Colter Bay Campground

Covid, wildfire smoke... our September road trip was filled with unexpected experiences but staying at the Colter Bay campground was terrific. We stayed in the “no generator” part of the campground. Quiet! :)
The pull through site was level, the picnic table, fire ring, and Bear box were close by. Adjacent tent sites looked really close but, in fact, were separated by trees and shrubs. The path through the neighboring RV Park puts you at the lake where a sunrise view of the Grand Tetons starts your day off beautifully.
Clean restrooms, dump station, Bear cubs... a wonderful stay. Yes, the first come, first served restriction means you need to plan an early start but it is worth it!

Stayed 9/24/20 - 9/26/20. Got there just in time. They were going to close 9/27/20 for the season. It's first come first served. We were told ahead of time to arrive early to get a site, so we arrived at 8am and we got a site easily. There are 2 dump sites; 1 dump station for incoming and 2 dump stations for outgoing. Potable water is also available. There are a few electric sites, but most are dry camping sites. The loops are all one way with sites on both sides. And the sites are pretty narrow. Depending on the side you're on, your camper entrance will be facing the road. Ours was like that. We didn't mind that because our dining table was on the other side and faced the camp side. Each site had a picnic table and fire rings, so that was great. I did like how much room you had on the camp side between sites. We got lucky during our stay as a bear and her cubs walked through our loop area. Would stay here again.

Warm greeting from park reception, dry camping only availability, no reservations. Our site was a nice backin for our 23’ motor home. Most sites appeared to be roadside pull throughs. Generators permitted 8am-10pm. We biked and hiked to the lake for magical views of the Tetons. We were lucky to see a mama bear and her three cubs at the park entrance on our bike ride. The park staff were very careful to keep the cubs safe and to advise us on safe distancing :)
We had a wonderful time here. There is a little grocery store at the campground entrance with a little liquor store in the back. Plan to arrive at 8am or so if you want an RV site with hookups. Dry camping has more space.

Grand Teton National Park in mid-September used to not be so crowded. However, these are different times, and the tens of thousands of brand new RV owners, as well as seasoned campers are flocking to our National Parks to quarantine and recreate at the same time, but you knew that already if you have been on the road these past few months.

We arrived at the Moran Junction park entrance on the first day of what we thought might be 4 nights in the park at 1430 hours on a Tuesday. Unfortunately, all of the 1,000 + campsites in the park were either full or closed, and had been since 1100 that morning. The nice lady at the gate told us about some dispersed camping options just outside the park on Buffalo Valley Road, towards Dubois...and that's where we went the first night and found a spot along with other late arrivals.

On day 2, we broke camp early and was in line to the campground just before 0700, and we got a site. The process to get into the campground on your first day resembles a military operation. RV's and cars line-up in front of the gate shack to the campground very early in the morning, usually before daylight. The official opening is 0800, but they opened at 0730 on our first day. A nice concessionaire employee told us while we were in line, that they were expecting ~100 departures that day, and she was confident that we would get a space. The employees are friendly and accommodating to the extent possible. There are several people working the line to get in with radio communications with the gate shack that looks at vacancies and works to fit campers with what is vacant. One lady took our information, size of RV, days staying, generator or no generator and completed a form and took it to the gate shack. Another nice gentleman (Tony), comes out and get's our money and takes it to the gate shack, and comes back with our change and a map to our assigned site. I assume they will take a CC, but I didn't ask because I didn't want to push my luck.

There are 2 dump stations in the campground. There is double station for RV's that are leaving, and a single station for RV's that are arriving and need to dump before they set up camp, like we did. Both stations are on the main road to the loops and are easy to get to, albeit its fairly tight at the incoming single dump station with other RV's coming and going on the same road. Also, the wash out hoses will not serve to back flush your black water tanks as they have no coupler on the end. There is a potable water spigot at each dump station that can be used to top your water tank. Although there are dumpsters, there is nothing for recyclables.

The campground has over 300 sites. Yes, it's a small town to be sure. The bigger rigs will go in loops H through O, while many of the tenters or smaller rigs will go in loops A through G. While most people will park along the loop roads, there is plenty of real estate usually to the side where you can spread out within the lodgepole pines before you get into the other campers' spaces. Each site will have bear boxes, picnic tables, and fire rings. If you dare to be so bold as to ask for a certain type of space, I would try to get as far away from the main road as possible, inside the loops. The traffic each morning on the main road is substantial until around 1100 to noon. After that, the campground will settle down.

Colter Bay Village, including the grocery store, gift shop, visitor center, marina, and restaurant are within walking distance to the campground. There is also a gas station that sells propane just as you enter the Village.

For those arriving to a full campground, we saw many rigs parked within the village and marina, some with slide-outs and jacks down. I was told that 'officially' there is no camping in the parking lots, but...there you go.

The smoke from the Northwest and California fires found its way to Wyoming while we were there. The Tetons were hard to see and Jackson Lake was also smoky, but it was still a nice setting.

I can't say enough about the nice concessioner employees that we met. They all were very accommodating and helpful! But, for me, I think I would rather find dispersed camping outside the Park next time.

The pull thru sites are ok and ours was perfectly level. In most sites the picnic tables are a ways from your rig. Lots of folks coming and going. The showers are $5.00 EACH. The laundry was also super expensive. Around $4.50 wash normal load. All of the folks working are super! You can go around the corner to the laundry/ general store for very good WiFi.

Campground is FCFS. Dry camping, although some sites have electric. There is potable water, dump stations and bathrooms available. The sump station closer to the I loop appeared more level. Site is a pull through. Because it was on the inner loop they had us drive in the exit so I door would be facing the campground. Picnic table, fire pit, and bear box provided. Lots of trees for shade, but still able to get solar. Propane is available at the campground (price was $4.49/gallon). Store located in Colter Bay village, well stocked and prices on many items were reasonable. Verizon signal was virtually useless. WiFi available near the store.

We were staying at Gros Ventre and loving it there, but were able to get an opening at Colter Bay, so moved up there to be closer to Yellowstone for a couple of days. It is first come-first served and seems to fill up very quickly.

Our site was in the "O" loop which required you to drive through the exit of the "M" loop to get to in order for your door not to face the street. The sites are very, very narrow and a large class A with slides out came almost out over the road. On the other side were boulders marking the site on that side. One boulder was sticking out so far that it ended up damaging the bottom of our RV as we were trying to avoid hitting the extended slides on the left. Luckily, not serious, but the first damage we have experienced.

The sites are pull-through loops front to back and it was a challenge to position the RV in a way that we were not hitting tree branches and also not having our slides extend over the narrow road. The other unfortunate thing is that people pack extra cars/people/etc. into these tiny areas making it difficult to get in and out of the site. All the extra people added to a lot of extra noise, also. Some of the staff also seemed to not be happy or helpful, but it might have just been a bad weekend there.

The good was that instead of fighting the traffic from W. Yellowstone, we came in through the south and didn't sit in traffic, although it is a LONG drive. The other good was that there is a grocery store that was pretty well stocked right there.

Besides the issues with the sites and roads into the sites, Verizon was 1-2 bars and pretty useless probably due to high usage.

The great thing about this site is that it is in the park and had plenty of availability. We were there over labor day and I don't think it filled up until Saturday around 1. The spaces are along a u shaped loop and you basically parallel park along the loop on gravel or asphalt depending on the site. The electricity is ADA access only. I didn't realize that until we're got there. That would have changed my planning. The bathrooms are clean and will kept. The was no verizon reception at our site but you could text closer to the stores in the middle of the campground. Nearby Jackson lodge had great reception and a pool that colter bay guests can use. Our site was about a 20 minute walk to the lake. Generator use was 8 to 8.

We were told we wouldn't be able to get in but we go in with no problem. Each day there we noticed there were great spaces that opened up so don't count it out as an option. There is a lake, a great store, grocery store, boat rentals, a beach, and of other great stuff. The location was perfect. We spent part of our visit hiking around the Tetons and a few days in Yellowstone. Our spot had a lot of privacy-we chose not to have hookups but there are spots with hookups if you choose.

If you want to camp in the Teton NP, then this is the place to be. You can't beat the central location of Colter Bay and the view of the Tetons over Jackson Lake from here are spectacular. I arrived about 4pm on 9/13 and got the last generator spot available (no reservations). The site was incredibly uneven but I had been warned. It looked like a lot of the sites required leveling based on the way they were oriented to the road. It's dry camping with generators allowed in certain loops. I think that's pretty expensive for dry camping, but again the location is hard to beat. For close access to the Tetons, I would camp here again.