Best Tent Camping near Clancy, MT

This site is technically just a walk to your tent site. There are places to park, so if you have a van you can go stealth and park and sleep here. There area 6 parking spots and 1 handy capped spot. Of these really only the one right next to the ADA spot is level enough for van sleeping. (This is where we parked.). There was one other person sleeping in the lot near us. The other people were tent camping at the designated tent spots. There are 3 tent spots.

Very well kept. Not just a group use area. Nice trailer or tent sites. Clean restrooms and fresh water. Wonderful camp hosts. Beautiful spot on Blackfoot river. Only 6 miles to Lincoln, Montana if you need anything.

$14/night tent camping. Spent two nights. Thursday night was great. Plenty of site for everybody to spread out. Friday night was much more crowded. Sites are all nice and flat and level for tent camping. Vault toilets are very clean. There is a playground if you have kids. Decent hiking, unfortunately the caves themselves were closed during our stay. Easy access from I-90. Would stay again mid-week or off season, but during prime time I'd prefer a bit more seclusion.

If you are in a tent they will gouge you for $40 per tent for a crappy tent site with no services, no grass, and uneven ground. Also they will refuse to give you a receipt if you pay cash. Our group had 4 tents so we spent $160 on a poorly maintained tent site. It was an outrageous amount. A large RV and pickup truck pulled in to a site right after us and they paid $40 for that whole site. One good note is that the showers were clean and nicely done.

I called 30 minutes before our arrival for a tent camping spot and the host was easily able to accommodate us. Two men met us in a golf cart and drive us to our nice grassy site. The campground had coin showers with hot water and a family friendly rec room.

Was a pretty decent campground to camp at. It was mostly TT staying there at the time we went and seen wildlife within the first 30 min of setting up. Swimming area is nice and water was warm however it may have been too hot to tent camp. There was only a few places to find shade to set up a tent but we were unable to fine a shady spot for throughout the day that's the only reason for the 4 and not 5 stars.

Near the town of Three Forks, to which there are both short/scenic bike trails and an 18-miler. 6 of the 17 tent sites are 1st-come, 1st-serve. With a ton of historical displays, friendly park rangers, an open-air, welcoming vibe and a sprawling variety of other things to explore, staying here will put a smile on your face.  There's decent distance between some of the sites, but some of them aren't very large.

I rolled into this place because White Sandy BLM was closed on Nov 1. This CG looks to stay open year round because it has a boat launch. The water was turned off and the main bathhouse was closed for the season. Two pit toilets remain open. The electric service was still on for the sites. The tent only sites were not suitable for van camping and require a walk to the tent site. I used the RV site and about half of them a siamese type sites with gravel pads. I was the only one here so this didn’t matter. Cell service on Verizon is one bar 3G so I set up my starlink.

Hooper Park is a nice city park on the east side of town which contains a camping area. The campground has RV sites with electric and water hookup and sites with out hookups for tent camping. Campsites sit in a nice flat grassy area under large ponderosa pines. Restroom facilities area available as well as trash bins. Camp sites prices are based on the type of camping you are doing, RV vs Tent and if you are using an electric site or not. The park has a large pavilion that comes in handy if it starts raining and you want to eat your meal while staying dry. The park/campground is on the east side of town and a short walk just about everything Lincoln has to offer. This is a good spot to stay if you are traveling and need an easy to find campsite with out having to travel miles down a forest se

This 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.

This 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.

Lost Creek is in a beautiful canyon spot, with numerous (25) sites to accommodate all types of campers (huge RV’s to tents). Camping spots are nice, but close to one another and the campground is often full. This means, if you do find a spot, you will have to deal with neighbors . There is a beautiful hiking trail that starts at the top of the campground and there is a beautiful waterfall and rushing creek that is a pleasure to listen to at night. (It almost drowns out the noise from neighboring campers if you find a spot on the creek.)

The campground at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park has all the amenities you would need. Power and water hook ups, bathrooms and showers, a nice big playground for the kids. But, it feels more like a big parking lot with little shade or privacy. Great if you are in a camper, but maybe less appealing if you are tent camping. The campground lies at the base of the mountain that the caverns are in--about 3 miles. Once you are up near the caverns there is plenty of parking for RVs or cars. There is also a shady area to kennel your dogs for a fee, as they are not allowed in the caverns. There is also a small deli and a gift shop.

The total hike to and through the caverns is about 2 miles and about 2 hours. The hike to the caverns is about half a mile, and was fine for our 4 year old. However, the two year old, we carried in a pack. Once inside the caverns, there are over 600 stairs and a lot of bending and stooping, so take that into consideration if anyone in your party has mobility issues. There are handrails throughout and no particularly dangerous areas, other than some slippery spots. As long as children are old enough to know to stay near, they should be fine walking and holding hands.

Our 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.

Galena Gulch Campground is a free nicely maintained BLM campground just off of interstate 15 south of Boulder Montana. This campground has 10 sites all with metal fire rings and picnic tables. Two ADA accessible vault toilets serve the campground. This is a trash-in trash-out campground. Be sure to bring your own water as there is no water at this campground. Most sites sit along the Boulder River. Camping is limited to 14 days. This is a busy campground despite it not being listed on the BLM's website and their being no indication from the interstate that the campground is present. The main drawbacks of this campground is the noise from I-15 and how busy the campground is. The sites are nicely spread out giving you plenty of room. The entire campground has nice grass covering and is well maintained making finding a good spot for your tent an easy choir.