Shell Creek
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
- 14All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Shell Creek 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 single-family sites, most of which are accessible, each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. The nearest dump station is 19 miles away at Burgess Junction.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the banks of Shell 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 fir, aspen and cottonwood trees. An abundance of wildlife lives in the area.
Nearby Attractions
Shell Falls Visitor Center, at the overlook of Shell Falls, is about 6 miles west. This center offers interpretive trails, scenic views, and educational displays about natural features such as flora and fauna and area history. Elk View Inn and other nearby lodges offer fishing adventures and 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. 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
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 bundles 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
- 14 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 75 ft
- Accessible sites
- 10
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. The nearest dump…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
- Mountain Climbing
- Off Highway Vehicle Trails
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Stargazing
- Visitor center
- Wilderness access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 86th 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 · 17
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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
15 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 14 mapped sitesAll 15 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. 14 of the 15 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| SHELL CREEK | 01 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 11 ft | 192 ft | $18.50 | |
| SHELL CREEK | 02 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 11 ft | 181 ft | $18.50 | |
| SHELL CREEK | 03 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 76 ft | 118 ft | $18.50 |
| SHELL CREEK | 04 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 313 ft | 202 ft | $18.50 |
| SHELL CREEK | 05 HOST | host pad | 60 ft | 190 ft | $18.50 | ||
| SHELL CREEK | 06 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 124 ft | 164 ft | $18.50 |
| SHELL CREEK | 07 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 20 ft | 162 ft | $18.50 | |
| SHELL CREEK | 08 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 20 ft | 160 ft | $18.50 | |
| SHELL CREEK | 09 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 76 ft | 178 ft | $18.50 |
| SHELL CREEK | 10 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 104 ft | 159 ft | $18.50 |
| SHELL CREEK | 11 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 103 ft | 118 ft | $18.50 |
| SHELL CREEK | 12 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 43 ft | 129 ft | $18.50 |
| SHELL CREEK | 13 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | yes | 43 ft | 126 ft | $18.50 |
| SHELL CREEK | 14 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 132 ft | 279 ft | $18.50 |
| SHELL CREEK | 15 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | yes | 76 ft | 230 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
Ranger Creek Recreation AreaBighorn National Forest · 0.8 mi
Dead SwedeBighorn National Forest · 10 mi
Owen CreekBighorn National Forest · 11 mi
Tie FlumeBighorn National Forest · 12 mi
Medicine Lodge Lake CampgroundBighorn National Forest · 12 mi
Sibley Lake CampgroundBighorn National Forest · 15 miLocated 32 miles east of Greybull, Wyoming, on U.S. Highway 14. Turn off onto Paintrock Lakes Road (Forest Road 17). Shell Creek Campground is 1.5 miles from the turnoff.
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
Shell Creek 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 →