Clearwater Campground
1Heads up1 fire 29 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $15–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 12All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Clearwater Campground is located along the Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway, about 32 miles west of Cody, in northwestern Wyoming. It is 20 miles east of the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The surrounding area offers many outdoor recreational opportunities, including fishing, hiking and viewing local wildlife. Keep reading
Recreation
Great opportunities for hiking, fishing, scenic driving and wildlife viewing are available around the campground. The North Fork of the Shoshone River is a popular fly-fishing location for rainbow and Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
Facilities
The campground offers one group camping area, which provides private parking, three large picnic tables, two food storage lockers and campfire circle. Additionally, 11 single-family campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each campsite is equipped with a picnic table, campfire ring and food storage locker. Vault toilets and trash collection are provided, but drinking water is not available. Campers may gather firewood from the area.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the banks of the North Fork of the Shoshone River and has beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. Douglas fir and large juniper trees cover the campground, which sits at an elevation of 6,000 feet. A wide variety of wildlife lives in the area. Visitors often glimpse grizzly bears, deer, elk, bison, moose, fox, coyotes and bald eagles.
Nearby Attractions
Pahaska Tepee, west of the campground, is home to Buffalo Bill's original hunting lodge, built in 1904. Tours are offered daily between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Pahaska also offers guided horseback rides, a gift shop, restaurant and lodging. Yellowstone National Park's east entrance is 25 miles from the campground via the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway. The park offers unparalleled wildlife viewing opportunities, as well as breathtaking scenery and unique geological features. The small, historic city of Cody offers a variety of dining, lodging and shopping options. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center offers extensive displays of Greater Yellowstone natural history, Plains Indians artifacts, western art, firearms, Buffalo Bill memorabilia and a wild sheep exhibit.
What the agency tells you
Grizzly bears frequent the area; all food, beverages, coolers, trash and other attractants must be properly stored at all times
Utility hookups are not available
Be sure to bring plenty of drinking water and to empty black water tanks prior to arrival; there is no water or dump station available at the campground.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Pack and saddle stock animals are not permitted within the campground
Recreational use of off-road vehicles is prohibited within developed campgrounds; to operate on Forest Service roads, all off-road vehicles must have proper state registration or a Wyoming ORV sticker on display
An additional fee will be collected at the campground for extra vehicles
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing organisms by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org .
Click here for more information on the Shoshone National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 12 · 11 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…campfire ring and food storage locker. Vault toilets and trash collection are provided, but drinking…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and trash collection are provided, but drinking water is not available. Campers may gather firewood from the area. Natural…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 12th darkest of 248 in WY
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$30 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 12 mapped sitesAll 12 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 12 of the 12 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 12 of the 12 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| East -Reservable Group Area | Group Area Site | group standard nonelectric | 224 ft | 355 ft | 23 ft | $90 | |
| East Area | 09 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 25 ft | 194 ft | 231 ft | $15–$30 |
| East Area | 10 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 25 ft | 212 ft | 222 ft | $15–$30 |
| East Area | 11 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 26 ft | 237 ft | 202 ft | $15–$30 |
| West Area | 01 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 49 ft | 193 ft | 192 ft | $15–$30 |
| West Area | 02 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 49 ft | 166 ft | 159 ft | $15–$30 |
| West Area | 03 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 58 ft | 167 ft | 107 ft | $15–$30 |
| West Area | 04 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 70 ft | 148 ft | 73 ft | $15–$30 |
| West Area | 05 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 106 ft | 120 ft | $15–$30 |
| West Area | 06 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 127 ft | 120 ft | $15–$30 |
| West Area | 07 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 63 ft | 119 ft | 156 ft | $15–$30 |
| West Area | 08 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 65 ft | 153 ft | 211 ft | $15–$30 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Wapiti CampgroundShoshone National Forest · 2.2 mi
Rex HaleShoshone National Forest · 2.9 mi
Big Game CampgroundShoshone National Forest · 3.1 miNewton Creek CampgroundShoshone National Forest · 4.6 miEagle Creek CampgroundShoshone National Forest · 11 mi
Threemile CampgroundShoshone National Forest · 14 miFrom Cody, Wyo., follow Sheridan Avenue west through Cody until the road leaves town, and becomes the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway (U.S. Highway 14/16/20). The campground is 32 miles west of Cody, on the south side of the highway and next to the river.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cody, WY
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 57°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 17°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
Clearwater Campground is in Wyoming’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Harriet Hageman (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →