Best Tent Camping near Fort Smith, MT

Reservations: 877-444-6777 or recreation.gov 

Sites: 25 15 single with electric 9 single without electric 1 tent site 

Fee: $18.00 $23.00 for electric $10.00 additional vehicle 

Reservable sites: 16 single (14 with electric) 

Open: June with electric, during winter electric loop is closed 

Limit: 14 days 

Bear Aware, potable water, pit toilets, host on site, bear box, lantern pole, picnic table, fire ring, grill, fish cleaning table. There is a "small" lake in the campground. The pit toilet is very clean. While closed for season the amenities are closed the campground remains open. It runs on a Pack it in, Pack it out. Beautiful pine forest with amazing mountains for the backdrop.

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Limit:  14 days

June 1 - October 1

Sites:  15 single accessible 

Fee:  $17.00 per night, additional vehicle fee $9.00

Reservations:  877-444-6777 or recreation.gov

In season there is potable water, trash service, out of season NO water, NO trash.  Pack it in Pack it out, Host on site.  Picnic table, fire ring, lantern post, ped grill, pit toilets.  The views are amazing with the beautiful mountains for the back drop.  Sites are dirt and short and close together.  Some shade and some sun.  There is even a place to off load 4 wheeler out of back of truck without ramps.

LNT

BTYFI

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This campground has really gorgeous scenery. The picnic tables, fire pits and sun/wind shades are all newer and well kept. Clearly states bear area and to keep all foods properly contained. However as far as I've seen there are only bear boxes in the picnic area by the marina and there's really no trees around. You would have to use a bear safe container or the sun/wind shades to hang your food if your in a tent but not all sites have them. A lot of sites have water and electric in loops A and B. There is a water fill and dump station on the road before the turn off of the campground. The potable water has a nozzle on it and you can not hook a hose to it. However the sites with water have a normal garden hose spigot. My only complaint would be the people are inconsiderate and quite loud all day and there's not many people here. It's not even half full but some are clearly quite drunk most of the day. There's a family that pulled in and set up right around 10 pm right next to us. Banging and screaming about for over an hour. Our neighbors just let their dog run loose. Ive found discarded fish carcasses that someone had filleted and just tossed behind a bush. Also a lot of trash all over the place. The first site in loop A is marked as the host...I've never seen them so clearly they dont care. So as long as you dont want peace and quiet then this place is fine. I cant imagine what it's like when it's mostly full on the weekend. We really wanted to see the canyon though so we opted to stay here for the night on the way to Custer national forest.

I got lucky here and scored site #18 which was very private and at the end of a lollipop loop. While this site is further away from the creek and closer to the road, it was still quieter than sites on the creek(which were all taken anyway). There is a little trickle of a creek nearby that did a nice job of drowning out the road noise in the evening. There was a nice little trail that went up the hill and overlooked the bigger Prune Creek and all of the people floating and tubing down the creek. If you want a site on the creek, the best ones seemed to be#6-9. My site had the usual picnic table and fire pit, and nice hammock trees. I did find it interesting that while the dumpsters were bear proofed, there were no bear boxes at every campsite. There were two bear boxes and both were next to the water pumps. The vault toilets were not especially clean, most likely due to the heavy use by creek floaters and tubers. While walking down to the creek I noticed that there was some dedicated parking for fishermen, which I guess means that there may be some people in the campground that are not camping.

This campground has several loops that nicely disperse campers. The sites have some great tree cover. We loved the layout of some sites. The camper pad was separated from the picnic tables by some trees too. Water is available at a couple hand pumps that are out in the open. Clean restrooms and trash cans are here too. 

Our interest in this campground was built by the closeness to Medicine Wheel National Monument. It is a sacred place that is worth the time to see. There are some national forest roads that go off the main route. The drawback was the lack of trees and forest but the expansive views made up for it.

Bear Country

Sites:  27

Reservations:  877-444-6777 or recreation.gov

On site Host 

Limit:  14 days

Fees:  $18.00 with $9.00 for extra vehicle

Open:  June - September end of season

Water during season stays open but geared down services

Bear Aware, bear safe, picnic table, grill, fire ring.  Gravel sites that are fairly flat with pine forest in and among the sites.  Pit toilet was very clean.  This campground is over 8000 feet with no electric.  There are several sites that are great for solar.  Loop A closes early in the fall.  During season the camp host sells firewood.  This is a beautiful campground with wonderful backdrop.

From Dayton, Wyoming: Travel 26.5 miles west on U.S. Highway 14 to Burgess Junction. Take a left and continue 5 miles south on U.S. Highway 14, then turn east(right) onto Forest Road 26. Travel about 2 miles to the junction with Forest Road 16, where the campground is located.

LNT

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Montana is such a beautiful state! The hiking and outdoor activities are limitless! My family and I go to Montana once every few years because he outdoor life is hard to stay away from. We stayed at this campground because there is some really good hikes nearby and we wanted to see this part of Montana. The campground was pretty good, just s typical campground. The restrooms weren’t the cleanest, but they were portapotties which to me are never clean! Bring your own toilet paper, they ran out the last day we stayed. Each site has its own picnic table and fire ring. Within the campground there is a large grass area where people were playing horseshoes, volleyball and spike ball. My family and I enjoyed hanging out in this area, throwing a frisbee around with our dog. Again? Highly recommend hiking in the areas nearby! We also went to the lake that was close by! Enjoyed swimming and playing fetch in the water with our dog. Loved our stay and can’t wait to come back!