Yellowstone National Park guide · 1 min read
12 Campgrounds, 2,000+ Sites and Park Lodges
Yellowstone has eleven campgrounds holding more than 2,000 established campsites. Six are run by the National Park Service with over 450 sites between them, and five are run by a concessioner with more than 1,700 sites.
The park also has nine lodges and hotels offering more than 2,000 rooms and cabins, including Old Faithful Snow Lodge.
Plan on booking ahead. Every campsite must be reserved in advance. The one exception is Mammoth Campground, which offers first-come, first-served sites for part of the year. Booking windows roll forward day by day, opening six months ahead of each night, as long as space remains. Most sites are taken long before arrival, and lodge rooms and cabins also go early.
Fishing Bridge RV Park and Canyon Campground both take reservations through Yellowstone National Park Lodges. Fishing Bridge sits near Yellowstone Lake and the Yellowstone River and allows hard-sided campers only. It has laundry, showers and four comfort stations that meet accessibility standards, with a general store nearby. Canyon has an RV dump station, and Loop L holds three accessible sites where the picnic tables are longer and the fire grates sit higher off the ground.
Slough Creek Campground is the quiet option. Its 16 sites are reached by a dirt road two miles long, so tents and small RVs fit best, and it sits at 6,250 feet. Wildlife watching in this part of the park is among the best anywhere in Yellowstone, the Slough Creek Trail starts nearby, and after dark you may hear wolves howl under a clear sky full of stars. Expect no cell signal.
For a night deeper in the wilderness, Yellowstone has 299 backcountry campsites. The park also counts 92 trailheads and roughly 1,114 miles of hiking trails.
