West Tensleep Lake

Our camp host, Deb, was THE ABSOLUTE best! She is meant to do this work, and is so good with all the people! Also, top notch bathroom cleanliness!

It was absolutely beautiful.
I will confess I only made it to Lake Helen due to several factors. The elevation I had difficulty adjusting to but mainly poor preparation on my part . I didn't anticipate the terrain (last wooded part before Lake Helen) to be that difficult. I overpacked. I backed too heavily as well. I'm "guessing" the hike was 5 1/2 to 6 miles ( halfway around Lake Helen. Would appreciate any concrete number on that. It took my son 4 hours while taking pics and took me 7 and 3/4's hours.
That said and a bit wiser I plan to return in May or June with all 3 sons. I am 64 and in fair health. My lack of complete (new hiker) complete research,preparation made it more difficult than it had to be. The vistas,scenery and quiet was incredible.
I'll be seeing you at Mistymoon Lake, the waterfall and " potentially the summit soon.
Beautiful, breathtaking and the 20 people we encountered were very , very friendly.

We stayed at site number 1, pretty private, right by the lake, not super level for a tent but worked fine.

Great little Campground on tensleep lake and within walking distance to several trailheads.

Nice Campground tucked away next to a mountain lake. We spent 5 nights in site 01 and really enjoyed it, and we will come back but not stay as many days in the future. The gravel road is long and fairly rough, but just take it slow and you’ll have no issue.
Some specific notes:
1. Site 2 is by far the best for campers who need max sun for solar panels, and is the best site for larger campers or trailers with slides. It’s pretty wide open. Site 1 has the best “waterfront”, however its next to the entrance and the public launch for kayaks…does lead to some noise and traffic that other sites dont have to deal with, including a consistent parade of UTVs. We had to chase the sun with auxiliary solar panels during the day in order to keep the batteries charged.
2. The lake itself has clear water, but a very muddy bottom - not really a hard pack. Specifically the trails headed north next to the lake’s feeder stream leads to some fantastic isolated spots to relax near a mountain stream. Lots of people used inflatable kayaks or SUPs on the lake and they seemed to work well.
3. The camp “host” was a great lady who is based down the mountain at one of the other campgrounds. Every morning around 8am she would pick up the garbage (you can leave by your site post if you are gone) and has firewood for sale. I would guess this practice is standard every season.
4. Be mindful of the size of your trailer. We had a Black Series HQ19 and its very responsive and easy to maneuver when backing in, and site 1 took a couple of attempts to back in where I wanted it. Really big rigs (over 26’ etc) may have some challenges getting into site 1 due to mature trees on either side of the site entrance.
5. The altitude kicked our butts for the first few days, and I didnt realize its much higher than where we stayed near the Tetons in the past. VERY quiet at night…not used to that.
6. Very clean vault toilets, and well water was great.

Campsite 9 is spacious. It’s close to the pit toilets but we couldn’t really smell them but we were there in late August.

the host is great. a sign saying she's at deer park would be helpful, but other than that perfect.

Beautiful lake with mountain views, and the campsite we had was roomy enough for our TT and our son's tent. Downside was the very busy weekend we had booked. All sites filled, vehicles coming and going, noise, and even day-use people hauling kayaks and paddle boards to the lake between our site and the next. Considering the long wash-boardy drive in, I was surprised to see all the activity.

One of our favorite campgrounds

As usual, there is plenty to do in this area and the camping crowd seemed relaxed and well behaved. The campsite host (from Island Park) makes several passes through each day-she does a great job of keeping things in order / maintaining cleanliness (pit toilets -garbage pick-up completed daily). Water from the well is cold and refreshing! Great area !!!