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Updated July 2026 · 12 min read
Grand Teton’s two most-watched campgrounds — Colter Bay on Jackson Lake and the tiny Jenny Lake campground at the base of the Tetons — both book through recreation.gov on a rolling reservation window, with July and August dates routinely gone within minutes. If you miss your window, cancellations are the real path in: they happen constantly, and Camp.land watches both campgrounds and emails you the instant a site opens.
These two campgrounds could not be more different in size or feel, but they share the same booking system and the same intense summer demand. Here is how it works and what to do when the calendar shows nothing available.
Both campgrounds book on recreation.gov like the rest of the National Park System. Reservations open on a rolling window ahead of the stay date, and during July and August — peak season for Grand Teton and Jackson Lake — popular dates typically go within minutes of becoming available. Jenny Lake, being both tiny and famous, sells out faster than almost any other campground in the park system.
Colter Bay is the largest campground in the park at 349 sites, on the shore of Jackson Lake next to Colter Bay Village’s marina, store, and laundry. It has 276 standard nonelectric sites, 49 tent-only sites, 13 standard electric sites (the only hookups in the campground), 10 group sites, and 1 RV no-hookup site. Jenny Lake is much smaller and simpler: just 49 sites total, all tent-only, with no RVs or trailers allowed at all.
A full calendar at either campground is not the end of the road. Cancellations post to recreation.gov constantly as plans change, and given how small Jenny Lake is, even a single cancellation can be the difference between camping at the base of the Tetons or not.
Camp.land watches Colter Bay and Jenny Lake around the clock and emails you the moment a cancellation opens a site for your dates, so you are not the one refreshing recreation.gov by hand during the busiest weeks of the summer.
If no site opens before your trip, Moran and Jackson both have cabins and vacation rentals you can book today, close enough to either campground to keep your Grand Teton trip on track while you wait for a cancellation.
Prefer a cabin or cottage nearby?
Moran and Jackson both have cabins and vacation rentals worth checking if Colter Bay or Jenny Lake is full.
See cabins & rentals near Grand Teton National Park →We may earn a commission from bookings, at no extra cost to you.
Colter Bay is the better fit if you want amenities on site — a marina, general store, and laundry — and Teton views across Jackson Lake without needing to hike anywhere. If you need power, Loop J is the only option; the rest of the campground is dry camping.
Jenny Lake is the pick if you want to walk straight from your tent to the boat shuttle and trailheads for Cascade Canyon, Hidden Falls, and Inspiration Point. It is compact, tent-only, and about as close to the mountains as camping gets in this park — which is exactly why it is one of the hardest reservations to land.
Grand Teton’s short, popular summer season keeps both Colter Bay and Jenny Lake in high demand every year. Cancellations remain the most realistic path in once the initial booking window has passed — they post to recreation.gov continuously, you just need to be watching at the right moment, especially for a campground as small as Jenny Lake.
Set your alert, keep Moran or Jackson in mind as a backup, and let Camp.land do the watching while you plan the rest of your Grand Teton trip.
Set a Grand Teton Alert