Vedauwoo trip mid to late may

Hey guys! First time to vedauwoo. Hoping to be down near the middle to end of May. If the campground at the park is not open yet what are some other good options?

Also, what is the best guidebook for the area?

Thanks!

It's easy to camp at pretty much anywhere for free. Some spots are taken up by RVs. But it's national forest land so you can camp in the established campground or off some random dirt road. The best guidebook is the Rob Kelman guidebook. The other one blows. Or just mountain project is pretty good. 

Thanks John. A previous post has me fairly concerned about weather at the end of May. Being from Cheyenne, do you think we will get hosed for weather during this time?

As far as guidebooks, do you mean the 2004 edition of Rock Climbing at Vedauwoo?

Yeah the 2004 edition. There are some new routes in the newer one but not really. A couple new areas but not many that are worth checking out unless you will be here for >1 month. The 2004 edition doesn't have the most recent hardware updates, but the Zach O. book doesn't really either. Mountain project typically has the most recent hardware updates (like flare thee well not having bolts, for example). 

In May you are taking somewhat of a gamble. Last may it was pretty wet in early May. Just rainy. From May 15 onward it was nice but yeah you'll get afternoon thunderstorms from time to time. Cheyenne seems to get more rain though and a lot of storms will hit Cheyenne that don't really affect the Vedauwoo area. It's not like April where you can still get 4-6 inches of snow up there in a night. The rock dries pretty quick so I wouldn't really worry too much. It is very, very rare for it to rain more than one day in a row. 

There are primitive camping spots all along service road 700. There is an area on the right just past the entrance to the main campground that is among some rocks which is not bad, except for noise from I-80. But it is closest to the main area.

There are others farther along the road, too.

They can be filled by people from Cheyenne and Laramie on the weekend, so I would get there early if you are arriving on Friday.

Since there will be no water, you can go to the visitor center at the Sherman Monument to get water, or use the restroom.

It's Wyoming and around 8800 feet, so the weather can be iffy at any time of the year. I graduated from UW and usually it's not bad this time of year.

WYDOT has webcams right across from Vedauwoo that you can check snowpack on if there is much left by then.

There will be mosquites and it will be soggy if you go climb on Valley Massif.

It's a mostly a trad area so don't go there expecting much sport. Beehive has moderate sport but the Zach O. guide is horrible for that area - I tried to make it easier to identify routes with posts on Mountain Project. (Which is  interesting since he put in most of the routes.).