Colter Bay Campground

First time in this campground, had always stayed at Gros Ventre.
Will definitely return to Colter Bay..
This site was great, did have privacy with lots of mature trees.
Plenty of room, though RV is parked along the road, Did require some leveling.
Very clean restrooms, 2 dump stations, propane available at the colter bay RV park office.
Colter bay area has restaurants, clean showers ($5.00), general store with lots of groceries/supplies (some of the student employees from the Czech republic made homemade pastries - yummy)..
Firewood was rather green and hard to burn. $10/bundle.

Site K 212
Pull through Dry Camping
Prices for camping including fees and taxes: $55.50 Standard Site
$28.86 Standard Senior/Access Pass
$85.47 Electric Site
$58.83 Electric Senior/Access Pass

This review is for the Colter Bay campground without hookups. There is also the Colter Bay RV park with full hookups that is located nearby. I will include a picture with this post that shows prices at both campgrounds.

Campground reservations are made through recreation.gov They no longer have FCFS sites.
If you have the senior or access America the Beautiful Pass you do qualify for 50% off camping fees. It is with these passes that the camping becomes more affordable. Just be aware that at Grand Teton National Park campgrounds they have a water usage fee and charge sales tax.

The campground has 350 sites. Majority of the RV campsites are pull through, just parallel to the road. The loops are considered one way, but then half the loop would have their doors facing the road and not the campsite. The staff are pretty good about informing you if you need to go backwards through the loop or the correct way. Be sure to double check if you aren’t sure. While you may be close to your neighbors in front and behind you, the campsite itself still feels private. There are lots of trees. Sites are all dry camping except Loop J that offers some electric sites. Generators are only allowed in certain loops so pay extra attention to that when booking if you’ll need your generator. Quiet hours are 10:00 pm-6:00 am. In my opinion, 6:00 am seems a little early. There are trails from the end of some of the loops that take you to Jackson lake.

There are 2 dump stations within the campground. One closet to the entrance/exit (that has 2 spots to dump) and one near loop I. The station closer to I seems more level and only has one spot to dump. There is also potable water near the dumps.

Propane refill for RVs and bottles is located in Colter Bay village near the entrance to the Colter Bay RV park. The current price is $4.49/gallon.

The roads within the campground are paved. There were several larger pot holes on some of the roads. The campsites themselves are mostly dirt, with the exception of J loop that has some paved spots. In addition, the other sites in that loop seemed to be more gravel than dirt. The day we arrived it had been raining and we had a decent puddle at the front & back of the site. Each campsite had a picnic table, fire ring, and bear box. You are not supposed to leave any food, water, coolers, grills, etc outside due to the wildlife.

Site K212 was plenty long enough for our 37 foot class A and Honda CRV. It is listed as a 45 foot site. Most of the sites in this loop are advertised as 45-50 feet. The site was pretty level, as with most of the sites in loop K. There were several lower hanging small branches when pulling into the site. It appears that some of the larger branches have recently been trimmed.

There are bear proof trash cans and recycling bins located throughout the campground. Bathrooms with flush toilets are located in each loop as well. The bathrooms were dated but clean and only have cold water at the faucets. There are NO showers in this campground. There are showers and a laundromat that is located up near the general store in Colter Bay Village. Showers are $5/person or $15 for a group of 5. Washers are $4.50 per wash and $3 per dry. The washers and dryers were the larger commercial type. You can pay with credit card, Apple Pay, google pay, or quarters. The laundromat was clean and staff was pleasant.

Did have 2 bars of Verizon signal at site. The last time I was here in 2021 there was zero Verizon signal in the campground. It was ok to text, search the internet, and stream videos.

Would I camp her again, Absolutely! I enjoy coming to Grand Teton and really like this campground. It’s definitely more closed in than Gros Ventre because of all the trees. It has a more rustic feel that it seems more like actual camping to me. I definitely wouldn’t rely on solar if coming to this campground.

Stayed in nonelectric site in loop J. Lots of Loop J has electricity and water. The bathrooms had potable water and I used my generator which worked great. They let you use generators from 6am til 10 pm so perfect! Super close to the grand loop. Had a grizzly momma and her cubs come thru the park the day we got there which was a big deal. The sites are spacious though 193 J is impossible to back into with a TT. I just went the wrong way and parked in just fine. Every site has a bear box which is nice!

The National Park is beautiful, and the advantage of this campsite is location. But the RVs park along the road, so there is no privacy. They can park right up to your bumper, which was no fun with my teardrop trailer with the kitchen outside in the back. If you are tent camping, it’s probably a five star experience. The price $55 with no hook ups seems double what we usually pay. Next time, I’ll try somewhere else.

We come from the Netherlands. Campendium is very helpfull for us. So we want to help others. (Sorry if my english is not perfect)

We were at Colter Bay on 20 september 2022.

This camping is only possible with online reservation!! The days before we were in Yellowstone, without internet. We thougt: if there are sites available, it is hopefully possible to book at the reception. But no! Free sites enough, but online reservation required. Is was not easy (with terrible internet and we need to have an account etc). At the end we had our site but were surprised: FEE 45 dollar + 5 dollar reservation.

We had no electricity or other service.
Sorry, one service: dumpstation!
Wifi is 0-15 minutes walking near the supermarket, in the central of Colter Bay. Showers idem.

The sites are close together. But there is a lot of space between the loops and here is your picknicktable and firering. We saw some deers.

The only thing that was really annoying, was people who had their generator on all the time till 22.30h and again at 6.00h. If you want to have electricity (for your very bright outdoorlamp or heating...), why do you not go to another campground?
We like the peace and quiet in nature, but that was on Colter Bay very disturbed by the generators.

You can make a beautiful hike near the river. We were amazed at how empty Jackson Lake was. The harbor was dry.

We stayed in the rv section right by the bathrooms. It was a great place to stay while we explored Grand Teton National park. We had one of the larger sites (maybe) as we had plenty of room in front of and behind our 26 foot camper for our towing rig. We saw a fox run right past our site, and we had a view of trees which made it feel more private.

We were within walking distance of the beach, store, laundry/showers and visitors center. After visiting Yellowstone, this campground seemed close to everything we wanted to see.

You do have to pay for showers and laundry but we did not use these so it didn’t bother us any.

The staff were also super nice and helpful during check in to explain all rules with national parks since we had a doggy with.

If we ever make it back to this neck of the woods, we will definitely be staying here again.

Camped in the primitive section of the campground. Most of the sites had small half loop pull offs for the camper/ tow vehicle. Longer rigs might be an issue on some of these sites. Colter bay had a dump station and there is a nearby store and gas station. There were good views of the mountains after a short walk to the lake shore. Generator hours ran to 10 pm and many people were running that late.

One of the best campgrounds we've ever stayed. We had site E116.
Picnic table, fire ring, a lot of space for your to spread out. Didn't need our gazebo for shade because of trees.
It's dry camping so no services - it didn't matter for us because we have solar and we had plenty of sun getting to the trailer.
Bathrooms have flush toilet (no showers) - super clean.
Bear boxes available - they are strict on not leaving things around for the animals so please be respectful.
There was a little trail to get to the beach where we had a great time.
We walked around the RV Park where they have full hookup and it's a car park, people were literally parked on top of each other with no privacy. I would not swap our dry camping spot for a space at the rv resort.
I am definitely coming back!
Limited Tmobile signal, Verizon worked better. Wifi available from main buildings like restaurant.