Soda Butte Campground

This is a FCFS campground and I was worried about securing a spot as there aren't many campgrounds in the area and it's right outside Yellowstone. I arrived on a Wednesday afternoon and there were plenty of sites available. Didn't fill up completely until Saturday night. Sites are spaced far apart and about every three sites has their own pit toilet and trash can. It is grizzly country so hard sided campers only, though the host said he hadn't seen a bear in the campground ever in the 3 seasons he'd been working there. That made me feel better after hearing the story about a bear that attacked tent campers there about 5 years ago. I didn't see it on Campendium, but there is a dirt forest road that goes up to Lulu pass about 1/2 a mile from this campground and there are boondocking spots along that road. There is an easy spot or two and a place to turn around right up the road. Lots more further up but you'll want a high clearance rig to get there. I did see some 5th wheels parked a few miles up the road but I would not have braved the rocky road with my rig. Back to this campground - it was easy to get to, the sites were level, lots of trees around but lots of sunshine for my solar panels, and the mountain air was fresh and cool. Beautiful wildflowers everywhere!

The Good: We nabbed a nice site at a busy tourist time, mid day. The campground did not fill up completely. The vault toilet was spotless, and had a rug and hand sanitizer ! Wildflowers were lovely, as was the sound of the creeks rushing water. Loved our shady and very private site with table and fire ring.
The campground is close to town- a mile. You can wing it, follow the telephone poles thru a meadow and into town ....one mile. Or bike the main hwy- which isn't too busy and has a large shoulder. They need to create a walking trail into town !
The bad: Mosquitoes ! Told if we were in the sunny sites, they weren't so bad ! But we chose shade.....

We arrived at Yellowstone too late in the day to get any campsite in the park (even in September) so we drove out the northeast entrance and got a campsite at the first available USFS campground. This campground is around 7400 feet and is set right below the Beartooth Hwy on a hill above Soda Butte Creek. There was noticeable traffic noise during the day but it was very quiet at night. There are 16 sites which were nearly all empty when we arrived at 1:30 pm but were all full by sundown. The sites are in the trees, somewhat separated but not private. There are no hookups, no cell service (Verizon) and our site had no possibility of getting satellite tv.

If the Lamar Valley is the part of the park you want to visit then Soda Butte is fairly convenient, about a 35 minute drive to the valley. However it makes for long distances to anywhere else in the park.

Price listed includes our 50% senior discount.