Found · unverifiedWyoming Game & Fish CommissionFree
Soda Lake WHMA Campground #14
Drive-up · Wyoming Game & Fish · WY · 42.96402, -109.84880
We haven't personally camped here. Everything below is pulled from public land data, USGS maps and OpenStreetMap — a real place on Wyoming Game & Fish land, but not field-checked by us. Confirm road conditions, current access, stay limits and fire restrictions before you go.
SEASONAL CLOSURE -- READ THIS FIRST: Dec. 1- May 1 at 6am 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 Soda Lake Wildlife Habitat Management Area in Sublette County, land acquired or administered by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission. The area runs about 4,115 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.) The rules that bind: you may only camp in the designated spots, no more than 14 consecutive days, and you cannot leave a camp unattended more than 48 hours. After you hit the limit you have to be off that same Game and Fish land for at least 72 hours before returning. Some areas post a limit shorter than 14 days on the sign at the entrance -- if the sign says less, the sign wins. Area-specific regulations from Game and Fish: No human presence Dec. 1 - May 1 at 6am. 14 day camping limit. No fireworks. Motor vehicles restricted to roads marked with white arrows. Certified weed free hay required. Soda Lake wetlands closed May 1 - July 1 for nesting/brooding waterfowl. Cutting of firewood prohibited Amenities listed by Game and Fish for the area: Parking, Comfort Stations, Camping, Boat Ramps 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 Pinedale 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 'Soda Lake'), 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: 'Dec. 1- May 1 at 6am'. AccessDates: 'THIS AREA OPENS TO ALL HUMAN PRESENCE AT 6:00AM MAY 1'. AreaRegulations: 'No human presence Dec. 1 - May 1 at 6am. 14 day camping limit. No fireworks. Motor vehicles restricted to roads marked with white arrows. Certified weed free hay required. Soda Lake wetlands closed May 1 - July 1 for nesting/brooding waterfowl. Cutting of firewood prohibited'. Amenities: 'Parking, Comfort Stations, Camping, Boat Ramps'. 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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