Porcupine Campground (WY)
1Heads up1 fire 32 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $18.50From, per site
- Sites
- 15All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Porcupine Campground is located along the Medicine Wheel Passage Scenic Byway (U.S. Highway 14A), 33 miles east of Lovell, Wyoming. The Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark is nearby. Visitors enjoy the area for its scenic natural beauty, recreational opportunities and excellent habitat for a variety of wildlife species. Fishing is popular on nearby streams and lakes. The administering organization is Gallatin Canyon Campgrounds; e-mail: gccampgrounds13@gmail. Keep reading
com Recreation From the area's historic mining sites to the ancient Native American Medicine Wheel, to hiking through open meadows and along the cliffs on the west rim of the mountains, the Bighorn National Forest offers many recreational opportunities. Jaws Trailhead is near the campground, offering access to Bucking Mule Falls Trail and Porcupine Creek. Scenic off-road driving is available on Hunt Mountain Road or Burgess Overlook jeep trail.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites, each with a picnic table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water from a hand pump and trash collection are provided. The nearest dump station is 25 miles east at Burgess Junction.
Natural Features
Nearby Bald Mountain is part of the Bighorn Range in northern Wyoming. A forest of pine and aspen covers the campground at an elevation of 8,900 feet. Temperatures can drop significantly once the sun goes down. Summer daytime temperatures range from 60s-90s with nighttime temperatures down to the 50s. June is sometimes rainy while the rest of the summer offers fair, clear, sunny days. Thunderstorms and snowstorms can arise at any time. Autumn temperatures are cool with frosts by mid-September.
Nearby Attractions
The Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark is four miles from the campground. This unique geoglyph signifies all creation, all races of people, birds, fish, animals, trees and stones. According to tribal beliefs, the circular shape of the wheel represents the earth, sun, moon, cycles of life, seasons and day to night. High Country Lodge is nearby, offering guided horseback riding and backcountry pack trips, off-road vehicle rentals and guided fishing trips. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (307) 431-7446.
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 first-come, first-serve sites.)
Site 1 is a campground host site and not available to campers.
Sites 8 and 9 are for tents only and will not accommodate campers or RVs.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
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.
Firewood may be purchased from the camp 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
- 15 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 100 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water from a hand pump and trash…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible 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, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Birding
- Climbing
- Cultural Activities
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Horse Camping
- Horseback riding
- Hotel/Lodge/Resort Privately Owned
- Mountain biking
- Mountain Climbing
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Scenic drives
- Night sky · 91st 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 first vehicle is included in the basic fee, an additional $10/day fee will be collected at the campground for the second vehicle.” · 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
16 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 16 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. 15 of the 16 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.
| MANAGEMENT | 01 Host | host pad | 50 ft | 943 ft | $18.50 | |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 02 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 80 ft | 821 ft | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 03 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 80 ft | 833 ft | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 04 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 101 ft | 689 ft | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 05 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 101 ft | 616 ft | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 06 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 151 ft | 648 ftPorcupine Creek | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 07 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 151 ft | 574 ftPorcupine Creek | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 08 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 358 ftPorcupine Creek | $18.50 | |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 09 | tent only nonelectric | 44 ft | 397 ftPorcupine Creek | $18.50 | |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 10 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 101 ft | 461 ftPorcupine Creek | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 11 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 33 ft | 381 ftPorcupine Creek | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 12 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 33 ft | 388 ftPorcupine Creek | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 13 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 152 ft | 572 ftPorcupine Creek | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 14 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 139 ft | 721 ftPorcupine Creek | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 15 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 119 ft | 857 ftPorcupine Creek | $18.50 |
| PORCUPINE CAMPGROUND | 16 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 119 ft | 844 ftPorcupine Creek | $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
Bald Mountain CampgroundBighorn National Forest · 1.8 mi
Five Springs Falls CampgroundCody Field Office · 5.8 miFive Springs Falls Upper CampgroundCody Field Office · 6.5 miCottonwood Creek CampgroundCody Field Office · 11 mi
North TongueBighorn National Forest · 16 mi
Pine Island Group AreaBighorn National Forest · 19 miFrom Lovell, Wyoming, take U.S. Highway 14A (not U.S. Highway 14) 33 miles east, then 1.6 miles north on Forest Road 13. The highway has a 10% grade. From Dayton, Wyoming, take U.S. Highway 14/14A west 73 miles via Burgess Junction. This is the recommended route for RVs and motorhomes.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Shell, 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
Porcupine Campground (WY) 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 →