Shadow Mountain Designated Dispersed Campsite #2

According to people who have been coming here for 5+ years, this site has changed considerably.
There are now only 2 designated camp sites and only 1 is trailer friendly.
A forest ranger comes by to make sure no one is camping outside of the spots and will monitor how many days you’ve been here and the # of vehicles.
Luckily I made friends with the campers who were already in one of the sites and they happily shared it with me.

Amazing views though and very bumpy road getting here. Been on much worse roads though in terms of potholes. I have a 16’ travel trailer and it was completely fine.

While I camped further down shadow mountain, I took the opportunity to hike up to this site (there are several in the vicinity) and here’s my findings:
* Views are awesome…straight on to Grand Teton Mountains.
* Sites are very well spread apart
* Road in is gravel with plenty of “potholes”…let’s say it’s ROUGH to very Rough.
* Entire area appears well maintained and well managed. Good signage and Forest service does it’s “patrols” to enforce their rules.
* 5 day limit on boondocking
*

Guys the signs do not lie: if yiu have a large RV or a 35’ trailer do not attempt to make it up and back down the mountain road—just stay at the base camp. There are numerous sites at the top that are great for camper vans/truck campers and tents. Some great views of Grand Teton, but the bugs and crowds will join you in high summer. FYI You might have cell coverage but the sites get so overloaded in summer you may find your cell useless during peak hours.

Go at your own risk in the busy months!

Went on a Tuesday and got there about midday. All campsites when you get to the initial spotwere full. I think there were only 8 spots. Road up to more campsites is extremely rough and annoying to drive in a camper. Only made it to the 3rd camp spot up before deciding to turn around. There was one that we came across but it was on a hill and extremely dusty. Like fine powder dust that Poof's up when you step on it. I saw a another travel trailer further down that road with no idea how they got there because the ruts down were so bad and the dirt is so fine.

Definitely only recommend going if your in a rugged vehicle. Or if it's not a busy month. Also not all sites will have a view of the mountains.

We arrived looking for a campsite at 2pm on a Tuesday. The road is as bad as everyone says it is but you should be fine with 4x4. Nearly all sites were full (people having left tents to claim their spot), but we did manage to snag one near the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, it was facing East and therefore didn’t have the views of Grand Teton like the west facing sites. It was still an amazing view - one we would have appreciated much more if we didn’t know what was just a few feet behind us! The sites are designated, and we were woken at 11pm to someone pulling their car into our campsite and pitching tent for the night. The spot was large enough that we weren’t bothered, but still a bit odd. They were gone by the time we woke up. The bugs were brutal, both large biting flies and mosquitos. We ended up spending more time behind our netting than would have liked. Overall, all the negatives would have been entirely moot if we had gotten the west facing view.

Some of the best views of the mountain range from where I camped. Like a previous review said, “no pain, no gain.” The road is rough and washed out and if you want a good spot, you’ll have to drive up a few miles. It was a unforgettable experience seeing the mountain range from my spot. You’d be hard pressed to find a better view than this!

The camping sites are in the middle of the mountain that you need to overcome a lot of potholes on the washed road. I drove very slowly, 5 mph because worried my SUV and my travel trailer would be damaged.

If your tow vehicle or travel trailer is old, I don’t recommend this place because the wheel parts will suffer a lot from the rough road. Also, you will need to wash your car and trailer thoroughly after the camping due to the dust under the car body. Your car will be messy after you climbed up the mountain.

The positive sides are the great view of the Grand Teton. Indeed, it is similar to the Alps. At night, a group of 4 deer visited my site. I had eye contact with one of them, but they continued grazing. It was a healing moment when I was warching them. Overall I enjoyed the boondocking very much.

Road going up the hill was not too bad for our RV. Roads below had some muddy spots, and were rough.

Found space 8 to be relatively flat. Had a beautiful red fox run through our site early the next morning.

Picked nearby TV stations.

Only negative I can think of is guy zooming down the rocky road like a bat out of hell past our site after it was dark.