Canyon Ferry Lake is an ideal place for camping adventures of all kinds. Canyon Ferry Lake is a great camping destination for everyone. There are tons of nearby hikes, adventurous activities, and sights to see. You're sure to find the perfect campground for your Canyon Ferry Lake camping trip.
"This is a nice camping area although the sites are fairly close to each other. There are bugs because of the nearby pond."
"They do have a dump station on site though."
$25 - $45 / night
"All pull through. No shade at all."
"Very clean all pull through sites. Camp hosts Todd and Pam where fantastic. Great views. Wish we could have stayed longer."
$56 / night
"Since our rig stands tall at 13’ 6”, we played it safe and took the Hardy exit instead. Smooth sailing right to the park!"
"We were the only nomads all the other campers were local seasonal fishing guides so it was very quiet. The lodge and rooms are nice."
"Good, level, graveled sites. Full hookup pull-thrus that have a decent amount of space between sites. Bathrooms and showers very clean. Friendly staff."
"Only spent one night, but level sites, full hook ups, showers and laundry clean. An area to play games and we didn’t have our dogs this time but the dog zone looked good and clean."
RangerThe staff were very friendly and as helpful as possible. The restrooms and showers were nice and clean. Small store, nice pavilion area and a huge dog area. I did not see a playground area. The sites are very small and very crowded. A small fire ring and picnic table at each site however to sit on our picnic table one of us would have to sit directly beside our neighbors sewer dump. At our site two lengths of sewer hose wouldn’t reach from our tank to the sewer dump, so even though we paid for full hookups we were only able to utilize water and electric. The roads in the park are also very tight and in my opinion not very big rig friendly.
RangerThis was a safe easy stop along the way from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park. $35. for a tent site with water hookup. Nothing fancy — a wooded parking lot with fire rings and picnic tables. Better than most RV lots. All spaces are pull through (huge relief traveling with a tiny cargo trailer that’s impossible to back up. No privacy. Hookups, laundry, bathrooms. The tent sites without hookups were cuter. The gate closes at 10. Check-in ends at 9p.m. Surrounded by farmland.
LegendOur goal is to leave an unbiased review for future campers. First, don’t check in until 2:00 PM. The billeting office is closed for lunch and doesn’t get back until 2:00. As you don’t have a site number and you’ll need a key for the utilities, it will not do you any good to arrive early. Using our RV GPS, we headed off I-90 onto US-12 into Helena. At West Helena we turned on Williams St., which brought us to the VA Medical Center, then less than a 1/4 mile further to the South Gate. The gate is locked. When we called 406-324-3970(main gate) prior to our arrival, we were told to park in front of the gate and call the number on the post to have security come and let us in. The private security guard checked our IDs, reservation confirmation email, and then called in our names and truck license plate number. We were then told to head to the three story building where the billeting office is located and park in front of the building near the stepped entrance. This is not a large base/post, so don’t worry about getting lost. A lot of reviews talked about going through the North Gate, but as of this writing, they are using the South Gate for arrivals and departures. The main gate barriers are too narrow for a large RV. The billeting office is on the first floor straight a few yards and to the right after you enter the building and also where the free laundry is located. The FamCamp campground (CG) was simple to find, and we went to pull through FHU site 7 with 50/30/20 AMP. Not all the sites in this small CG have 50 AMP. The pull through was easy enough to get into, but its narrow with 9” high cement curbs, which makes getting your sewer up and over a bit of a challenge. They placed a brick thing at each site to help level your sewer hose. Also, depending on how your stairs deploy, dealing with the curb can be a challenge. In our opinion, the cement curbs are a horrible design. This site’s gravel pad was not level, so we had to use our leveler blocks. Water pressure was good at about 50 psi. There’s no CG Wifi, but we had our Starlink, plus we got a 4 bar Verizon signal. There are 12 sites here with row 1-7 being FHUs with 50/30/20 AMP and the back row 8-12 are 30/20 AMP. The sites are close to each other. We had a large class A in the adjacent site and its slideout came to our large cement picnic table. There’s a small restroom building but no showers. There are 6 RV or Tent sites where you could dry camp. There’s no obvious water spigot, but there are grass watering spigots. We saw reviews about a camp host, but we did not notice one. We departed at 10:50 AM and billeting called wondering if we had departed. If you don't turn in your key by 11:00 AM, you are charged an extra day. We were not unsatisfied with our stay, especially the good service and free laundry. But for a three day stay, due to their check in/out procedures, and site challenges, we’ll pass on this CG in the future.
LegendThis is a small KOA. Super friendly staff. Sites are shady unless you have a big rig - that area does not have shade. Decent dog park. Decent playground. I did not use the bath house so can’t comment on that. No pool, but did have a nice patio area with tables and chairs behind the store. I just stayed one night as we are on the road home. I do have one complaint and that is the sprinklers that came on overnight - it soaked the chairs and picnic table by our camper. I think the friendliness of the staff and the shady sites are the main reason for 5 stars.
RangerCampground is in great location. Right on water just 6 miles off of main highway. It is a gravel road but super easy (no potholes) & big rig friendly. Sites right on water. Open sky for starlink and decent cell service. A little loud during day for day use area (boat ramp & beach area), but quiets down in evening. Picnic table and fire pits at campsites. No hookups but sites are relatively level. Beautiful 360 views. Can book easily on recreation site. Also pit toilets and water stations. Mosquitos are heavy in evening but that’s part of being around water.
LegendHolter Dam Campground Review
Holter Dam Campground at Holter Dam Recreation site is a BLM 15 site campground located just below Holter Dam. All 15 sites at the campground feature covered picnic tables with a fire ring. All the sites sit along the edge of a very large parking area. 13 of the sites have plenty of room for tents on a nice flat grassy area. Two sites are close together and have limited room for tents. The campground has a double vault toilet with numerous water faucets, and dumpsters. A second vault toilet can be found at the boat ramp area just a short distance from the campground. An ADA campsite sits right in front of the vault toilets. The concrete pad for the ADA site extends to and surrounds the fire ring allowing wheelchairs to get as close to the fire as they want. Campsites run $10 an night (½ price for senior and access pass holders). Keep an eye out on the surrounding hills around the campground for Big Horn Sheep. While staying at the campground we saw 5 sheep on the hill next to the campground entrance.
Ranger review of the Wenzel Windy Pass Mummy 0° Sleeping bag
I was quiet pleased with the Windy Pass 0° Mummy sleeping bag. The bag is roomy, giving you room to turn around in the bags with out needing to have to bag turn with you. On the bags stuff sack it says it is a cold weather bag 0-20 degrees. I slept warm all night with the temps dropping into the low 30's with it raining all night (snow was on the ground on the hills above us). I was quiet pleased with the amount of padding the bag provided during the night as my sleeping pad failed to hold air, but I was still able to sleep comfortably on the hard ground. I got up several times during the night and each time I was able to warm back up in just a few minutes after getting back in to the bag. It will be interesting to test it out next winter in colder weather to see if it meets its temperature claims. I weighted the bag, and at 4 pounds 10 ounces, you might not be taking this one out on a backpacking trip, but for the front country camping you can't go wrong with this warm bag, specially for the price of $45.
ScoutCarter Lake south shore. NIce pull through sites with electric. Dump station with easy access. Many sites on the lake and more with lake view. Many shaded sites. Boats allowed. Very pleasant experience.
GuideThis is a typical KOA. First the good:
Friendly helpful staff until their gone at closing time. Little mini store with a few essentials.
Clean bathrooms and showers and clean laundry room with several washers/dryers. $2.00 per load to wash. Can't remember how much to dry. Very cool pinball machine that costs 25 cents per game. Fun fun fun! Another bathroom/shower in middle of park but I never looked inside that one.
65 sites that most have full hook-up and pull-through. A few cool tent sites with gas BBQs. Some cool looking cabins but I never looked inside one. I'm here on 8/24/2024 and RV park is sold out except 3 pull-through sites. All tent sites were full. I don't know about the cabins.
Cool playground for kids and large mostly gravel dog run.
Edit added: AT&T has 5G and three bars. KOA has wifi but slow slow slow I got 3MPS so instead of KOA wifi I used my iPhone Personal Hotspot that worked great.
THE BAD (and reason for only 3 stars):
All gravel roads and sites throughout the park. Very close together. Some sites have a very narrow strip of grass. Some of the picknick tables need to be re-painted. Unfortunately while eating breakfast you could be 2 feet away from the next RV dumping their sewer. P.U. The luxury sites don't have that problem. They are at the end of each row and only have a neighbor on the drivers side. I think well worth the extra 17 bucks.
Not ADA friendly. Very hard for someone with a walker to get around because of gravel roads/sites. Someone with a wheel chair near impossible. Has a nice handicap shower in main office building. Only problem is that once I take my walker in with me it's very tight and no room to move around.
Not EV car friendly. There is a $250 fine and eviction if you plug in your car. The person at the front desk told me the $250 fine and eviction is because EVs overload the outdated system and cause a fire. This KOA is an older one and was wired before EVs. Each individual site has its own 30 amp and 50 amp circuit breaker.
Some trees but few and far between. No pool or hot tub.
Final thoughts: Make reservations well in advance if you can. This KOA is the best game in town and is mostly sold out in summer. I think (sorry I don't know for sure) there is only one other RV park in town and from what I can tell, it is a much older one. I would proceed with caution before I booked it. Good traveling. See you on the road.
GuideThis is a typical KOA. First the good: Friendly helpful staff until their gone at closing time. Little mini store with a few essentials. Clean bathrooms and showers and clean laundry room with several washers/dryers.$2.00 per load to wash. Can't remember how much to dry. Very cool pinball machine that costs 25 cents per game. Fun fun fun! Another bathroom/shower in middle of park but I never looked inside that one. 65 sites that most have full hook-up and pull-through. A few cool tent sites with gas BBQs. Some cool looking cabins but I never looked inside one. I'm here on 8/24/2024 and RV park is sold out except 3 pull-through sites. All tent sites were full. I don't know about the cabins. Cool playground for kids and large mostly gravel dog run. Edit added: AT&T has 5G and three bars. KOA has wifi but slow slow slow I got 3MPS so instead of KOA wifi I used my iPhone Personal Hotspot that worked great. THE BAD(and reason for only 3 stars): All gravel roads and sites throughout the park. Very close together. Some sites have a very narrow strip of grass. Some of the picknick tables need to be re-painted. Unfortunately while eating breakfast you could be 2 feet away from the next RV dumping their sewer. P.U. The luxury sites don't have that problem. They are at the end of each row and only have a neighbor on the drivers side. I think well worth the extra 17 bucks. Not ADA friendly. Very hard for someone with a walker to get around because of gravel roads/sites. Someone with a wheel chair near impossible. Has a nice handicap shower in main office building. Only problem is that once I take my walker in with me it's very tight and no room to move around. Not EV car friendly. There is a$250 fine and eviction if you plug in your car. The person at the front desk told me the$250 fine and eviction is because EVs overload the outdated system and cause a fire. This KOA is an older one and was wired before EVs. Each individual site has its own 30 amp and 50 amp circuit breaker. Some trees but few and far between. No pool or hot tub. Final thoughts: Make reservations well in advance if you can. This KOA is the best game in town and is mostly sold out in summer. I think(sorry I don't know for sure) there is only one other RV park in town and from what I can tell, it is a much older one. I would proceed with caution before I booked it. Good traveling. See you on the road.
Canyon Ferry Lake in Montana offers a variety of RV camping options that cater to different preferences and needs, making it a great destination for outdoor enthusiasts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What RV parks and campgrounds are available at Canyon Ferry Lake near Helena, MT?
Canyon Ferry Lake offers several RV-friendly campgrounds with various amenities. White Earth Campground is located right on the water with big-rig friendly access just 6 miles off the main highway. Cottonwood Campground provides a smaller, more intimate setting with 4 sites near the lake and boat access via a launch in the day use area. Other options include Silos Campground, Confederate Campground, Indian Road Campground, and Kim's Marina & RV Resort. For those willing to stay a bit further from the lake, Fort Harrison RV Park in Helena offers military-affiliated camping.
What amenities do RV parks offer at Canyon Ferry Lake?
RV parks around Canyon Ferry Lake offer varying amenity levels to meet different camping needs. Helena North KOA provides level, graveled full hookup pull-through sites, clean bathrooms and showers, laundry facilities ($2 per load), a mini store with essentials, and even entertainment like a pinball machine. Kim's Marina & RV Resort offers water access and toilet facilities with convenient marina services. Many public campgrounds like Holter Dam Rec. Site feature covered picnic tables, fire rings, and boat launches. Most sites include basic amenities such as picnic tables and fire rings, while some offer electric hookups, dump stations, and water access.
When is the best time of year for RV camping at Canyon Ferry Lake considering weather conditions?
The optimal time for RV camping at Canyon Ferry Lake is late spring through early fall (May to September), when temperatures are most pleasant and facilities are fully operational. Holter Dam Rec. Site Campground and other public campgrounds in the area typically have their peak season during these months. Late summer (July-August) offers warm days perfect for water recreation, though it can be busier. Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park maintains accessible RV sites with electric hookups throughout the season. Some campgrounds remain open in October with fewer crowds and beautiful fall colors, though nighttime temperatures begin dropping significantly. Always check current conditions before traveling.
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