Upper Teton View - Toppings Lake Dispersed Campsites #8 - 16

You stay here for the view and it doesn't disappoint. It's amazing. It's basically right in the park. By the time you get down to the paved road, you're in the park.

Crowded! There are supposed to be 9 sites here. Every night we were there we counted over 20 setups. Some class A's, B's, C's, travel trailers, fifth wheels, tents, and people just sleeping in their cars. It's a little annoying at first, but we made some friends.

That road is really rough! We went less than 5 mph with our fifth wheel because we didn't want all of our food and things thrown all over the place. You can do it, but it's rough. And if someone is coming from the other direction, one of you will probably have to back up.

Barely eked out enough Verizon signal with an external antenna to work. With AT&T we could get and send MMS texts every once in a while.

We stayed in a 40ft MCI bus conversion, the day we arrived was rainy. I was initially worried about us making it up the hill with all the rain. I scouted the trail up and it wasn’t without challenges, but seeing the 5th wheels up here gave me confidence. Take it slow, don’t stop, pick a good line and you’ll be fine.

We arrived Sunday afternoon and there were plenty of sites.

It’s late June and cold and rainy, even with all that this has been our favorite camping spot in the last 10 days. When the sun peeks out and you see the Tetons it's amazing.

If you got a big rig, you can do this.

Map sent us to Triangle X Ranch road but that is not the correct one. Take Forest Road 30310 a little farther north opposite to the Cunningham Cabin Historic Site. We took our 43' fifth wheel to the upper Teton area. Road is rough but was not difficult for our large rig. Just take it slow. We did drive farther down the road and there are additional camp spots but the road gets rougher the farther you go.

The entire site is now limited to 5 days. I spoke with the camp hosts and they usually enforce the 5 days for people that are in the front view spots but will let it slide for other campers if you keep your site clean. We noticed that many people arrived around 6pm each day and many could not find an open spot because it was so busy. If you want a spot come early in the week and early in the morning.

We were able to get T-Mobile and AT&T service. AT&T was best with 14Mpbs download. We also made a trip into town to find propane and discovered that the only place available is Teton Equipment Rental in Jackson. The owner said he gets 40 calls a day from people looking for propane and he is the only one around that has it. Price was $3.27. None of the gas stations have propane fill. He also can't fill RV's. He can only do tanks because there is no room for an RV to park next to the propane to fill. So make sure you fill up before coming to this area.

The most important thing with this camping area is that if you don't see a site you like, keep driving! When you turn onto the campground road off the highway, the next 5 miles are campsites (where marked of course). You can keep going down the road, exploring until you find the perfect site for your needs. There are pull in sites for campers of all sizes, and walk in sites (park car then walk short distance) for tents. I found a gorgeous grassy hill that was walk in around mile 1.8 or 2.8 (i forget which sorry). The ranger (who does rounds in the evening just to say hi and make sure you're following bear protocol) said it was his favorite spot.

This site is everything everyone has said about it. It is a busy communal boondocking site with a pilot program for volunteer camp hosts, who camp at the lower Teton View site. The hosts seem to help keep this from turning into the cesspool that has become of some of Colorado's premiere boondocking spots from transient campers who leave sites trashed.

I was there at the end of September and it was fairly busy. I am sure it is worse in the summer.

What I love:

The view
Easy access (very easy for a 15' trailer)
Free!

What could be better:
Fewer people.

The approach to the upper sites is quite bumpy and narrow-- we were worried about what would happen if we ran into someone else towing a trailer in the opposite direction, but fortunately that didn't happen. It's worth it however-- great site. This is a popular spot, so don't come here for solitude (although there are smaller sites further up the hill that looked great for 1 or 2 rigs, and some really just for tent camping). We enjoyed meeting our neighbors however.

Our Verizon 8800L hotspot worked OK on its own-- fast download speeds but very slow upload speeds. Turning our booster on however produced very fast upload and download speeds.

This spot has a little bit of everything. If you want private with a view, check. If you want in the woods all alone, check. If you want the view of a
Lifetime shared with strangers over a campfire and meals, check. We opted for the ladder and had a fantastic time with people from all over. Great location for exploring the park and 38 minutes from Jackson. There are no services, but you can use the dumpsters at some of the trailheads in the park. I asked a ranger where I could fill up my water can and he directed me to Dornan’s Restaurant in Moose. .
The NFS ranger who serves as host came up to say hello and said the Bridger -Teton is thinking of making this a pay site with services and designated sites.if you want to add your opinion, he said to email the office. I plan to do so. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day the stay limit is 5 days but after is 16. Such an amazing place and my family and I can’t wait to come back!

We totally loved this place! After reading reviews here we didn't feel like going to the upper part of the campground, but we arrived late Friday night and the lower campground seemed quite full. We saw the road leading to the upper campground and we were like - "We've already seen worse roads, so let's give it a try!" and it was totally worth it. The road to the upper campground is narrow, sharp stones, some ruts, but totally doable with 32' tt if you take it slow. We arrived to the upper campground and the best sites were already taken. We still were able to squeeze in one spot by the entrance. We were hoping for someone to leave on Sunday so we can move our camper to the very edge of the hill to get the best view and YES! we were lucky! We sooo enjoyed our stay there with the best view ever. :) There are no real sites, so everybody parks their rigs how they like or where they fit. There are some fire rings here and there. AT&T data service was quite bad. Btw. we left this place with 5 mice in our camper! So check your camper after leaving. :) We would definitely come back. :)