I stumbled across this campground while driving Mesa Falls scenic by-way. This campground has 27 sites, both tent, RV and a group site right along the Warm River. It also has a day use area. This campground had new vaulted toilets but no showers. Within the campground was the trailhead for The railroad grade trail (great for mountain biking) which I was told use to take train passenger to Yellowstone’s old faithful. Tubing was very popular and the campers next to us insisted that we borrow their tubes so we could try it out for ourselves, very refreshing during our hot August stay.

I snagged the last tent site #21 across the bridge in the northern half of the campground. This large secluded tent site up on the hill had a very small tent pad, fire pit and picnic table and enough room to put up my hammock. This site is next to two double sites. Unfortunately during the 5 nights I stayed some of the RVers close to us ran their generators beyond the 10pm curfew and one RVer felt the need to pull out his noisy leaf blower and blow leafs and dirt everywhere.

There is tons of things to see and do in the area, Mesa Falls, Island Park… but the hidden gem is the close proximity (less than 25 miles) to Yellowstone National Park - Bechler Ranger Station. Bechler Ranger Station is in the far SW corner of Yellowstone National Park. This area has more streams, creeks, lakes and waterfalls than any other area in Yellowstone. There is a historic Soldier Station there that is about 100 years old and there are lots of hiking trails to beautiful waterfalls. You can see cave falls right from the parking lots. I would definitely return to this campground next time I am in the area.

We were visiting GNP in mid-June 2021 and originally wanted to stay at Apgar, or another campground closer to the Going to the Sun road, but since we did not have reservation to get into Glacier National Park & going to the Sun Road, we headed up to the north fork area of GNP to see if we could get a campsite at Bowman lake or Kintla Lake Campground.  When we arrived at the Polebridge Ranger Station the ranger thought we should be able to get a campsite at Bowman so we headed the 6+ miles down the  curvy dirt road to Bowman Lake. When we arrived around 2pm there were only 3  campsites occupied so we found a nice level campsite to pitch our tent.  The campsites were spread out enough that you had plenty of privacy (except for those dang deer and chipmunks that keep on visiting us). This campground only has pit toilets.  The views from the lake are unbelievable and we enjoyed our hike around the lake. We also drove the 15+ miles up to Kintla Lake (the campground was empty and had only a few campsites compared to Bowman Lake).  When we returned to GNP in September of 2021 we were able to get a campsite at Apgar but we took a day off from hiking and drove up to Bowman Lake, this lake is a hidden gem, so peaceful and so beautiful, definitely worth the long bumpy trip.  Bowman lake is definitely my favorite lake at GNP.

We stayed at Salmon Lake on 2 different occasions in June 2021.  We were lucky enough to score last minute reservation on the lower loop. The lower loop is right on the water and has only 2 campsites, #22 and #23. These two sites are farther down the hill so we did not hear the street noise that other campers complain about in the upper loop. We were tent camping when we stayed in site #22 and #23,  Site #22 has a very nice covered picnic table and is large enough to accommodate a large RV or trailer. This  lower loop only has pit toilet but the upper loop has flush toilets and  very clean showers.  We did appreciate that they sold firewood at the campground for $4. This campground also has very nice walk-in campsite for cyclist and hikers.  We enjoyed both of our stays and would highly recommend the lower loop since the sites were right on the water and you had more privacy.