Threemile Campground

We reserved site 004 a month ahead of time, but moved to FCFS Site 12 as it was open and much nicer. We actually paid $7.50 a night with our Senior Pass. We stayed in mid September and the campground was half empty when we arrived, but every spot was taken by evening both nights we were there.

We chose Threemile with the idea of doing the east side of Yellowstone - up to Canyon. But we did not know that the road in from the East Entrance is quite long and goes up (and down) through Sylvan Pass on a steep grade. 5-7% for five miles. After doing it once with our 25’ trailer and then RT in our truck, we decided that 2 nights was enough and left a day early.

There is bear activity here so only hard sided campers allowed. Not a lot of sitting outside at twilight here! That said, site 12 was really lovely. Also - NO cell service at all for miles.

The NFS campgrounds further down the road all looked lovely, especially Wapiti campground. But camping on the east side as access to Yellowstone is probably not the best idea!

This is a very nice Forest Service campground (hard-sided camping only, no tents). There is water available (via a hand pump), but no hookups or dump station (nearest dump station is either in Cody or in the main campground in the Park). Bathrooms (vault toilets) are clean and sites are kept clean and are fairly level. The camp hosts for this season were awesome. They regularly drove through the camp tracking new arrivals, and were always available to answer questions about the area.

We were there 15 to 22 July during one this this summers heat waves (103-degrees one day). Most of the sites get a lot of direct sun, especially sites 1-4. The east loop (higher campsite numbers) has more shade than the west loop (lower campsite numbers). We actually had to run our generator to get the AC going in our travel trailer as the heat was just about unbearable for a few days. Some of the sites can be reserved in advance and there are a lot of first-come, first-served sites. There was at least one open campsite most days we were there. There are also a lot of similar campgrounds between this one and Cody, so if its full you don't have to drive much further east to find another campground to try.

Location - This is about 3 miles outside the East Yellowstone entrance. The East entrance is less popular than the West, and there are almost no services on the East side, but there is one restaurant about 1/2 mile from the campground which does a good job with burgers and sandwiches and the staff is nice, but don't expect gourmet fare. There is a very small grocery store next to the restaurant, but there is no gasoline available. You have to drive into the park to Pelican Bridge to get gas.

So bottom line, the West entrance is the preferable entrance if you can reserve a spot somewhere over that way. While the park is huge and you have to drive a long way to see things, the west side is better for most of this. The East side is fine, but expect to do a lot of driving (25 miles from Pelican Bridge to the entrance/exit). We have T-Mobile and there is NO cell coverage until you get to Cody, and there is spotty coverage near the Lodge (you might get a text out).

This was probably the best campground we stayed in on our 2 week trip out west. Site 15 is amazing and you can see the river from the end of the site driveway. It is located a few miles outside Yellowstone’s east entrance and there was never a line to get in the NP. The rate was $15/night we stayed there, but because we had the Lifetime National Parks Access Pass it was only $7.50/night! The water was turned off because of COVID-19, but they had clean pit toilets. They don’t allow tent camping because of bear activity in the area, so make sure you have a hard sided camper or car to sleep in. Dogs are welcome as long as they stay on a leash. Highly recommend this location and will definitely be back!