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Yellowstone National Park Camping

6 reviews
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Campgrounds

Campgrounds in Yellowstone National Park

Backcountry Permits

Yellowstone National Park

Indian Creek Campground Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park

Lewis Lake Campground

Yellowstone National Park

Mammoth Campground Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park

Pebble Creek Campground

Yellowstone National Park

Slough Creek Campground

Yellowstone National Park

Overview

A brief introduction to Yellowstone National Park

On March 1, 1872, Yellowstone became the first national park for all to enjoy the unique hydrothermal wonders. Today, millions of people come here each year to camp, hike, and enjoy the majesty of the park.

Yellowstone National Park is a national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially the Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular. While it represents many types of biomes, the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.
While Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years, aside from visits by mountain men during the early-to-mid-19th century, organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s. Management and control of the park originally fell under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the first Secretary of the Interior to supervise the park being Columbus Delano. However, the U.S. Army was eventually commissioned to oversee the management of Yellowstone for 30 years between 1886 and 1916. In 1917, the administration of the park was transferred to the National Park Service, which had been created the previous year. Hundreds of structures have been built and are protected for their architectural and historical significance, and researchers have examined more than a thousand indigenous archaeological sites.
Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 sq mi (8,983 km2), with lakes, canyons, rivers, and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super volcano on the continent. The caldera is considered a dormant volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Well over half of the world's geysers and hydrothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone. In 1978, Yellowstone was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the contiguous United States. Grizzly bears, cougars, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in this park. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. Forest fires occur in the park each year; in the large forest fires of 1988, nearly one-third of the park was burnt. Yellowstone has numerous recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing, and sightseeing. Paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as well as some of the lakes and waterfalls. During the winter, visitors often access the park by way of guided tours that use either snow coaches or snowmobiles.

Read more about Yellowstone National Park at Wikipedia

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Other nearby parks

Open to camping at other nearby parks? Here are a few other parks you'll find in the vicinity.

Reviews

Camper reviews for Yellowstone National Park

Private sites with tall trees

Sites all have tall trees offering privacy and good tarp placing options. Needles from trees made for a super soft spot to place the tent. Restroom had 10 toilet paper rolls at any given time, smelled good, and was maintained. Staff regularly circling either to answer questions or keep things tidy. Bear safely and food safety top notch. Recycling and waste all available at park entrance. Close to mammoth falls, cell service about 5 min North on the way the Mammoth.

Christine Penn
Christine Penn reviewed Yellowstone National Park
on September 13th, 2023

Super rare site in Yellowstone

SloughCreek is remote. Your neighbors are far away. It is located in the heart of wolf country yet we did not see any wolves. This campsite is very hard to book. If you are lucky, make sure to nab it when you can. You won’t be disappointed..

Surprisingly, these were the nicest vaulted bathrooms I have ever been in.

Christine Villegas
Christine Villegas reviewed Yellowstone National Park
on September 6th, 2023

Spacious Sites

Like the title states, very spacious sites with lots of room for a large tent if you have one, large picnic table and fire pit space. We broke our Yellowstone section into two parts, South and North. This site was perfect for our Northern activities, close to Mammoth and not super far to do a day trip out to Lamar Valley. Also, not as many bugs as we had experienced at our other site in Yellowstone.

Kiana Paterson
Kiana Paterson reviewed Yellowstone National Park
on August 31st, 2023

Good for location, bad for bugs

We were travelling north from Teton and so Lewis Lake was the perfect spot to make camp (only about one hour away from Teton north entrance) and close-ish proximity to big features like Old Faithful and West Thumb. However, being near water means there were a lot of mosquitoes in the area (Early July). It was the most we experienced our entire trip and sort of put us off the location. The sites also weren't very private, with little to no tree cover. But, it was affordable and close to features, which is really why we came to Yellowstone and chose Lewis Lake in the first place!

Kiana Paterson
Kiana Paterson reviewed Yellowstone National Park
on August 31st, 2023

Beautiful tucked away campground

beautiful campground - many of the sites are right along slough creek. I love this area of the park because there is so much wildlife.

many of the sites don’t have a ton of privacy which is the only downside

Ty Roney
Ty Roney reviewed Yellowstone National Park
on August 29th, 2023

So helpful so many options

We were able to secure a last minute spot here in Yellowstone even after seeing it was booked for the next 6 months. Not only given one option, but several in different campgrounds. Couldn’t recommend this enough!

Roy Hinman
Roy Hinman reviewed Yellowstone National Park
on May 29th, 2023

Map

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