Yellowstone National Park's Largest Campground Has Great Amenities And Fantastic Views

Yellowstone National Park has over 2,000 campsites spread across a dozen campgrounds, but you also have to divide those numbers by 4.5 million visitors a year. It puts things in further perspective when you consider that Yellowstone's main operating season is from May to October, with the summer months bringing a big bottleneck of campers. Some of the most popular campgrounds, including the largest one in the park — Bridge Bay — get booked 13 months in advance. It's not always easy to land a reservation when people plan their Yellowstone camping trips over a year ahead of time.

Your chances are slightly better, at least, with the 431 campsites available in Bridge Bay Campground. This serene lakeside campground is situated 30 miles from the park's east entrance, where you can use the world's rodeo capital as a Yellowstone gateway. At 7,800 feet in elevation, Bridge Bay rewards campers with views of Yellowstone Lake against the backdrop of the Abarasoka Mountains, a volcanic sub-range of the famous Rockies.

In the morning, you can watch the sunrise over the lake from its western shore. You might also see elk or bison grazing in a green meadow near your campsite. Bridge Bay's wildlife neighbors aren't shy about wandering into the campground. Rangers help keep the bears at bay, but you'll still need to bear-proof your site so Yogi doesn't crash the party and start nosing through your picnic basket. To fish like a bear for nonnative lake trout, you can charter a guide boat from the marina that gives Bridge Bay Campground its name.

In addition to providing splendid Yellowstone Lake views, Bridge Bay is one of five official park campgrounds in the Xanterra Travel Collection (reservable through Yellowstone National Park Lodges). The Xanterra company's name makes its national park properties sound like illustrious diamonds, though outdoor ones like Bridge Bay are more diamonds in the rough. Still, Bridge Bay offers more amenities than some of the other small, no-frills campgrounds managed by the National Park Service. Over at Lewis Lake Campground, there are no flush toilets or RV dump stations and no ice or firewood for sale. Bridge Bay meets basic needs like those, along with phone reception and potable (drinking) water.

Another benefit of Bridge Bay and camping in general is its sheer affordability compared to Yellowstone's other lodging options. From its early days as America's first national park, Yellowstone has appealed to travelers of both large and small budgets with its accommodations. As beautiful as their rustic architecture, or "parkitecture," is, grand hotels like the Old Faithful Inn and Old Faithful Snow Lodge can still set you back hundreds of dollars a night.

In many places, the canvas tents that budget travelers occupied historically have evolved to become cabin hotels and glamping sites. The glamping option averages $80 or more per night in some sites, whereas Bridge Bay runs $33 a night. For hiker/cyclist sites, it's as low as $10, while a group site for up to 19 people is $165 a night. In this way, campgrounds like Bridge Bay remain the best budget-friendly option to stay in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone is on everyone's camping bucket list, so just because you save money in Bridge Bay doesn't mean you're slumming it. In this national park, having a bed and roof over your head isn't always more luxurious than pitching a tent. Consider the Roosevelt Lodge Cabins, which have been compared to a Western dude ranch. Like Bridge Bay, this lodge has no internet or air conditioning in its aptly named Roughrider and Frontier Cabins. The Roughrider Cabins also favor communal bathrooms and showers over private facilities.

Despite being named after a U.S. president, the lodge isn't somewhere Teddy Roosevelt really stayed, since it wasn't built until 1920 — a year after his death. Roosevelt actually camped nearby years before the cabins opened, so in a sense, you'd be following in his footsteps more by tenting somewhere like Bridge Bay. That said, Yellowstone's Madison Campground is closer to popular attractions like Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic Spring than Bridge Bay. If location is important, the reasonably priced Old Faithful Lodge Cabins have the geyser right on their doorstep.

As far as lakeside alternatives go, crossing the swanky Ionic columns into the Lake Yellowstone Hotel will put you in the park's oldest hotel. From a rocking chair at Lake Lodge Cabins, you might have a better Yellowstone Lake view than Bridge Bay. Yet the cabins could be booked for weeks on end by anglers who are using the lake as a fishing spot. As long as you're making an informed decision, choosing Bridge Bay Campground over these options could leave you feeling smarter than the average camper.