Bow River Campground

We found this site last minute and loved it. The drive through Elk Mountain town was curious and cool. The dirt road to get there is quite long, but worth it. The sites were clean and the place is just beautiful with forests and a river nearby. We saw a moose walk right through camp! Loved our time here.

The drive to the campsite from I-80 is loooong and rocky. Google maps would love you to blitz down this road at 30ish mph, however you will be going max 20 (less for lots of it) unless you’ve got some good ass tires/suspension. But it is worth it! Do this drive at sunset! You’ll be rolling along at speed of cows, who will caravan alongside you. Do this drive during calf season! The cows in the road will also make the drive a little longer, but if you don’t like stupidly cute families of cows locking eyes with you while you rattle up a pine-lined road at dusk that’s sadly a you problem.

The campground is totally solid. Not super buggy, two sets of toilets (no sinks, just a hole toilet, so a little stinky, but, again...you’re camping?), and a picnic table and campfire at each site. The tap is very very rusty. The teenager standing at the tap didn’t know how to get the water to come out of the big spigot (he was just brushing his teeth! Sorry!) but eventually we figured out you just gotta keep pumping harder. The site was surprisingly full for how remote it is, but sites are farish apart and heard v little noise from others (except for the run-in with toothbrush teen at tap). It gets cold at night! So cold! It is so hot in the day and at night cold! That is a thing weather does but sometimes you forget. Blankets? Huge.

The big attraction of this site is the river! Right next to campsite, water is icy, but lots of rocks to stand on and dunk your feet, butt, or whatever. Also the drive out is in the pines version of drive in. Little known fact is that this is actually one of the top spots to learn to drive stick shift while an elk keeps pace with you in all of southern Wyoming. If you’re not learning to drive stick shift in your hot boyfriend’s truck with a homemade luxury camper attached to it, mid drive across the US in the midst of a global pandemic? Then I’m sorry to say but I just can’t relate to you!