Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Deer Lodge, MT

Wow this was a very unique camping experience up in the boulders. Had a lot of fun walking my dogs and cat up in there. (Yes my cat goes camping too). There was no water pumps on the campground, however there is a nice little creek running through that one could get water. Also there were vault toilets and the one we used was closer to the entrance of the campground. It was clean, however the door didn't lock. Really wish we didn't go on a holiday weekend as it sounded like a dirt bike ho-down and wasn't very relaxing. We will try again during the week or a non holiday weekend. The stars were gorgeous, and the bird watching was phenomenal. At least when there weren't dirt bikes.

This was a bit tight pulling our 35 ft fifth wheel, but just be careful with a couple of the turns. The campground roads need some work in spots - there were several potholes as deep as 6-8 inches - enough to jar your teeth out If you're not watching for them.

Sites are very nicely spaced with lots of sunlight and dappled shade. Everyone was pretty quiet and well mannered. I was a bit surprised by how empty this campground was during the week, despite it being summer. Mon-Fri I would say it wasn't more than 30-50% full. It did fill up on the weekends.

Stayed here two weeks in July. You're at 6000ish feet, so the weather is delightful in the summer. Some nice hiking is within walking distance, and Echo Lake is a decent workout from the campground.

There are several pressurized water spigots spaced around the campground, but oddly, they don't have a standard garden hose fitting. I have a 55 gallon bladder I fill and then I use a pump to fill my rig from the bladder. This saves me from having to move the rig to get water. The camp hosts site did have a standard hose fitting and he had no problem letting me fill the bladder several times during my stay.

There is a day use area (Red Bridge) across the street on Georgetown Lake, but there's not much there. Only a couple picnic tables and a boat ramp. No shade. No place to let the dogs swim and play fetch. I recommend going east back up Montana Route 1 a mile or so to the Grassy Point boat launch. Large parking lot with plenty of doggie access to the water for playing and fetching.

All in all, a nice place to spend a couple weeks.

I I initially found this on free campsites. Com. Though the official website is listed as BLM, BLM actually doesn't have Galena Gulch on their site. However, this is a clean and mowed campsite that is largely grassy field next to the boulder River. The mountainous and forested Recreation area surrounded it though.

There is plenty of space for RVs, though there are no hookups of any kind. There is no water and no electricity and no cell phone service. I have Verizon. I took a star away because there wasn't any water but added it back because it was free!

There were probably a dozen official sites that had fire rings and a parking spur. While there were a couple sizable rigs there, if your RV is so big that you must have a pull through, you will probably find this Campground challenging.

There was a large grassy area and another smaller grassy area that were simply open with no fire ring or parking spur. However, it was very easy to park on the grass and several people could pitch tents there if they wanted. I did this.

There are two side-by-side pit toilets and an information board in the center. They were clean and stocked. Once again, I want to emphasize that there is no water here. The boulder river is directly adjacent but locals in Montana don't consider any water safe.

There were multiple people there with their dogs and a great number of sites filled with RVs. At the time I was there there were only two of us tenting.

Your GPS will get you here, nearly. Take the exit it tells you and follow the directions. However, my GPS told me that I had arrived and I was looking at the boulder River on the right and houses on the left and no Campground. What you have to do is go up the road another hundred feet and follow the sign to turn right to Galena Recreation Area. This takes you on an underpass under the freeway and immediately becomes a gravel road that goes over a one-lane bridge. You can't make any wrong turn here. As soon as you cross the bridge you will see the campground immediately on your right. From the time you make the right hand turn to the campground it is probably a couple hundred feet.From getting off the freeway to the campsite is probably less than a mile

I was there for 3 night and it was full every night. However, the turnover seems high as it appears most people use it as an overnight on their travels, especially since there are not any services there. But it's a pretty area. Some people bring their ATV and use the dirt road that runs through the recreation Area to drive around. You can use that road to hike to , also the radon health mine is right up the road.

Bring water and food as you would have to drive 20 minutes back to Boulder to get services. Boulder's a cute small town with a few restaurants, a grocery store, gas stations and a very wonderful Hot Springs Resort.

We stayed at Beavertail Hill Campground about 30 minutes East of Missoula, Montana. It is a very pretty. The mountains surround the campground with a small river that runs next to the campground. I'm not much of a fisherman but it is very pretty. There are some short hiking trails around the campground. The campground was not full and was very quiet.

The campground is clean and the campsites have plenty of room. There are flush toilets and they are clean. I did not give this campground five stars because it lacks a shower house and feels more like a place to stay the night, it doesn't seem to have much to offer for longer stays.