THE INCREASE WAS PRETTY PHENOMENAL. SOME 173 CAMPGROUNDS WERE AT PERCENT OCCUPANCY FOR [LAST] SEASON.
“All of the usual spots are gone,” says Larry Hartenstein, who has enjoyed car-camping adventures in the area since moving here in 2000. “It used to be that you could head out on Friday after work and get something at Shadow Mountain, or up Curtis Canyon, or in Granite Creek, but do that now, and you’re not getting anything. Now I’ll go midweek and get up early and go directly to work.”
Ten years ago, Michelle Escudero’s family used to make the 2.5-hour drive to Jackson from their home in Lander at least once a month in the summer. Escudero’s daughter went to a Teton Science Schools summer camp, while Escudero and her husband would catch a Grand Teton Music Festival performance and hike in Grand Teton National Park. Often, they’d go out for a nice meal in town before heading out to Shadow Mountain to camp. It was a relaxing, fun way to take advantage of the “big city” amenities of Jackson while still getting outside in nature. But not anymore. “Jackson is such a pain to find camping that it really isn’t worth the stress,” Escudero says. Not exactly the sentiments shared on vanlife blogs or #vanlife Instagram posts.
“We’ve had people come to us in tears,” says Linda Merigliano, the wilderness and recreation program manager for the Bridger-Teton National Forest, which manages a total of 400 campsites in the Jackson Ranger District. These sites can be found in 12 developed campgrounds, in designated dispersed-camping areas (like Shadow Mountain, Curtis Canyon, Pacific Creek, Phillips Ridge, Toppings Lake, and Spread Creek), as well as in unregulated dispersed-camping sites along Fall Creek Road, Slate Creek in the Upper Gros Ventre, and Buffalo Valley. “They just want to find someplace to spend the night. We are bursting at the seams. The increase is pretty phenomenal. Some campgrounds were at 173 percent occupancy for [last] season. Our campground concessionaires are doing their darnedest to accommodate people by putting in temporary campsites in parking areas, really anything they can do to increase the number of sites available to people.” Hartenstein says, “I’ve definitely shared some camp spots over the past few years. It was late and we were out of options, so we asked people already at sites if they’d be OK if we shared their site. We’ve shared sites with some real fun people and had some people say ‘no’ as well, and I get it. Sometimes you’re camping to get away from people.”
In Grand Teton National Park, where five campgrounds and one RV park together offer more than 1,000 sites, the increase is less dramatic. This is partially because none of these sites are free, but mostly because there is no room for increased use; it’s been decades since you’ve been able to drive into the park’s Jenny Lake or Gros Ventre Campground after lunch and not find all of the spots already occupied.