Best Tent Camping near Shell, 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.

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.

For $17 a night, try and get a site right on Tensleep Creek. Sites are pretty, and private-ish with lots of trees (some good for hammocking, some not). Everything was really well maintained to the point of everything looking new. All the usual amenities of picnic tables and fire pits and grills, PLUS there are pretty awesome prep tables for cooking and a lantern pole at each site, with super clean vault toilets where the camphosts have set pots of flowers to improve the setting. I suggest getting a site on the backside of the loop away from the road. The campground hosts were great, checking on campers a couple of times in the early evening and again in the morning. They rolled around in their golf cart stocked with firewood for sale so you didn’t have to hike back to the top of the hill to get your wood. There are some great family activities areas in the campground with horseshoes, cornhole, and other games set up in a central activities area.