North Fork Campground

Wyoming’s Snowy Range is a favorite playground for the residents in and around Laramie, and it is not well known beyond that small audience. This high mountain area is accessible by good roads, and the terrain is gentle enough for families with small kids on many of the trails. There are only two campgrounds still open near the highest peaks, Brooklyn Lake and Sugarloaf, and the combined 35 sites at these two campgrounds do generally fill up on weekends. If space isn’t available at the two higher campgrounds, North Fork Campground is a great fallback. Reservations are taken for this campground, and it rarely fills up.

Located about 20 to 30 minutes from the main trailheads at Brooklyn, Lewis, and Mirror Lakes, North Fork does not have the convenience or the scenic beauty of the other campgrounds, but it is not a bad place to camp. The 60 sites at this campground are widely-dispersed across a broad valley, and the campground is big-rig friendly. Like the other campgrounds in the Snowy Range, North Fork has minimal amenities (you'll find vault toilets and hand-pumped drinking water). There are no high-mountain views, and there is quite a bit of debris from cut-down trees (beetle damage in the area has been heavy), but the surroundings are still pleasant. This campground makes a good base for exploring the range. There is one trail that leaves from the campground and traverses 6 miles to Brooklyn Lake, but there are far better trail choices for mountain scenery and lakes higher in the range.