Campsites nestled in tall pines, check. Long pull-through sites in the pines, check. Full hookups, priceless.
Our stay at Colter Bay Village RV Park had all the charm and atmosphere of Yellowstone and Yosemite but with full-hook ups luxury.
The RV Park is in Grand Teton National Park and is part of Colter Bay Village that lies along the bank of Jackson Lake. It’s a truly beautiful setting. Every night we walked down to the marina then along the path through the trees that led over to the beach to take in the sunset.
Colter Bay is about an hour north of Jackson Hole proper. This doesn’t include animal traffic jams. The speed limits are set low because of the abundant wildlife. It was unusually warm during our stay so wildlife was minimal. I think our grand total was five elk.
Like so many campgrounds we’ve been to, the staff was very nice and helpful. Check-in was done outside for pandemic protocols. She told us the resident bear hadn’t been seen in a few days and explained that he’d probably moved to cooler ground. Hearing that was a bummer because this same hot weather had already chased most of the animals in Yellowstone to higher ground. I wonder if our next trip here should be in the fall so we could see more animals AND leaf change. It’s open early May to early October so it might work!
No need to worry about backing into your site as all the sites are pull-throughs! 103 long ones at that. You enter the campground on the far-right side then durn left down your corresponding row. Our site was plenty long enough to pull the Jeep in nose first with room to spare. We saw several tag-axle coaches set up the same way.
The wonderful pine trees mean no satellite reception and there were no local channels or cell signal at the campsite. Not a problem for us, we were in the middle of a raucous card game tournament. In the end, I ruled at Crazy 8’s and he dominated at Gin. We also enjoyed quality time at the campfire. All was not lost, there was a decent cell signal at the Marina, General Store, Ranch House Restaurant and Launderette. It’s a nice bike ride down to the Marina for pretty views and cell signal.
There are three comfort stations which mean bathroom facilities with trash and recycle containers at each. They also have a propane refilling service. Place your tank at the front of your site in the morning and they’ll return it full by 5pm.
There are nice hiking loops just steps from the campground. Our camp host gave us a map & trail guide of Colter Bay. It highlights the nearby trails and gives information on plants and animals. We walked the Lakeshore Trail several times and down to Heron Point. We hiked a lot on this trip so back at camp our pace was more like a leisurely stroll than a hike.
We watched several people boarding tour boats as well as people renting kayaks at the marina. Aside from the Visitors Center, this was the main attraction activity wise. The water was cold for us but not to the many people that were having a grand old time swimming and splashing around.
This was the perfect home base for us during our stay in the area. We did an evening horseback ride south of Jackson, we hiked are shoes off in the Jenny Lake area as well as around the campground. We even managed a raft and kayak float down the Snake River. You know by now that we cram a lot into our vacations and this was no exception.
It still remains one of our favorite places. I’m so glad we came back and even more happy we stayed at Colter Bay.
Until next time, campground bear. I’d like to see you meandering around.