Looking for the best Helena National Forest RV camping? Finding a place to camp in Montana with your RV has never been easier. Each spot offers quick access to one or more of Helena National Forest's most popular destinations.
If you are looking for a casual, quiet park with friendly service come join us. During your stay; why not check out Helena and the surrounding areas.We are just a few minutes away from experiencing the beauty of the State Capital building, next to it is the Historical Society Museum. How about jumping on the tour train, or take a trolley ride downtown and hear about the uniqueness of our city.If you like boats, there are boat tours at the Gates of the Mountains or put your own boat on one of our three gorgeous lakes [Canyon Ferry, Hauser, and Holter.] Take a couple of hrs. and have a quiet picnic at the Tizer Botanical Gardens & Arboretum which is S of Helena in Jefferson City.Many things to see and do; so stay a couple of days. We offer Clean Showers, Laundry, TV and Lounge Room.
We are an RV Park/Campground conveniently located halfway between Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks nestled in the Smith River Valley. Acres of national forest surround us, with great access for fishing, hunting and exploring as well as local museums, hot Springs and reservoirs to visit. We have 47 Pull-thru sites available, most with full hookups and 20/30/50 amps. We also have space for tent camping, extra vehicle storage and many other amenities.
$25 - $45 / night
Note from the owner of Alhambra RV Park: The water at Alhambra RV Park is tested by an independent certified lab to ensure its safety. The non-potable designation was a legal issue with well certification issues inherited from previous owners. As of September 2018 our well status has been granted as public access by the State of Montana and all water testing has yielding safe to drink and use results. Reports are free to be reviewed by anyone at any time. We strive to be a natural setting RV Park in the spirit of National Forest camp grounds with the benefit of electricity, WiFi, and other modern conveniences.
Whether you're exploring the Rocky Mountain beauty of Montana or you're on a longer journey traveling throughout the West, the new Helena North KOA provides a convenient base camp. It lies just half a mile off I-15, with plenty of Pull-Thru RV sites for larger rigs. All RV sites have 30 or 50 amp service, along with a patio area and picnic table. In Helena, Montana's state capital, you can hop aboard the Last Chance Tour Train for an engaging open-air ride around the capitol grounds, through the mansion district and past a restored miner's village. About 10 miles north, boat tours take visitors up the Missouri River through a canyon of towering limestone walls - a historic route traveled by Lewis and Clark, who dubbed it the Gates of the Mountains. You'll find other spectacular mountain scenery to the north and south; Helena lies midway between Glacier and Yellowstone national parks.
Buzz in RV park is located on the east edge of East Helena, MT. It is a family owned and locally operated business. Conveniently located just a few miles from the City of Helena. Quick easy access to Montana's outdoor recreation areas - only 10 minutes for Lake Helena & Hauser Lake! We have recently worked through several upgrades to the park and park management. We over nightly/weekly/monthly RV rates and have full service hook ups for water, sewer and electrical. We have an onsite Laundry Mat as well as male & female bathrooms with showering facilities. We offer free WI-FI in the RV park area. We look forward to your visit! Managers are onsite & we also have an online application and payment process to make your stay hassle free!
Our motel and RV Park with full hook-ups is located on a lush lawn that sweeps all the way down to the Little Wolf Creek, which runs throughout the ranch. Little Wolf Creek is fed from fresh springs of the magnificent Rocky Mountains that encompass the ranch. The whole area is abundant with all the beauty nature has to offer.
Devil's Elbow Recreation Area is situated on the picturesque "Devil's Elbow" of Hauser Lake. Just a short drive from Helena, the area offers stunning views of the Big Belt and Elkhorn mountains. The area is overflowing with outdoor adventure opportunities. Whether you're into fishing, hunting, wildlife viewing, hiking, mountain biking, boating or all of the above; all of these things are immediately accessed from (the greater) Hauser Lake Recreation Area. There is surely an activity for everyone! While just a short drive from Helena, the state capital; the feeling of seclusion and abundant nature is sure to impress.
Devil's Elbow offers excellent recreational access. Devil's Elbow has a small beach area, picnic areas, as well as a ramada/pavilion with power and lights, available by advanced reservation. There are vault toilets located in convenient locations throughout the area. There is a network of non-motorized dirt, gravel and paved trails throughout Devil's Elbow, Two Camps Vista and Clark's Bay that allow you to walk or bike around the area without contending with vehicles. There are multiple trails within the larger Hauser Lake Recreation area, as well as multiple fishing access sites, hunting access, wildlife viewing and of course, boating. There are several world class mountain biking trails in the area as well. The recreation opportunities in the area are truly boundless.
Devil's Elbow offers excellent recreational access. Devil's Elbow has a small beach area, picnic areas, as well as a ramada/pavilion with power and lights, available by advanced reservation. There are vault toilets located in convenient locations throughout the area. There is a network of non-motorized dirt, gravel and paved trails throughout Devil's Elbow, Two Camps Vista and Clark's Bay that allow you to walk or bike around the area without contending with vehicles. There are multiple trails within the larger Hauser Lake Recreation area, as well as multiple fishing access sites, hunting access, wildlife viewing and of course, boating. There are several world class mountain biking trails in the area as well. The recreation opportunities in the area are truly boundless.
The campground and day use areas are situated in a shrub-steppe landscape, mostly comprised of sage brush and bunch grasses. Every campsite has a view of the lake and mountains. While there are some ponderosa pine and deciduous trees throughout the area, they are scarce and do not provide a large amount of shade, but the lake does help keep the temperatures down a bit on those hot summer days.
Devil's Elbow is located in a prime location to get out and recreate outdoors, or within the capital of Montana. There are hundreds of miles of trails, Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands, state parks, the Lewis and Clark Trail and so much more. Helena (only a short drive away) has all the amenities of a large city with small town charm. There are great restaurants, museums, the capitol building, old mining settlements, Last Chance Gulch, Reeder's Alley and a vibrant downtown with a walking mall area.
Reservation Cancellations & Changes ___ Cancelling a Reservation: Customers may cancel their reservation prior to arrival both on-line and through the call center. A $10 service fee will be withheld from any refund for a cancellation. Depending on when you cancel in relation to your arrival day, it may be considered a late cancellation (see below). ___ Group Facility (including Cabins and Lookouts): Customers who cancel a group overnight facility reservation less than 14 days before the arrival date will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee. Late Cancellations or Cancellations within the Cut-off Window ___ Individual Campsites: A customer who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee (not to exceed the total paid for the original reservation). Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. The recreation.gov cancellation policy can be found here: https://www.recreation.gov/rules-reservation-policies
$25 / night
GuideThere was no sign for this campsite on the highway. I just pulled off the highway where it said access to National Forest, and it appeared fairly close to the highway. There were only half a dozen sites or so, and no amenities. And of course, no cost. I think the actual Moose Creek Campground is farther up the road and away from the highway. But this was perfect for someone who is caravaning and needed a quick place to stop. It's right on the creek and it was delightful. There was one other camper in there the evening I was there.
Scout
Our stay at Lost Moose Meadows Campground was perfect! What a beautiful location in Lincoln, MT. It’s the perfect place to camp and hit the trails on an ATV or side by side. The wife and I, along with our puppy, spent 3 days and 2 nights in early October. The campground is well maintained, every site has hookups, a fire pit and plenty of room for privacy. The restrooms/showers are very accommodating, clean and smelled good. The wife thought they were the best she had the pleasure of utilizing! Our hosts, Matt and Nicole Simpkins, were a pleasure. If you are going to RV in Lincoln, MT, I would definitely recommend this campground. They’re prices are cheap and even offer a military discount.
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.
Scout
We weren’t able to reserve a site but plenty of ff first come sites. Most sites are large that will accommodate a camper and boat trailer. All are back in.
ScoutThis is our second visit to lost moose meadows, again it was an awesome experience! The owners are very down to earth wonderful and eager to assist with whatever you may need. I look forward to visiting with them with each visit. Beautiful space very spread out and restrooms/shower facilities very clean and well kept. campers are situated to where they are not right on top of each other, in-fact are very generously spaced apart. It is close to the community of Lincoln Mt and there are ample opportunities to recreate in the vicinity. Alway looke forward to returning.
Legend
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.
Scout
amazing campground
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.
ScoutI recently stayed two nights at Lost Moose, Newer park with lots of space in-between sites. Reservations online was simple. I arrived after the office was closed, but had an email with instructions on how to complete the check in. Great view of the surrounding mountains as the park is in an open meadow. I will definitely stay here again.
Scout
Maybe one acceptable loop, perhaps mostly for boaters. But there are 3 other loops: nothing is labeled, so good luck in finding your spot. The Manager site is not labeled either, and she was of no help. Dry, hard ground, no trees, nothing that might make a visit enjoyable. No drinking water; arid, depressing; i kept waiting for the undead to come over the horizon.
Pretty Lake, though.
TravelerOnly 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.
GuideA lot of water stations. The boat dock parking area allowed camping along the perimeter. A few paved walking paths near the beach area. The narrow paved roads made life interesting. The fish cleaning station is closed due to vandalism. Our first day was 105F which made the lake more inviting. Evening low of 76F. No pets on the fairly small swim beach. All other water access has large rocks for erosion mitigation.
Our Saturday departure was delayed by FWP boat inspection at the entrance and a long line was inbound to Holter Lake.
Scout
We were passing through and needed a place to camp. We were surprised how well kept and beautiful the campground is! The host was amazing and works really hard to keep the sites in tip top shape. The lake is right against the sites and makes for a beautiful place to stay.
Ranger
Beautiful spot! Right by the river! We got the last spot down by the river and the pit toilet. $18 for non residents. Bring your own toilet paper, the toilet was not stocked very well. Fire pits and picnic table at each site. Just beautiful views! By far my favorite spot this trip!
Guide
Love the spot, not many people, picnic tables/fire pits at each pull through spot. Pit toilet was locked. The mosquitoes were absolutely blood thirsty and aggressive and after multiple reapplications of bug spray we had to call it quits. The fire barely kept them at bay, but we still got a few bites sitting next to the heat.
Traveler
Big rigs have a great space at the bottom of the hill... but if you're in a truck, van, etc., head on up the hill. The road is in great shape. There are some pullouts, but look for a road on the right (veer left at the private drive; you'll see a sign) and you'll find a great site with a fire ring and somewhat level ground. Chances are it'll be COVERED in cow poop, but hey. It's quiet, aside from the mooing of cows, and totally private. There's probably more up the road, too, I just didn't go further. Solitude.
Scout
Pulled in around 10 to find a couple 5th wheels in a circle and a few vans dispersed, only one sketchy motor home but quiet night. We stayed in the camper all night as the mosquitos were the worse I’ve ever seen at all hours.
Guide
We didn’t stay at this exact site as it was taken but there one more dispersed site about a mile or so down the road.
Was nice being close to the creek and there was lots of fallen trees we used for firewood.
Quiet spot with a small amount of traffic on the road.
Didn’t see any wildlife but the horseflies were a bit out of control this time of the year.
Guide
Quiet and almost empty Wednesday/Thursday but not only full weekend 100am wakeup call from a ski boat with a deafening sound system.[The other side of the lake]
The access to the lake was between other campsites but it was too steep for my wife. Site 61 was a tight squeeze at 33' because of an incline at the rear of 2'. Excellent sunsets and moonrises with plenty of room between the sites. No shade at sites but some trees/shrubs on the shoreline.
Guide
Easy 1 night stay on the river. Pretty quiet. Clean
Scout
The prior review is spot on. There is really no good place for a tent. You could park a camper along the parking area near the campsite. As stated prior, it is next to the outhouse, but which was clean and odor-free. You can use waders to fish by the boat landing. The site/boat landing was busy during the day but abandoned except for me in the evening. So, I liked the privacy. According to the interpretive sign, Lewis and Clark had breakfast here in 1805. Kinda cool! And I had breakfast here in 2024: but, I drove. Road noise quiets down when it gets dark but starts up by daybreak.
Scout
Couldn't camp as it was full on a Thursday in June. Couldn't find and was told there's no water. Very, very busy landing for fishing boats. The town alongside it (Craig) has a nice restaurant / bar and a brew pub.
ScoutMatt and Nichole are wonderful owners and host. The campground is large and quiet. It is big rig friendly, which is a bonus for us. It’s a perfect place to camp, fish, sightsee and just enjoy being outside. I would give it 10 stars if I could!
Traveler
Agree with the previous reviews. We stayed with our van and the space was ok, although tricky to find a flat surface. Fees still as shown in the previous pictures.
Scout
Was able to get a spot right on the water late on a Saturday night. Quiet, fire rings tables and restrooms. Not much to complain about.
Traveler
Beautiful setting, peaceful and quiet.
GuideCraig Fishing Access campground 10 sites. Unseasonably warm, beautiful early spring day by the Missouri River. There are no campers, but the sites are clean, seem to be well taken care of. One vault in the campground another at the vault at the fishing access to the front of the campground. Private property in the back of the campground several campsites close to the river are shaded which in the summer would be perfect. Some noise from I-15.
Frequently Asked Questions
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