Ranger Creek Recreation Area
1Heads up1 fire 20 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $18.50From, per site
- Sites
- 12All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ranger Creek Group Campground is located just off the Bighorn Scenic Byway (U.S. Highway 14) at an elevation of 7,500 feet. 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 Scenic off-road driving is available on Battle Creek Road to Medicine Lodge Lake, Ranger Creek Road to Shell Reservoir, Hunt Mountain Road and the Burgess Overlook Jeep trail. Keep reading
Diverse hiking opportunities vary from loop trails to treks along creeks and over mountain peaks including access to the Cloud Peak Wilderness. The Adelaide Trail, for hiking and horseback riding is nearby, providing access to Shell Creek and the Shell Creek Trail. Many creeks, lakes and ponds dot the region, offering some of the best trout fly-fishing in the state.
Facilities
The campground offers one large group site that can accommodate up to 150 people for overnight camping or day-use picnicking. A shelter covers several picnic and serving tables, and a campfire ring and grill are on-site. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. The nearest dump station is 20 miles away at Burgess Junction.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the banks of Ranger Creek in the Bighorn Mountains, where craggy granite peaks rise over 13,000 feet above sea level. The area is forested with a mix of pine and aspen trees. An abundance of wildlife lives in the area. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (307) 431-7446.
Nearby Attractions
The Shell Falls Visitor Center, at the overlook of Shell Falls, is about 8 miles west. Burgess Junction Visitor Center is 20 miles north. Both centers offer interpretive trails, scenic views and educational displays about natural features like flora and fauna, and area history. Elk View Inn and other nearby lodges provide guided horseback riding and fishing adventures, off-road vehicle rentals and fishing supplies, as well as dining options, showers and general stores. The Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite, near the town of Shell, is the largest of its kind in the state and one of only a few in the world from the Middle Jurassic Period. The tracks found here are approximately 167 million years old.
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
Campsites 9, 10 & 11 are included in the group area for group use Group area is also available for day use for the same rate as overnight use
The administering organization reserves the right to substitute sites without prior notice. Two non-towed vehicles allowed per site. The first is included in the basic fee; the second will be charged an extra $10.00, collected at the campground.
Firewood may be purchased from the campground host.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
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
- 12 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 75 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…ring and grill are on-site. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are on-site. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. The nearest dump…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 85th 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 · 18
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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 4 mapped sitesAll 12 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 4 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. 11 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.
| East | 001 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | $18.50 | ||||
| East | 002 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | $18.50 | ||||
| East | 003 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | $18.50 | ||||
| East | 004 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | $18.50 | ||||
| East | 005 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $18.50 | ||||
| West | 006 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 67 ft | 161 ft | 413 ft | $18.50 | |
| West | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 67 ft | 140 ft | 346 ft | $18.50 | |
| West | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 343 ft | 36 ftRanger Creek | 119 ft | $18.50 | |
| West | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $18.50 | ||||
| West | 010 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | $18.50 | |||
| West | 011 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | $18.50 | |||
| West | GRP1 | group standard area nonelectric | 35 ft | 215 ft | 33 ftRanger Creek | 388 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Shell CreekBighorn National Forest · 0.8 mi
Dead SwedeBighorn National Forest · 10 mi
Owen CreekBighorn National Forest · 11 mi
Medicine Lodge Lake CampgroundBighorn National Forest · 11 mi
Tie FlumeBighorn National Forest · 12 mi
Ranger Creek CampgroundBighorn National Forest · 14 miLocated 34 miles east of Greybull, Wyoming on U.S. Highway 14. Turn off onto Paintrock Lake Road (Forest Road 17). Ranger Creek Campground is 3.5 miles from the turnoff, 2 miles beyond Shell Creek Campground.
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
Ranger Creek Recreation Area 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 →