Yellowstone’s 2026 campground season ends in a staggered sequence that starts September 13 and finishes October 17, and the NPS campgrounds page publishes every date. Bridge Bay closes September 13. Indian Creek September 14. Canyon September 19. Grant Village September 26. Tower Fall September 27. Lewis Lake October 11. Slough Creek October 12. Fishing Bridge RV Park and Madison both October 17. Mammoth is open year round. Pebble Creek is closed until further notice for 2022 flood recovery work.
If you are planning a late September trip, that list is the trip. Five of them are gone by the end of the month.
The price gap is the booking channel
Two campgrounds in the same park can differ by $69 a night. Five are booked through Yellowstone National Park Lodges: Bridge Bay and Madison at $38 plus taxes, Canyon and Grant Village at $45 plus taxes, Fishing Bridge RV Park at $94 plus taxes. The Recreation.gov side is the cheap side: Indian Creek, Lewis Lake, Slough Creek and Tower Fall at $20, Mammoth at $25.
Fishing Bridge earns its number for a reason the page states outright. It is the only campground in the park offering water, sewer and electrical hookups at 50 amp service, and it takes hard-sided vehicles only, no tents and no tent trailers. The amenity columns on the same table are where the rest of the spread lives. That channel split is changing: five of these campgrounds move to Recreation.gov for the 2027 season, which we covered here.
The one first-come option, and its date
The page is direct about reservations: all campsites must be reserved in advance, with the exception of Mammoth, which offers first-come, first-served sites from October 15 to April 1. Everywhere else, reservations open on a rolling basis exactly six months before the date of your stay.
So the late-season no-reservation play in Yellowstone is one campground, one date, one price: Mammoth, from October 15, at $25.
What the page will not tell you
It publishes no camping stay limit. Dates, fees, site counts and rig length maximums, but no number of nights, so we are not going to state one. Park camping limits are set parkwide by the superintendent rather than nationally, which we explained here. For Yellowstone, ask the park at 307-344-7381.
Two more lines on that page are worth reading before you improvise. Dump stations “may close when temperatures are below freezing,” which is exactly the weather you are camping in by mid October. And: “No car camping or overnight vehicle parking is allowed in pullouts, parking areas, picnic grounds, or any place other than a designated campground within Yellowstone National Park.” That covers pulling over to sleep at 2 a.m.
Before you count on any of it
The page was last updated February 25, 2026 and carries its own caveat that all dates are subject to change. Book what you can now for late September, and if the answer is nothing, the public land outside the park is the fallback: our Wyoming free camping page covers what is out there and what the limits are. The sign at the campground kiosk and the ranger on duty beat this page and the website both. All figures above were read on August 25, 2026.