Buffalo Gap Campground (ND)
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 36All of them booked ahead
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Buffalo Gap campground, located in the heart of western North Dakota. Keep reading
Recreation
There is a trail near by that is called the Buffalo Gap Trail, perfect for a day hike. You can also it to the Maah Daah Hey trail using the Buffalo Gap Trail for longer hikes.
Facilities
There are two flush toilet building and a building with 3 showers.
Natural Features
Here you are surrounded by colorful buttes. During your stay you may have Prong horns, Mule deer and White tail deer come through your site. This area is good for birders and plant enthusiast during the sping and summer months. Perfect for all year outdoor adventures.
Nearby Attractions
It a short drive to the small town of Medora and enterance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
What the agency tells you
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 36
- Hookups
- None
- Paved pads
- 5 of 36
- Accessible sites
- 12
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…longer hikes. Facilities There are two flush toilet building and a building with 3 showers. Natural…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on 35 campsite record(s) that are not a cabin, of this campground's 36
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:52 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:52 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
36 sites
All 36 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 36 of the 36 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Hidatsa | 18 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 19 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 20 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 21 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 22 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 23 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 24 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 25 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 26 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 27 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 28 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 29 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 30 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 31 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 32 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 33 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 34 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 35 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Hidatsa | 36 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Mandan | 1 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 10 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 11 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 12 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 13 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 14 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 15 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 16 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 17 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 2 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Mandan | 3 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Mandan | 4 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Mandan | 5 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Mandan | 6 | rv nonelectric | $20 | |
| Mandan | 7 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 8 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
| Mandan | 9 | rv nonelectric | yes | $20 |
25 of 36 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
Cottonwood Campground (ND)Theodore Roosevelt National Park · 6.7 mi
Cottonwood Group Site (ND)Theodore Roosevelt National Park · 6.8 mi
Wannagan CampgroundLittle Missouri National Grassland · 8.0 mi
Roundup Group Horse CampTheodore Roosevelt National Park · 8.7 mi
Elkhorn CampgroundLittle Missouri National Grassland · 19 mi
Magpie CampgroundLittle Missouri National Grassland · 26 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Medora, ND
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 3°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Buffalo Gap Campground (ND) is in North Dakota’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Julie Fedorchak (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →