Found · unverifiedWyoming Game & Fish CommissionFree
Jelm WHMA Campground
Drive-up · public land · WY · 41.07941, -106.01226
We haven't personally camped here. Everything below is pulled from public land data, USGS maps and OpenStreetMap — a real place on public land, but not field-checked by us. Confirm road conditions, current access, stay limits and fire restrictions before you go.
FIRE BAN: WGFD flags this area as 'Fire Ban is in Effect for this Area' -- check before you plan on any open flame. SEASONAL CLOSURE -- READ THIS FIRST: Limited to easement area marked with signs Wyoming closes many of these areas in winter and spring to protect wintering big game, and a closure is not advisory. Confirm the current dates with Game and Fish before you drive out. This is a designated campground on the Jelm Wildlife Habitat Management Area in Albany County, land acquired or administered by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission. The area runs about 1,098 acres. Camping here is genuinely free and first come, first served -- and unlike neighbouring states, Wyoming does NOT make you buy a license or a habitat/entrance pass simply to be on the land or to camp. (If you intend to hunt or fish while you are there, that is a different matter: you need the appropriate Wyoming license and a conservation stamp for that activity.) STAY LIMIT IS 5 DAYS HERE, NOT 14. Wyoming's statewide cap is 14 consecutive days, but Game and Fish posts a shorter 5-day camping limit for this specific area, and the posted limit is the one that binds. You also cannot leave a camp unattended more than 48 hours, and once you hit the limit you must be off that same Game and Fish land for at least 72 hours before returning. WATCH THIS ONE CAREFULLY -- Game and Fish carves out a spot on this area where camping is NOT allowed: 'No camping at downstream northern parking area'. Camping is permitted on the area, but not there. Note in particular that Wyoming STATE TRUST LAND parcels are often mixed in with wildlife areas, and camping on state trust land is prohibited statewide by the Board of Land Commissioners -- so a boundary you cannot see on the ground can matter. Read the sign and the map at the entrance. Area-specific regulations from Game and Fish: Motor Vehicle Travel Restricted to roads marked by a white arrow on the Wildlife Habitat Management Area. Access road and parking not plowed during winter. Camping limit: 5 days @ upriver parking lot. Exceptions noted for this area: Note pedestrian access is immediately along bank from south parking area up stream, and 50' above high water at north parking area. No camping at downstream northern parking area. Amenities listed by Game and Fish for the area: Comfort Station, Boat Launch Note on this campground: 14 day limit These are working wildlife areas first and campgrounds second -- they exist for habitat, so expect gravel, expect stock, and leave it cleaner than you found it. We have not visited; confirm current conditions and closures with the Wyoming Game and Fish Laramie regional office before you go.
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FREE, no permit required, per WGFC Chapter 23 Sec. 4(a)(iii): 'Camping shall only be allowed in areas designated by Department publication or sign. No person shall camp in excess of the posted camping limit, and in no case more than fourteen (14) consecutive days, or leave a camp unattended for more than forty-eight (48) hours.' The words 'fee' and 'stamp' do not appear anywhere in Chapter 23, and 'license' appears only for long-term special-use agreements -- there is NO license/pass precondition for camping (unlike SD GFP or OK ODWC). WGFD states directly: 'Camping on WHMAs and PAAs is free and on a first-come, first-served basis' and 'The statewide camping limit is 14 days'. DESIGNATION: this is not inferred -- it is a point in WGFD's own WHMA_Facilities feature service with FacilityType='Campground' and PublicView='Public' (FacilityName 'Campground', area 'Jelm'), which is the 'Department publication' the rule requires. Coordinates are that feature's own WGS84 geometry, not a geocode. Area attributes (season, regulations, amenities) come from WGFD's WHMA_Locations layer joined on area name. Source: services6.arcgis.com/cWzdqIyxbijuhPLw (WHMA_Facilities / WHMA_Locations), WGFD open data. Ingested 2026-07-20 18:27:48. SCOPE OF THE RULE (checked 2026-07-21 against the Chapter 23 PDF itself, wgfd.wyo.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/24576_REGULATIONS-CH-23.pdf): the chapter is titled 'REGULATION GOVERNING USES OF LANDS AND WATERS ACQUIRED OR ADMINISTERED BY THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH COMMISSION', and Sec. 3 defines acquired land as taken by the Commission 'by purchase, deed, lease, agreement, gift or devise'. The rule therefore reaches land the Commission holds by lease/agreement/easement, not only land it owns, so the free-camping authority holds on easement areas too. Land status is stated as 'acquired or administered' rather than 'owned' for that reason. SeasonalClosure: 'Limited to easement area marked with signs'. AccessDates: 'Open year-round'. AreaRegulations: 'Motor Vehicle Travel Restricted to roads marked by a white arrow on the Wildlife Habitat Management Area. Access road and parking not plowed during winter. Camping limit: 5 days @ upriver parking lot.'. Exceptions: 'Note pedestrian access is immediately along bank from south parking area up stream, and 50' above high water at north parking area. No camping at downstream northern parking area.'. Amenities: 'Comfort Station, Boat Launch'. FireBan: 'Fire Ban is in Effect for this Area'. FacilityNotes: '14 day limit'. NOTE REFRESHED 2026-07-21 01:39:46: this row's stay limit was recomputed after a parser fix -- WGFD states its posted camping limit in several different phrasings ('Camping limit: 5 days', 'Overnight camping (5-day limit)', '5 day camping on Commission Lands') and the original ingester matched only one of them, so some areas were described with Wyoming's 14-day statewide cap when the posted limit is shorter. Coordinates, source and provenance are unchanged.
Field check
Not verified on the ground. Nobody from here has camped it. It stays at Researched until someone does.
What we don’t know
A land record can put you within a few metres of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
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