less than expected. The only drawback was the fire ban in effect due to the wildfires in both Wyoming and nearby Colorado.

We would encourage visitors to explore the various trails as each one we set out on rewarded us with magnificent views and the surprise of a swift creek feeding a number of picture perfect beaver ponds.

This is a great camping area and is close enough to Laramie for any needs. Vedauwoo is well worth a visit. Thank Wyoming!

Such a great way to escape into a picturesque Wyoming. The drive from Laramie, closest populated area, into the Snowy Range and a windy road back into the campground was awesome.

We stayed in cabin #3 and it was an awesome experience! We had room enough for 4 people and 3 dogs and didn't feel like we were on top of each other. The gas stove kept us nice and toasty all night long! 

There are 4 cabins. Ours seemed to be the smallest sleeping 5. The largest cabin can easily hold 30 people. 

The bathroom was a pit toilet, which was up the hill and farthest from our cabin so it was a chilly bathroom run in the middle of the night. 

We spent a lot of time sledding and snowshoeing and we were basically the only ones out there. There was another large group in the bigger cabin but we barely saw them until they left on Sunday. 

The beds were plastic coated so it was easy to throw a sheet over them and sleep. The Couch was a bit gross, not sure if the cover gets washed much. There were shelves to hold food and an outdoor picnic table in the room to cook on.

Beautiful area of Wyoming. The campground is clean and remote, but busy. There was a lot of beetle kill removal work going on when I was there, but I think that has slowed down some.  Nice trails close by and the lake is lovely.

Close to the highway and the University of Wyoming.. Clean restroom facilities, friendly staff, and nice camp store. Only negatives were the campsites were a bit small, though we were on the end of an aisle and we only had a pop up) and the WiFi signal was pretty weak.

It’s an awesome place to chill, and explore. Turtle Rock trailhead connects to Vedauwoo campground. Boulders in your campsite. Great for kids, and climbers alike. Loud at night from I-80 and windy. But you can’t move I-80, and it’s Wyoming.