Island Park Campground
1Heads up1 fire 38 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $18.50From, per site
- Sites
- 9All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Island Park Campground is located in pine and spruce forest on West Tensleep Creek near West Tensleep Lake and the Cloud Peak Wilderness. Located 21 miles northeast of Ten Sleep, Wyoming, and 55 east of Worland, Wyoming, on US Hwy 16 this campground is nestled in the Bighorn National Forest offering a wide variety of activities including, hiking, fishing, scenic driving and a number of historic sites. The administering organization is Rustic Freedom / Gallatin Canyon Campgrounds; e-mail: support@rusticfreedom.com Recreation Meadowlark Lake is seven miles distant and allows motorized craft with a no-wake rule. Keep reading
West Tensleep Lake is a scenic, 125-acre lake open to non-motorized craft only, making it a perfect location for canoeing and fishing. Anglers will find rainbow, brown and brook trout in the cool waters of the lake. Off-road vehicle trails, scenic jeep roads, hiking and horseback riding trails and many fishing streams are available in the surrounding area.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water from a hand pump and trash collection are provided. The nearest dump station is 17 miles away on Powder River Pass.
Natural Features
West Tensleep Creek is adjacent to the campground and West Tensleep Lake is four miles away, along with other lakes and creeks. Hiking trails into the Cloud Peak Wilderness start about five miles from the campground. A forest of lodgepole pine, Douglas fir and spruce trees covers the area. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (307) 431-7446.
Nearby Attractions
The High Park Lookout is located just east of Meadowlark Lake. This old fire lookout was built by the CCC decades ago and is no longer active. A short hike leads to the lookout, where hikers are awarded panoramic views of the Cloud Peak Wilderness and the surrounding area. Deer Haven Lodge and Meadowlark Lodge are nearby, offering dining, lodging, guided horseback riding and fishing and camping supplies.
Charges & Cancellations
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This cancellation processing fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
What the agency tells you
The administering organization reserves the right to substitute sites without prior notice
This campground has one first-come, first-serve site
Limited space allows for no more than two (8' x 10') tents per site
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Groups larger than 20 people must camp elsewhere: Willow Park, Hettinger, Ranger Creek Recreation Area or Pine Island offer group camping
Two non-towed vehicles allowed per site. The first vehicle is included in the basic fee; the second vehicle will be charged an extra $9.00 fee at the campground
Firewood may be purchased from the host
Click here for more information on the Bighorn National Forest
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.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 9
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 75 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water from a hand pump and trash…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water from a hand pump and trash collection are provided.…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Climbing
- Fire Lookouts/Cabins Overnight
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Mountain biking
- Mountain Climbing
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Scenic drives
- Night sky · 57th 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 · 15
What you actually pay
“the second vehicle will be charged an extra $9.00/day fee at the campground.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $18.50 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.
“Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
10 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 9 mapped sitesAll 10 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 9 of the 10 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.
| ISLAND PARK CAMPGROUND | 01 Host | host pad | 30 ft | 331 ft | $18.50 | |
| ISLAND PARK CAMPGROUND | 02 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 110 ft | 258 ft | $18.50 |
| ISLAND PARK CAMPGROUND | 03 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 46 ft | 216 ft | $18.50 |
| ISLAND PARK CAMPGROUND | 04 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 46 ft | 180 ft | $18.50 |
| ISLAND PARK CAMPGROUND | 05 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 88 ft | 172 ft | $18.50 |
| ISLAND PARK CAMPGROUND | 06 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 88 ft | 85 ft | $18.50 |
| ISLAND PARK CAMPGROUND | 07 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 145 ft | 82 ft | $18.50 |
| ISLAND PARK CAMPGROUND | 08 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 85 ft | 74 ft | $18.50 |
| ISLAND PARK CAMPGROUND | 09 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 85 ft | 160 ft | $18.50 |
| ISLAND PARK CAMPGROUND | 10 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 117 ft | 214 ft | $18.50 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Willow ParkBighorn National Forest · 1.5 mi
Sitting BullBighorn National Forest · 2.1 mi
Lakeview BighornBighorn National Forest · 2.2 mi
Lake View CampgroundBighorn National Forest · 2.2 mi
Deer Park CampgroundBighorn National Forest · 2.8 mi
Boulder Park CampgroundBighorn National Forest · 3.0 miDrive 21 miles northeast of Ten Sleep, Wyoming, on US Highway 16; then go 3 miles north on FSR 27. From Buffalo, Wyoming, travel west 42 miles on US Hwy 16 to FSR 27 (at Deer Haven Lodge), turn right onto FSR 27 and go 3 miles north to campground.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ten Sleep, WY
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
Island Park 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 →