Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Fort Peck Project

Very spacious campground. I was impressed with the sites - lots of mature trees, and they have a reasonably long (4ish mile) nature trail.

One thing I found disappointing was that there is very little river or lake access nearby without a boat. I could barely find any place to let my dog cool off in the lake. Even the nature trail never gets closer than about 50 yards to the river, and is separated from it by a swampy, mosquito infested, cattail laden barrier. They need to provide more beach access. The only swimming beach is a few miles up the road, and as you guessed, NO DOGS ALLOWED. That's a shame, because my dog is cleaner and better behaved than most people.

Be aware that this part of Montana is the Great Plains, and it gets very hot in the summer. Right now, July 24th we're supposed to have a high of 102. And my particular campsite has NO SHADE whatsoever.

This is a much better place to stay if you have a boat, as the lake is really the only attraction here. It's just too bad there is such limited access unless you have a boat. 

The nearest town is Glasgow, some, 20ish miles away, and there ain't much there. Fort Peck is closer, about 4 miles, but there's nothing there but a little convenience store.

IMPORTANT: If you're coming in from the east or west on US 2, BE SURE YOU TAKE THE "TRUCK ROUTE" Highway 42 down to the lake, NOT the regular Highway 42, which has a VERY LOW CLEARANCE BRIDGE. I had to stop, and flag down a sheriff's deputy who graciously held traffic up so I could back out of my predicament. There's no warning sign. I made a right hand turn onto 42, and BOOM, there it was a block up the road. 12 feet, 2 inches. My 5th wheel is 13'6".

**NOT FUN**

**IMPORTANT: Don't be tempted to park under the cottonwood trees. Your vehicle will be COVERED with some kind of sap...took two car washes to get it off.
**

This is a primitive campground in the American Prairie Reserve.  It seems to be a relatively unknown place and we were the only people in the campground for the night (there are 6 tent sites and 7 RV).  It was about 40 miles of high-quality gravel road to get here.  Near the campground, there is a research HQ for the reserve which is not open to the public and otherwise we didn't see anyone else the entire time.  

Tent sites are walk-in and and on platforms, which you are required to use.  This means if you have two tents like us, you'll need two sites.  You tie the tents down to lashing points on on the side of the platform.  Each site has a fire pit, picnic table and there is a community covered picnic area and fire pit as well.  Free firewood is available next to the toilets.  There are vault toilets and non-potable water sources in the loop.  The walk-in is only about 15-50 yards, depending on the site.  From the campground, there is a small auditorium and nature trail available.  Bugs were pretty bad the night we were there, so we didn't try much of the nature trail.  

Everything felt new and almost unused, like the campground had just opened.  The toilets were only okay in cleanliness, the main reason I took off a star.  It was a fantastic experience for the kids.  A buffalo herd roamed the area and even through the campground at night and in the morning.  Prairie dog towns were all over.  It was one of our most memorable camping experiences but definitely come prepared since nothing is available on site or nearby.  Many of the roads in the preserve are in pretty primitive shape so 4WD is recommended to get around the preserve, but you won’t need it to access the camp site.  We had a big windstorm come through during the night, so lash down carefully!

This is one of the best places to take in that Big Sky that Montana is famous for!  The combination of the rolling hills that seem to go on forever and the reservoir make this a great spot to camp!  There are tons of opportunities to recreate in so many different ways!  At most of the grassy camping peninsulas you can launch your boat or SUP right into the water!  There are places where you can get some solitude and other places that are fit for a reunion or weekend party/getaway!

Now getting to the actual campsites.  Most of them are relatively primitive with only a few fire rings and picnic tables scattered about.  The grassy peninsulas are also not really split into individual campsites and it feels more like a camping field.  This means that if its busy your neighbors will likely be right on top of you if you can't get one of the isolated spots.  There are vault toilets near most of the spots along with running water at the day-use areas.  Another great thing about these spots is the presence of a great fish cleaning station!  To get cheap gas and food head into the nearby town of Glasgow which will be at least $1 cheaper per gallon than the marina pumps

Our RV GPS and Waze wanted us to turn on 6th St in Glasgow, which has a 12’ 2” bridge under the railroad tracks. We had seen a review with this warning and seems they have mounted a sign right at the 6th St. turn that warns of the low bridge. We went two blocks further to 4th St. which is the truck route that took us to MT-24 for a 14 mile drive into Ft. Peck Marina. Once we got close, we followed the signs to Fort Peck Marina. We had tried to get reservations at a nearby COE with no luck and found this Campground(CG) via a Google Maps search. We saw the RV Park and pulled into the front of the CG area and took a 200 yard walk down to the tackle shop to check in. The road goes around by the tackle shop and boat ramp and we could have parked down there to check in, but as we are pulling a 40' rig and we couldn't actually see down there we didn't want to risk pulling down the road. Check in was quick. We were not given any kind of CG map or rules sheet. We then proceeded to the CG’s upper level to back-in site 33 with water and 50/30/20 AMP. The CG is essentially a large, well graveled parking lot. There was a ton of room in front of the site, so backing in was a breeze. The electric and water are at the back of the site, so we needed 25 feet of electric cord and water hose to reach the utilities. The site sloped to the driver’s side and we needed to place leveling blocks under that side’s tires. We had no issues with the electric, thankfully, as we were under a heat warning when we were there. Water was okay at about 40 PSI, but had a bad taste, even with our three filter system. There are no trees in the CG, so there was no problem getting a north shot for Starlink. We got 3 bars on Verizon. There’s no Wifi. The sites are long and just wide enough so you can park a boat. Most of the campers here are seasonal and for the most part, they keep their rigs and stuff around the site organized. But, be careful in the vegetated areas as most do not have their dogs on a leash and let them poop where ever. At first, we were wondering how the seasonals are doing their blackwater as the sign as you enter the marina states the nearest dump station is 3.5 miles, which is at Downstream COE CG. The man at the bait shop stated there’s a nice dump station in Glasgow at Scottie's Express Car Wash. He also said there’s a waste truck that will come out to the CG and pump you out, which is what the seasonal guests use. There are no shower facilities here but there is a vaulted restroom near the boat ramp that’s about 150 yards away. We checked out the Downstream COE we had tried to get into and it definiely would have been a better option, but this was our only option at the time.

Notd that this campground has changed management and so is now technically the Hell Creek Recreation Area, so if Google maps tells you it's closed don't worry about it! You'll still get to the right place.

Other reviewers were not exaggerating about the road to get there. It was 20 miles of bumpy gravel road, took us 1.5 hours to get over and our motorhome hated every second of it. It was absolutely stunning though, and I have to imagine that if we hadn't been in a motorhome we might have felt very differently.

Only electricity at our site, very limited shared water source, and the showers were coin operated. The staff person there was so nice and welcoming.

So, if you have a vehicle that can handle a difficult road and you're willing to rough it a tiny bit, I would definitely recommend this place. If not, maybe skip it for now.