Best RV Parks & Resorts near Helena National Forest

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.

Holter Dam Campground Review

Holter Dam Campground at Holter Dam Recreation site is a BLM 15 site campground located just below Holter Dam. All 15 sites at the campground feature covered picnic tables with a fire ring. All the sites sit along the edge of a very large parking area. 13 of the sites have plenty of room for tents on a nice flat grassy area. Two sites are close together and have limited room for tents. The campground has a double vault toilet with numerous water faucets, and dumpsters. A second vault toilet can be found at the boat ramp area just a short distance from the campground. An ADA campsite sits right in front of the vault toilets. The concrete pad for the ADA site extends to and surrounds the fire ring allowing wheelchairs to get as close to the fire as they want. Campsites run $10 an night (½ price for senior and access pass holders). Keep an eye out on the surrounding hills around the campground for Big Horn Sheep. While staying at the campground we saw 5 sheep on the hill next to the campground entrance.

Ranger review of the Wenzel Windy Pass Mummy 0° Sleeping bag

I was quiet pleased with the Windy Pass 0° Mummy sleeping bag. The bag is roomy, giving you room to turn around in the bags with out needing to have to bag turn with you. On the bags stuff sack it says it is a cold weather bag 0-20 degrees. I slept warm all night with the temps dropping into the low 30's with it raining all night (snow was on the ground on the hills above us). I was quiet pleased with the amount of padding the bag provided during the night as my sleeping pad failed to hold air, but I was still able to sleep comfortably on the hard ground. I got up several times during the night and each time I was able to warm back up in just a few minutes after getting back in to the bag. It will be interesting to test it out next winter in colder weather to see if it meets its temperature claims. I weighted the bag, and at 4 pounds 10 ounces, you might not be taking this one out on a backpacking trip, but for the front country camping you can't go wrong with this warm bag, specially for the price of $45.

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.

Helena National Forest's Park Lake Campground sits next to the beautiful Park Lake. A day use areas sits along the east side of the lake. The campground sits above the lake and features 22 campsites with metal fire rings and picnic tables. The campground is paved with paved parking pads. The campground has two vault toilets(a third one sits at the entrance to the campground in the day use area). Water is available from two hand pumps in the campground. This is a very nice campground with the sites nicely spread out from each other. The kids will love all the large boulders to climb on. Unlike a lot of other forest service campground that are off the beaten path, you will still get cell service at Park Lake since you sit on a high spot in the area. The lake provides fishing for Arctic Greyling, and Cutthroat trout. The lake is open to non-motorized watercraft. Follow the speed limit on the way up to the campground as the road can be very bumpy.

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.