It’s summertime, and you’ve decided you want to travel to Yellowstone National Park for a last-minute camping trip. The problem is that it’s high season and everyone says it’s impossible to get a reservation. Here are some options to try, whether you’re RV or tent camping.
We took this trip during the second week of August, showing up with our 13-foot travel trailer and no reservations. We were nervous we wouldn’t find anything, but here’s what surprised us: we managed to book an RV site at Bridge Bay Campground only the day before we arrived! Here’s what we learned and experienced about last-minute camping options in and around Yellowstone.
Booking Yellowstone campgrounds on Recreation.gov
Check the campgrounds run by recreation.gov. These are the hardest campgrounds to book in Yellowstone, so finding a spot last-minute is a long shot. They are smaller and more secluded, and they generally fill up six months in advance when recreation.gov opens booking. Search for all campgrounds in Yellowstone to see if there are any dates that work with your schedule.
Set up an availability alert for booking cancellations
Use recreation.gov to set up availability alerts in case of booking cancellations. Go to a campground page, enter your preferred dates, and click on the bell icon. You can have up to three alerts set for different campgrounds or dates at one time. I usually select flexible dates to minimize the number of alerts I need. You’ll need to have an account to do this.
Keep your phone close and be ready to book immediately if you receive a notification. There are likely hundreds of other would-be campers looking to book the same campground. Once you put a campsite in your cart, it will be held for 15 minutes while you complete the reservation. You can use that time to quickly confirm that those dates will work with your schedule.
Checking Yellowstone Lodges for last-minute campsites
Check Yellowstone National Park Lodges for availability. Xanterra Parks and Resorts runs four tent and RV campgrounds inside Yellowstone, as well as one RV park. If you enter your dates, you’ll see an availability list for the whole month across all of their campgrounds and lodges.
The campgrounds are large, with Bridge Bay and Grant Village both having over 400 sites. Keep in mind that you don’t get to choose your site, and depending on what you end up with, it may not be the woodsy and secluded experience you’re hoping for. Think of your campsite more as a base for exploring Yellowstone than a getaway in and of itself, and you won’t be disappointed.
Tips for last-minute Yellowstone trips
Be flexible with your dates if possible, and try to avoid arriving on a Friday or Saturday. Not only will this help you avoid the busiest crowds, but you’ll also have a better shot at booking a site on a weekday or even a Sunday.
Prepare for no cell signal inside Yellowstone
Camp outside the park
Campgrounds outside Yellowstone National Park
Outside of West Yellowstone, Hebgen Lake has four campgrounds within 17 miles of the west entrance. Staying there gives you close access to the lively tourist town of West Yellowstone, where you can enjoy a variety of restaurants and shops. Gas prices are also well below what you’ll find inside Yellowstone.
You can reserve Lonesomehurst and Rainbow Point campgrounds on recreation.gov up to three days in advance. After that point, open sites become first-come, first-served. Cherry Creek and Spring Creek are both first-come, first-served all season long from May to September.
Cherry Creek Campground experience
We stayed at Cherry Creek Campground for two nights, which is a small, basic campground for $23 a night. There’s one clean pit toilet, shared bear boxes, and a beautiful setting on the lake. This is a dry campground, so make sure to bring plenty of water. There’s enough cell service around the lake that we could work, which is not the case inside Yellowstone.
The dirt road on the drive in is long and bumpy, which wasn’t an issue with our 13ft trailer. We recommend that large RVs scout the road ahead or try Lonesomehurt Campground instead.
We arrived in the early afternoon in August and found there were a few sites to choose from. Each evening when we returned from exploring Yellowstone, the campground was full. Most campers we saw arrived in the evening and were gone by morning, leaving their site available again. In July, Yellowstone’s busiest month, you’ll want to arrive much earlier in the day to snag a campsite.
Boondocking near West Yellowstone
There’s free boondock camping along Island Park, Idaho, which is about 30 minutes from West Yellowstone down Highway 20. There are no services or bathrooms, so it’s best for self-contained RV campers. Remember to stock up on water before you arrive. You can always use one of the dump stations inside Yellowstone if needed. We didn’t stop, but drove by and noticed that we had cell service in the area, which is a huge plus for us!
Last resort option: Camping in Grand Teton and traveling to Yellowstone
Grand Teton National Park is definitely worth visiting if you have time to add 2-3 days to your Yellowstone itinerary. Even if not, you may have a better shot at finding a spot to camp in Bridger-Teton National Forest. It’s close to a two hour drive to sites like Old Faithful, but worth considering if you’re arriving from the south and can’t find a campsite in Yellowstone. We used the Toppings Lake dispersed camping area as our base for exploring Grand Teton. You can read about that here in our Grand Teton boondocking post.
Conclusion
A last-minute trip to a national park as popular as Yellowstone is best for adventurous travelers with flexible schedules. If you’re planning to visit in July, Yellowstone’s busiest month, expect a tougher time than what we found in the second week of August. Think of the unknown as part of the adventure, and see what serendipity has in store!
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