Mammoth Campground

"Diamond in the Rough"

Mammoth campground doesn’t look like much, situated on the side of a sagebrush covered hill below the Mammoth area of Yellowstone National Park.  However, if you plan on visiting the Mammoth area, you can’t beat the location of this campground.  There is a short, fairly steep trail that takes you to Mammoth from this campground.  Here you can visit the Mammoth Visitor Center, stores, and some great hikes along the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces – perfect hikes for families.  Wildlife is also very abundant in and around Mammoth with elk grazing throughout the town and along the hillsides.  In fact, my family watched a black bear walk within 50 yards of our camp site!  Thankfully, the bear didn’t seem too interested in the campers and the ranger spent some time chasing it away from the campground.

Camp sites cannot be reserved ahead of time at this campground so I would suggest arriving early in order to get the best available site (sites 47 through 49 are the most private spots).   There are camp hosts on site that register and assign a site to each camper.   You cannot select your specific site, but when we registered, the camp hosts made sure to give us the best available spot.  The camp hosts told us that if we were unhappy with our assigned spot, they would be happy to switch us to another site.  Note that it can be difficult to level RVs at the Mammoth campground as the sites are situated on a terraced hill and there is no dump station.  There is plenty of potable water available but there are only 4 restrooms for this 68 spot campground.

In summary, Mammoth Campground is a diamond in the rough – it doesn’t look like much at first glance, but this is a great place to access the Mammoth area, view the ample wildlife and enjoy some great hikes.