Soda Lake WHMA

Getting to soda lake was very straight forward and easy out of Pinedale. Very well maintained road. Needed a pit stop for the night and to be in close proximity to Jackson Hole for a full day of activities there before continuing on through Yellowstone. Lake/sites are very exposed to weather condition but well established and marked. I opted to continue into forest service land to get out of the wind with tent camping, ended up not far in past the two established spots off of soda lake in the Northeast corner. Perfect secluded spot that was free thanks to Wyomings excellent outdoor recreation opportunities.

A couple pit toilets, nice flat spots with a fire ring and picnic tables, and lake access + boat launches. Spots are we’ll dispersed so you’re not too close to your neighbor, but coverage is just sagebrush bushes so privacy is relatively low. Very nice views.

Right around the lake dispersed spots with lots of room between spots. A couple of pit toilets.

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.

There is no official Campground at Soda Lake, however there are numerous camps (estimated at least 20 camp sites) with tables and fire rings scattered around the entire lake. This is a WY Game and Fish habitat area. Camping is FREE, and limited to 14 days. Several toilet/restrooms are scattered around the lake also. No shade or trees along Soda Lake. Limited cell signal depending on your location...seems the west shore has better cell signal on Verizon. I posted a screenshot of my own mapping efforts for the camps and restroom locations. Two boat ramps but the better concrete one is on the west shore. Access road is smooth graded with dust abatement...two access point and the north one is best to take advantage of the improved road conditions

The lake itself is beautiful and the sites are really large. All have fire rings and some nice large bbqs and there are public restrooms. Great if you are a fisher or have a watercraft. The sunsets were incredible.

Downfalls: no trees so the wind is brutal! The lake has leeches so no swimming... which was a huge disappointment. Like someone said earlier people leave trailers there for days at a time with no one coming to check so there are quite a few occupied spots with no one in them. We decided to move up to Willow Lake which is a few miles further up in the Bridger-Teton NF where we can swim, more privacy, hiking, and trees to block the wind.

The drive in was beautiful. Very secluded. Only saw a couple other people camping around the lake. A toilet or 2. Lots of excellent fishing. People out all night fishing. Great for the doggy. No shade for tent only down fall.

Lots of feathered wildlife, including turkey vultures, eagles, and osprey. The campsites are close to the beach, with nice views of the wind river range.

I give it only 3 stars because several of the sites have the same RVs parked there for weeks at a time, if not all summer, with no occupants on the weekend, leaving few sites available. It does not seem to have any limits enforced.

During July, when the weather gets hot, the bugs are very bad. Before visiting read boating regulations carefully.

The camp sites were wonderful, right on the lake, however the surrounding vegetation doesn't really offer much privacy. Beautiful huge wild Horses also roam around, but they seemed like gentle giants

This is definitely a desert area, there is little to no trees, just a ton of sage, but the lake has many opportunities to catch fish, and in the mornings there was a beautiful herd of wild Horses that would come and drink from the lake.