Middle Fork
1Heads up1 fire 34 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $20From, 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
Middle Fork Campground is located 14 miles west of Buffalo, Wyoming, adjacent to the Cloud Peak Skyway (scenic byway), near the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area. The Bighorn National Forest offers 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 Nearby Tie Hack Reservoir is a non-motorized lake offering a great location for canoeing and fishing. Anglers cast for rainbow, cutthroat, brown and brook trout. The Circle Park Trailhead is 3. Keep reading
5 miles from the campground. This beautiful trail accesses numerous alpine lakes and two 12,000' peaks within the Cloud Peak Wilderness. Many additional hiking trails are available in the area. Scenic off-road driving is available on nearby Elgin Park, Pole Creek and Crazy Woman Canyon Roads. Hiking and mountain biking are allowed on these roads as well. Mountain bikes are allowed on the trails up to the Cloud Peak Wilderness boundary.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites, each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided.
Natural Features
The campground sits on the banks of the Middle Fork of Clear Creek, within pine and aspen forests. Tie Hack Reservoir and numerous additional creeks are found nearby. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (307) 431-7446.
Nearby Attractions
South Fork Lodge is located within 10 miles and offers dining option, lodging, guided horseback riding, a fishing pond, and a small store with fishing and camping supplies. A dump station is available 18 miles away at Powder River Pass.
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.
Space is limited and allows for no more than 1-2 (8x10') tents per site.
Two non-towed vehicles allowed per site. The first vehicle is included in the basic fee; the second vehicle will be charged an extra $10.00 fee at the campground.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Site #1 is a double site that can have up to 16 people. The double site fee includes two non-towed vehicles with trailers; an extra car, including what it tows, is an additional $10.00. A 4th car (maximum) is free.
Firewood may be purchased from the campground host.
Click here for more information on the Bighorn National Forest
Check out the forest's campground description for specific information to Fish Your 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 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 80 ft
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. Natural Features…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 174th 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 · 23
What you actually pay
“the second vehicle will be charged an extra $10.00/day fee at the campground.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
“an extra car, including what it tows, is an additional $10.00/day.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
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.
“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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
9 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 9 mapped sitesAll 9 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. 9 of the 9 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| MIDD | 001 | group standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 69 ft | 202 ft | $40 |
| MIDD | 002 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | yes | 69 ft | 172 ft | $20 |
| MIDD | 003 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 149 ft | 80 ft | $20 | |
| MIDD | 004 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 152 ft | 121 ft | $20 |
| MIDD | 005 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 152 ft | 76 ft | $20 | |
| MIDD | 006 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 157 ft | 103 ft | $20 |
| MIDD | 007 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 136 ft | 80 ft | $20 | |
| MIDD | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 136 ft | 83 ft | $20 | |
| MIDD | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 140 ft | 113 ft | $20 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Hettinger Group AreaBighorn National Forest · 0.3 mi
Tie HackBighorn National Forest · 1.3 mi
South Fork (Wyoming)Bighorn National Forest · 1.5 mi
Circle Park CampgroundBighorn National Forest · 2.4 mi
Hunter CampgroundBighorn National Forest · 2.6 mi
Pole Creek CabinBighorn National Forest · 7.4 miFrom Buffalo, Wyoming, take U.S. Highway 16 west 13 miles.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Buffalo, 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
Middle Fork 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 →