Upper Wind River Campground — Boysen State Park

Booked what looked like a decent site by the river and found it to be unusable when we arrived. I was considering just occupying a different site since the place was nearly empty. Thankfully a sheriff's vehicle was driving thru (which I mistook for a park ranger). He told me he'd try to help us get a different spot by calling the park office but on realizing that he had no cell service, he volunteered to drive to the office to see what he could get done for us. He returned after a short while with instructions for us to camp in an empty pull-through spot. We were very thankful for his help.

The good-

Beautiful canyon!!

Shade from big cottonwoods (it was 97 degrees!)

Some sites well spaced

Vault toilet was clean and supplied

There's good fishing there for big trout but unfortunately I was fishing this time around

The bad-

No cell or WIFI

A lot of strangely laid out sites, some ridiculously close to one another and unlevel 

Sprinklers in some areas that sprinkle your site, tent or whatever's exposed

Highway noise is bad - in a canyon sound bounces off the walls, many trucks on the road with much use of jake brakes and to top it all off, the occasional 2AM freight train rolling by on the other side of the river

I had reserved site 54 through recreation.gov but at the time I thought it odd the site would not let me put in my rig size.  So I just went with it.  Mistake.  My 30 footer wouldn't begin to fit since the pull off the road is shared between 54 and 55.  I've never seen a CG where a pull through is split into 2-3 'sites'.  So I drove around the park (which was mostly empty) and in spite of the giant signs screaming RESERVATIONS REQUIRED MAY 1-SEPT 30, I parked in very large site 71 which had midday sun for my solar and some shade in the late afternoon.  Did the kiosk sign in thing and no one has bothered to check me out.  The signage here is ridiculous, even in the bathrooms - lists of fines for everything!  I guess they've had to put up with stupid, rude and inconsiderate people.  Sad.  No dump station (there's one at park HQ down the road south) but there are several water hydrants through the park.  Mosquitoes were quite annoying along with a plethora of nonbiting flying critters my dogs enjoyed hunting.  The Wind River runs along the park with a railroad on the other side.  The 2x trains a day were NOT that loud and were gone in about 3 minutes.  Road noise from the highway is moderate but most city folk won't notice it.  Fishing isn't much fun because the river bank is steep with only 3-4 sets of stairs to the water.  The birds, however, are numerous and very happy to be here.  Had a momma turkey and 8 fledglings walk up to and under my trailer!   I would stay here again but at a cooler time of year.  The frequent breezes ameliorated the heat to a survivable level.  No T Mobile here at all.

We stayed in site 51, we tried to get site 53 but it said it was already reserved, turned out it wasn't. Some things are out od the parks control, rhe trains foe instance that sound like they are coming through your tent. Traffic is horrid and goes on moat od the night. But these two sites have a much bigger problem that the park can do something about. There is a giant light that makes it like noon at the dead of night, all night long! The only thing the light is good for is the bugs, which there are so many bugs, go to the light when it comes on. The bugs weren't of the biting type, most anyway, they just liked to fly into your face. Then there were the wasps. My son got stung and the neighboring site also got stung, all in a 20 minute span. They were everywhere. Even worse, shortly after 9 am on Monday, sprinklers came on! In the sites, 51 was OK, possibly due to a plugged sprinkler but site 53 was soaked. Their tent, their chairs, their concrete picnic table where they were cooking breakfast! Quite hours are not really enforced, leashed dogs aren't always enforced. They do have a giant list of fines for breaking rules but I don't see enforcement. We did visit the lake and didn't see a lot there that would have been better. We won't return to this campground though.

There are lots of campsites at Boysen State Park. I called the phone number and talked to a nice ranger. She suggested Upper Wind River campsite since we did not have boat and wanted to have a nice tent spot. We camped 1 week before site changed from reservation to FF. We planned on staying 2 nights but it was so relaxing we ended up staying 4. 1 day we went to Marina and swim beach. Another day we went to Thermopolis and checked out Dino museum and hot springs. Last day we just hung around camp and relaxed. Campsite had a park for kids. No showers but plenty of water so we set up privacy tent and we’re able to shower when we wanted. If we were there during peak season I bet it would feel a little crowded but was perfect the time of year we went because there were maybe 10 sites filled out of the 80ish there.