BLM keeps Rim Campground near Casper closed because of increased bear activity

The Bureau of Land Management temporarily closed Rim Campground in Natrona County near Casper effective July 15, 2026, citing increased bear activity and public-safety concerns.

The precautionary closure affects public recreation at Rim Campground, which is in the Muddy Mountain Environmental Education Area. BLM said the campground will remain closed until it determines that conditions are safe for public recreation.

Closure has no announced end date

BLM did not set a reopening date in its July 15 notice. The agency also did not provide a quantified bear count in the notice. Instead, the duration of the closure is tied to BLM’s safety determination for the site.

That means Rim Campground is unavailable while the closure is in effect, rather than operating on a scheduled reopening date. The notice identifies increased bear activity as the reason for the action and describes public safety as the concern behind the precautionary closure.

The BLM Casper Field Office issued the notice and provided a contact point for questions about the closure.

Lodgepole was open when notice was issued

The closure applies to Rim Campground, not to all nearby camping areas. Lodgepole Campground remained open when BLM issued its July 15 notice.

BLM said it would continue monitoring conditions and could close Lodgepole Campground if that monitoring identifies a public-safety risk. That possibility was not a closure order for Lodgepole in the notice; its status at the time of the announcement was open.

For visitors planning recreation in the Muddy Mountain Environmental Education Area, the immediate change is the closure of one campground, Rim, while the nearby Lodgepole site remained available according to the BLM notice. Any reopening of Rim will depend on BLM determining the location is safe, and any change affecting Lodgepole would depend on the agency’s ongoing monitoring and a finding of public-safety risk.

What is known — and what is not

The notice confirms the effective date, the increased bear activity, the precautionary nature of the closure and the safety-based condition for reopening. It does not announce a date by which Rim Campground will reopen or specify the number of bears involved.

No later BLM update changing the closure status was located in the approved information for this report. The available notice therefore establishes Rim’s July 15 closure and Lodgepole’s open status at the time that notice was issued.