Sinks Canyon State Park Campground

We stayed here in August 2023. I booked this not knowing anything about it and had very low expectations. I mainly just wanted to break up the drive from Estes Park to Grand Teton and give us a day of rest. I probably would have stayed another day if I had known more about it.

Cons- it was a bit of a pain getting into and out of the ranger's station office parking lot and the entrance to the camp abrupt and the roads are small and twisty. Our camp space was cramped. There are no hookups. None of the sites are particularly level, if that bothers you.

Pros-the area on the other side of our camp area was all natural and an excellent view. Many of the sites have direct access to the creek. The vault toilets were clean. Water spigots and dumpsters were fine. The creek,the views, the walking were all excellent. It was pretty quiet. The nature trail is short but lovely. Our dogs were terrorized by the hanging bridge, but it was beautiful. Even though it was very hot during the day, the nights were very cool and pleasant. There was adequate shade.

The usual hassle with Wyo State Park online reservation, requiring you make a blind choice and pay handsomely for the option. Our site #19 in the Popo Agie campground was the only one shown to be shady (why I picked it from online photos) but at an extreme downhill angle, as it turns out. Most of the sites available were too small even for our 20 ft van. We had a nice wooden deck to sit on in the aspens. No water, no elec, didn't utilize the faraway restrooms, no dump. Again, a lot of money for a site for out of staters (non-resident upcharge) and $8 reservation fee tacked on, too, esp, for zero amenities. The landscape simply doesn't allow enough space for a good campground here, and what usable space there is has yurts they offer for even more money. We got four mice in our van that night. Ugh. Nature trail walk and sound of river were lovely, just to end on a positive note! And just one bar of Verizon was strong enough to hot spot and stream.

We reserved Site #1 at Sinks Canyon State Park but mistakenly followed the GPS and drove up to the Sinks Canyon Campground in the Shoshoni National Forest. Fortunately it's only a mile return. When we arrived at the correct location we found Site #1 to be one of the longest in the CG which did accommodate out 25' Airstream but the site was on quite a slope and it took all of our levelers to get level. It did all work out.

The site was pretty nice. The terrain is pretty rugged so the sites seem quite secluded even through they are pretty close. There are no service except vault toilets and a water tap.

Even though the CG is right off the highway there is little traffic and we didn't hear anything at night. We did, however, hear the wind blow the entire stay (intermixed with some rain squalls). We also hit a cicada brood and experienced "cicada rain" which is their urine (Google it!).

We did have a nice 7 mile round trip hike down to the Sinks visitor center and there are some very pleasant riparian areas along the river.

Park has 2 first come sites. Everything else is reservation only. We were in site 12. Difficult to level but easily worth the location. Wide enough for van and kayak trailer.
Stunning park and river. Beautiful trails. Helpful visitors center. We needed blocks to level and they called ahead to the nearest hardware store to make sure they were available.

This area is beautiful, with the river loudly rushing through the campground. Site 7 was situated down by the water, making it so we felt alone most of the time, even though the day use parking was above us. We didn't see any sites designed for our large family tent, but our 4-person tent would fit beautifully in any of the sites. Most of the sites are well-separated with trees. The pit toilets are kept clean and well-stocked with sanitizer and TP. There was a no-burn rule in place while we were there, but the fire rings are large.

The weather was lovely in July. The river and trees keep it cool. We had wildflowers throughout our site and all along the nature trail accessible from the campground. We will definitely be back.

This is not a "stay connected" campground.

This is a "connect to nature" campground.

Near the Popo Agie River (Lander, Wyoming). This is one of the nicest campgrounds I have ever had the opportunity to stay at. Sites are on the smaller side, in terms of fitting a rig. Our 24' trailer was just barely squeezed in, but there are some larger sites as well. Bottom line here is I would check first!

Our site had intermittent cell service on all three of our carriers (Verizon ATT Tmo). We do not have a booster. There are also sites that had no service. This was challenging as we have a young child doing online school right now. If internet is a must, you can also literally drive to Lander.

Park rangers were incredible and kind. Really took care of the site.