Mammoth Campground

Love the tent pad, the easily accessible water and picnic benches. If there was anything to knock (and this is nitpicky) the tree coverage is fairly light though in fairness it is on the desert side of the park. Also it was a bit of a hike to deal with Grey water. We had a wonderful time though and the morning sun is shielded by the beautiful mountains. Birds and chipmunks are all over the place and sometimes there are visits from Elk in the campground. Hosts were great and it was very peaceful camping.

Beautiful location and nice sites but the generators are out of control. The RV lobby must own the Park Service. The noise and fumes in one of the most beautiful places in the country is wholly unacceptable and incredibly depressing. Don’t plan on listening to the wind or the elk bugle during your stay. If you’re a tent camper beware. I miss the good old days of Yellowstone camping.

Love this park! It's close to the Mammoth hot springs and is open all year round. We were at site #22. Great views and the sites are big enough for 30 ft trailers. We drove around Yellowstone and encountered Bison crossing the road. Being that it was April 2, this was the only park open but it was still a great experience because it was not busy at this time. Would definitely come back again for mid April (15th) when all the other parks and roads open up.

Great location! So convenient to Mammoth and Lamar Valley. Camp hosts were so friendly and helpful. Sites are very large (we have a 34ft 5th wheel) offering good privacy. Plenty of places to fill up with water. So beware: there is road construction in the area and construction vehicles are super noisy traveling past the campground. Would suggest earplugs if tent camping. Lots of wildlife wander through this campground. Be aware and give them some space!

Good campground. Quit, comfortable. No traffic noise. Only fresh water. And toilet. No dump station.

Flush toilets but no showers or dishwashing station. Water Spickets with potable water. Beautiful view! We got to see a rock slide on the mountain across from us during a game of Rummy. There is a trail up to Mammoth hot springs area and we took it up there. A little steep but we had a great time walking up there. We heard Elk and Coyotes during the night.

This campground didn't look like much from the road, but it is quite nice once you get in your spot. The website has little to no good information, so I hope to provide that here and help other campers. Location: The campsite 10–15 minutes from Gardiner, a little town with a grocery store and a few restaurants. We stayed in a cabin in Gardiner most nights of our trip and camped only one night, just for the heck of it. Elk are numerous around the Mammoth area (the lodge and hot springs as well as the campsite). I got up at 1 AM to use the restroom and came back to find a female elk feeding 10 feet from my tent. She just stared at me, so I broke the 25-foot rule (the distance you are supposed to keep from elk and bison) to scuttle back into my tent. At around 5 AM later that morning, you could hear hooves walking around outside. Another tent camper warned us that they awoke that morning to an elk teething at the tent (not biting it to try to tear it, just checking it out). So if being up close and personal to horse-sized wild animals bothers you, skip the camping or bring a camper. Campsites: There are about 80 campsites at this location. Tent-only sites are available, and among those some sites are reserved for backpackers/through-hikers. We were in tents and used two tent-only sites for our group of 10. Six people are allowed per site. If you are camping in tents, the managers when we went (June 2018) didn't care how many tents you had per site, and you can set up tents off of the tent pads (as a couple of our people did). The managers also didn't need to know specifically how many people were at each site, as long as each site didn't have more than 6. A ~3'x4'x3' bear locker is provided for each site, along with a picnic table and a fire ring. I liked the layout of both of our sties, as the tent pads were a good distance from the fire ring. We didn't have any trouble getting ultralight stakes in the tent pad ground at our sites (75 and 76), as other reviewers noted. Facilities: As other reviewers have noted, there are bathroom and sink facilities, but no shower facilities at the site. We did not use the nearby showers at Mammoth Lodge. The bathrooms were clean and there were flush toilets at the entrance to the campsites and right by the tent-only sites. It was a little walk uphill to the bathroom from my site. No dishwashing is allowed at water spigots, bring a dishtub. Check in: We showed up at 7:15 AM ish on the day that we planned to camp, and parked behind 2 other vehicles that were already queued up. By 7:45 three more were lined up. The campsite managers start taking reservations at 8:00 AM. The managers told us that they hoped to have all of the sites filled up by noon, so I think they go fast. They track everything on paper, from what I could tell, no electronic system. There is no self-serve board or anything like that, you must go through the site managers to get your spot reserved. Only 3 of us went to reserve the site but our total group was 10 (which we told the managers) and that didn't cause a problem. To register, we had to give the driver's license number of the person reserving the site and the license plate of the vehicle that would be parked at the site. (So we had to go back to Gardiner to get a license plate number to complete our reservation, since we didn't know for sure when we would be able to return to the site.) We paid in cash and the manager said that was preferred. It was $20 per site when we went. Management: The campsite is run by the National Parks Service, not Xanterra. The site managers stay at the site all season long and go around the sites on a golf cart toward the beginning of quiet hours to check that everything is in order. We did not make it to the site to finish setting up tents and settle in until 10:00 PM (the beginning of quiet hours) but did our best to be quiet and respectful, and it wasn't a problem, though one of the managers did come around and ask (rather sassily) why nothing was set up yet.

This is the best campground choice in North Yellowstone if you're looking for something in the action. It is right by the Mammoth Hot Springs, which was one of our favorite stops in Yellowstone. Additionally, elk congregate in the area, which was very fun to see. The bathrooms were kept very clean, and running water is always a luxury when camping. The spots themselves are on the small side and don't offer much privacy, but it didn't matter. Also, you are surrounded by the main road on both sides, but the road gets so quiet at night you don't even notice it. Really a great base for exploring the northern section of the park. We arrived on Sunday, September 24th, around 5 PM and got one of the last two spots! On a Friday or Saturday you would likely have to get there early to secure a spot.

Although it rained most of the night. We still enjoyed our time at the campgrounds. Made the drive to yellowstone easy

We stayed here for the night before driving through Yellowstone. The location was amazingly convenient for us to explore the area. We arrived at night and quickly found where our tent was, as the initial email had all the details we needed. I liked how the tent site had reservation stickers on them as well, small but great touch. We sat by the fire and were able to see all the stars in the sky. It started raining late into the night and the sounds were relaxing hitting against the tent. When we woke up in the morning, the view was stunning. At night, we couldn't see anything, but in the morning, the sun was radiating over the mountains and canyons. A beautiful sight to wake up to. Overall, a great place to stay. The bathrooms were clean and the staff when we did meet them were friendly.

We stayed here at the end of September 2020 for three nights. We loved staying here and it was probably our favorite campground to stay at in Yellowstone. We arrived at about 6:30am and by 8:15am had a site. The volunteers were great about getting everyone a number in line so that even when they moved cars around out of line in order to fit everyone in the very short driveway, they could still honor who arrived first. There are three levels on the hill with campsites. The top and bottom are near the main park road and you can faintly hear cars passing by. The middle level is for tents, which is where we stayed in #73. Our site had a picnic table under some trees, a fire pit, bear box, and a leveled spot to pitch a tent. There was a potable water station right next to our site. There's a nearby bathroom up at the top of the hill with flush toilets and sinks (pretty well maintained for a campground). There isn't much privacy in any of the campsites, but that is made up for the fact that the views of the surrounding area from any site are beautiful. The Mammoth area has tons of elk walking around the village and campground. We visited Yellowstone during elk mating season, when the male elks get very aggressive. One morning when we were there, a campground volunteer was going around to everyone to make sure they were just aware of the fact that a young male elk was walking close to some tents and to give him some space. I thought that was extremely nice for them to care so much about the safety of their guests and to protect the wildlife (and yes, lots of elk hang out in the area! I even saw some ermines next to our tent early in the morning). Overall, I would definitely recommend mammoth campground for a lovely camping experience at Yellowstone.

There were a few things wrong with this campground starting with the generator hours being allowed only between 8am-8pm even though quiet hours are 10pm-6am. The reason this was a deal breaker for us was because we are avid explorers who want to make the most of seeing the park. Essentially every day we left the camper by 7:30 and returned after dark so we had no use of our generators At all. In addition, our 30' trailer was a squeeze into the spot we were given and we couldn't use the fire pit because it was less than 2 feet away from the camper in the tiny space. The worst part however is the noise from the surrounding roads, you feel like you are next to a highway all night! I guess that's what you get for $20 a night-which is why we left early. On the plus side-the bathrooms were very clean and well maintained and showers are available at Yellowstone Hotel which is a 1/4 mile walk from the campground by a footpath (cost $4.42). AdditonLly the boiling river and the hot springs are literally a minute up the road to the north and are a must do activity!