Indian Creek Campground — Yellowstone National Park

For cyclists and hikers … Indian Creek does have a hiker/biker campsite, but please note: it is limited to TWO pitches with a strict policy of not sharing a pitch. I just turned up and both pitches were free so I was lucky. As of June 2023, I could not find any other campsites on the northern loop of Yellowstone between Madison and Canyon campgrounds. Back country camping for cyclists is ‘illegal’ (according to the park ranger at Tower), so plan accordingly. At Indian Creek there is food storage, picnic tables, and fire pits. Pit toilets only. Very helpful staff in the reception building.

Camped here many times over the years, it was our favorite place in the park. It's a bit more like a National Forest CG because it's somewhat off the beaten path and quiet. It is certainly more crowded these days than it used to be, back then it rarely filled.  

The site are good, some more private than others. It is NOT a place for Big Rigs, I think the length limit was 35' last time I was there (vehicle + trailer or whatever you're pulling) and they strictly enforced that. The volunteers at the entrance cabin actually brought out a tape measure and measured my 4Runner and 17' Casita at 31' so we got in. Many rigs behind us in line were too big and were turned away.

The creeks (Indian & Obsidian) contain small Brook Trout. For supplies, Mammoth is the closest place. 

Have been the in June, July August & September.

The campground is totally on the reservation system unlike a few years ago. No 1st come, 1st serve anymore.

We were nervous about trying to find a campground in Yellowstone without a reservation as all the reviews made it seem impossible, but as we pulled into Indian Creek we were pleasantly surprised to find a first come - first served campground with almost nobody there on a Friday afternoon. The hosts were extremely helpful and asked about our site preferences before assigning us a spot. This was a great base camp to explore the park for the day and had food storage, picnic tables and fire rings at every site. There are also bathrooms, trash / recycling at the entrance and firewood for sale.

Everyone needs to at least visit and potentially camp Yellowstone at least once. However, I have never been impressed with the Yellowstone campgrounds. They seem to care more about fitting in the vast number of tourists than spreading anything out so it does sort of resemble an RV Park (with great views and fresh air).

They have great facilities, and this seems to be one of the less crowded campgrounds, I just wish the sites gave you more space.

By the way. Don’t be the idiot that thinks park wildlife is tame

FCFS. This campground is less well-known so there aren’t as many people and it’s fairly easy to get a spot. We got there around 9 a.m. and had plenty to choose from. Lots of trees- perfect for hammocks. You have people kind of close, but spots are spaced out well so you still feel private. Fire pit, bear box, a picnic table at each site. And there’s bathrooms. There’s a river really close that we walked along and fished. And the camp hosts were really nice people! Firewood available at the store at the front.

We made a reservation here by calling them a couple weeks before we left for Yellowstone National Park.  We were driving from the Seattle, WA area and figured this was about half way.  There are several mountain passes to cross and we did not want to fill our water and propane tanks before leaving and carry a bunch of extra weight.  This place offered full hook ups and propane sales on site. 

We arrived almost too late for in person check in.  Since we were hoping to leave early the next morning, we didn't want to wait for the office to open again in the morning.  We called ahead and the really nice lady in the office stayed a few minutes to wait for us.  They have a nice office with some local items for sale that make cute little gifts.  

Sites are typical for an RV campground.  Everyone is very close together.  Picnic tables and full hook ups are available.  There are also tent sites.  The bathrooms are great.  many stalls and several private showers.  The grounds are beautiful.  Green and watered.  Covered picnic shelters are available.  

Campers were quiet for a Saturday night.  Lots of folks out and about, everyone was so friendly!  The only downside is it's right next to the freeway.  Even in the middle of the night, it was loud.

A variety of site types (some great for RV's, others better designed for tents). A huge sand beach with swimming area, docks with boat slip rentals. Campfire programs both during the day and night, plus the ranger station has fishing poles and nature backpacks to check out for kids for free. Camp store with basic essentials and ice cream.

Indian creek is probably my favorite campground out of all the Yellowstone camps. It felt more secluded and a lot less busy than the main ones offered in the park.

No light or noise pollution. We heard wolves and moose during the night. No flush toilets or showers, but those are available in the center of the park at guest services. Smaller RV and tent sites. No generators allowed and no electricity. Fires were allowed in rings. Located in a forested part of north Yellowstone Park

A great simple campground inside Yellowstone. we were there the weekend before July 4th and found a site easily. Many of the other campgrounds had fIlled early each mornIng. There are bear proof boxes in each site for your food items, be sure to use them. Tent camping is okay, and they have nice pads to set the tents up on in the sites. There’s vault (pit) toilets and no other hook ups for RVs.

Getting reservations at Yellowstone National Park is tricky, so unless you've managed to grab a spot one the exact right day about 6 months in advance, you'll be stuck trying to grab a "first-come, first-served" camp site. In larger campgrounds like Norris in Yellowstone, this means getting there around 6 or 7 am and hopefully getting lucky.

Indian Creek, on the other hand, still had one spot left around 11am when we got there. Looking at their booking calendar, that may have been a bit of a fluke for mid-week July (yesterday it says they booked up at 7:30 am), but it's definitely a better bet than other, more popular campgrounds.

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm

Decent spots, not a ton of privacy, asboluetely beautiful waterflowers, meadows and creeks surrounding the campground. There's pit toilets instead of flush, which matches the cheaper price of $15.

In theory you can have 35-foot RVs here, and the road is nice enough they should be fine, but when we were there is was almost all tents and smaller vintage or canned hams. Generators are not allowed to run at all, so that might be a deciding factor keeping the bigger rigs away.

All-in-all, a nice enough spot if you want to try out the east side of Yellowstone and/or want to get away from the larger campgrounds with more difficult bookings.

I believe this is supposed to be the Indian Creek Campground in Yellowstone National Park (which would put it in Wyoming), so I'm going to put that review here.

This is one of the best campgrounds in Yellowstone. It is seculded, and recently renovated. It is close to Mammoth and everything on the North end, plus most people ignore it's existence. Unfortunately (or fortunately) you cannot reserve here.

I accidentally found myself in Yellowstone on what must have been the busiest weekend of the year. Two hours of stop and go traffic to get into the park, and no camping available that day. I resolved myself to waking up at the time the reservation office opened the next morning to try to get any cancelled reservable spot that opened up, but no luck. A nice ranger told us that Indian Creek is almost always the last campground to fill up, so we booked it over to the campground to try to get a spot. Note that Indian creek has non reservable spots, as do many campgrounds in yellowstone, which means you need to get there in the morning and get your spot before they fill up. We rolled into indian creek around 7 am and got one of the last 2 spots available in Yellowstone.

This campground is quiet, has bear boxes for your food, and has a few vault toilets available. Each site has a picnic table. Not much in the way of shade or natural barriers from your neighbors, but when you need a cheap place to stay and you don't want to drive hours to get out of the park, this place is great.