Searching for a tent campsite near Helena National Forest? You can find tent campsites by type, including drive-in, walk-in, and even hike-in for a backpacking adventure. Search nearby tent campgrounds or find top-rated spots from other campers.
The Log Gulch Recreation Site provides visitors with 70 campsites with a 7 day stay limit. All but two of the campsites can accommodate RV or tent camping (or a combination of both); two campsites are tent-only sites. While tent camping is available at all campsites, only a limited number have grassy or optimally flat tent camping surfaces. Campsites are primitive, without hookups, but each campsite does have a fire pit and picnic table. Potable water is accessible at various locations throughout the area. Note, quiet hours are from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. (no generators during this time). Do not camp outside numbered sites. Camp hosts or staff members are typically available onsite 7 days a week, from Memorial Day through Labor Day. This site has a loading dock with a boat ramp on each side. Two docks with boat slips are also available on a first-come, first-served basis. Boat slips are included in the camping/day use fee. A fish cleaning station is also available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The recreation site also has a beach with an enclosed swimming area, available Memorial Day through Labor Day (no lifeguard on duty). Restrooms are available throughout the site, and the restroom closest to the beach has a changing room. Two ramada shelters are also available for public use. The upper ramada is available if group reservations are not in effect. The lower ramada is available on a first-come, first served basis. Call the Butte Field Office for reservation details. Hiking trails are accessible from the park.
$15 / night
Coulter Campground offers 5 boat-in campsites on the east side of Upper Holter Lake and adjacent to the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. Approximately 1 mile north is a large day-use area (Meriwether Picnic Site) with wilderness access and boat docks. A scenic river trail provides access between the campground and picnic site. The campground, located within a scenic river canyon, provides excellent opportunities for wildlife viewing. Fish Your National Forests: Fish available include: Trout, Walleye; Types of fishing available include: Shore, Motorized boat, Spin, Bait;
The Indian Meadows Trailhead provides access into the Scapegoat Wilderness. The site is not usually accessible by passenger vehicles until late May.
General Notes: Provides access to the Scapegoat Wilderness. Food Storage order in effect. Limited stock campsites available.
Parking: Ample parking provided for large stock trailers.
Traveler
This site is technically just a walk to your tent site. There are places to park, so if you have a van you can go stealth and park and sleep here. There area 6 parking spots and 1 handy capped spot. Of these really only the one right next to the ADA spot is level enough for van sleeping. (This is where we parked.). There was one other person sleeping in the lot near us. The other people were tent camping at the designated tent spots. There are 3 tent spots.
Scout
I went just overnight to go watch the metor shower. I camped in a tent. Deer wandered into the campground throughout the night and morning. You can hear logging creek moving from no matter where you are. The road was a lil rough with the washed out gullies in the road with the cattle guards. But I overall loved it.
Traveler
Very well kept. Not just a group use area. Nice trailer or tent sites. Clean restrooms and fresh water. Wonderful camp hosts. Beautiful spot on Blackfoot river. Only 6 miles to Lincoln, Montana if you need anything.
Traveler
Great Playground, close to tent sites. Nice staff and great coffee and beautiful setting!
Legend
This is the 3rd and final disperse site that the Helena National Forest has marked along the little Blackfoot River. It is nice to be sure that you are on public land when in an area checker boarded with private land. This is a large flat camping area with plenty of room for tents and several RV's. Site has a large rock fire ring, and the river is only a few short flat feet away. Plenty of wood can be found for making a fire. Site is near the road, but very little traffic comes this way as you are almost at the roads end. Water can be easily filtered from the river (more like a creek at this point)
Scout
Overall, this is a great spot to camp. Tent camped one night, and had no issues. Bugs are very minimal for being right next to the creek. I will say the road up, has seen much much better days. The speed limit on this road is 45, and I didn’t catch myself going over 15mph. Heavy washboarding, and deep potholes. Drove a Transit van.
Scout
Was a pretty decent campground to camp at. It was mostly TT staying there at the time we went and seen wildlife within the first 30 min of setting up. Swimming area is nice and water was warm however it may have been too hot to tent camp. There was only a few places to find shade to set up a tent but we were unable to fine a shady spot for throughout the day that's the only reason for the 4 and not 5 stars.
Legend
Bumped in to this disperse campsite while heading out for a hike. This is one of three disperse campsite along the Little Blackfoot River in the Helena National Forest that have been marked by the Forest Service as a disperse camping area. This is a nice large flat right next to the creek with plenty of room for multiple tents or RVs. The site has a large rock fire ring and the big bonus of having a picnic table. A short trail leads to the river, but does require a little bit of scrambling. The River (more of a creek at this point) has a nice spot if you need to cool off from the summer heat. Another short trail goes up a small hill and leads to an area with lots of fallen trees which can be cut for firewood if fire restrictions are not in place. The only bad thing about this disperse site is that it is right next to the road.
Traveler
This is a hidden gem near the west end of Holter Lake. Over 50 sites with views of the mountains, Holter Lake, and the sleeping giant from various points in the campground. Wildlife abound and fishing galore. Most sites are big enough for a camper and level enough for tents. There is a pavilion and group tent site at the back of the campground, too. Trails connect it to other points of interest nearby.
Legend
Indian Meadows Trailhead is the trailhead for two trails in to the Helena National Forest Scapegoat Wilderness Area, plus it features a camping area with picnic tables and metal fire rings along with a vault toilet. The camping loop has five developed sites with tables and fire rings. The area serves as the trail head for two trails, Mainline Trail #481 and Landers Fork Trail #438. Each trail head has a small parking area, but a very large parking are is between the two to allow for additional parking and for horse trailer parking. No water or trash service is available at the site, but can be obtained at the Copper Creek campground a few miles away. Cost is FREE!
Legend
Kaden Campground is a Helena National Forest Campground just about at the end of the road, the trail head for Blackfeet Meadows Trail is just a short distance past the campground. Kaden Campground is across the road from the Kaden Cabin which can be reserved. The campground has 11 sites, all quite roomy and nicely spread out. Each Site has a picnic table and metal fire ring. The campground has running water from two faucets. Two Vault toilets serve the campground. This is a Trash-in Trash-out campground. Two feeding areas are available for horses, and A small public corral is located across the road from the campground. The little Blackfoot River runs along the campground and is easy to access. If you are in the need for a hike, take the short trail at the end of the campground to the Blackfoot Meadows Trail head. A 5 mile hike (10 round trip) will take you to Blackfoot Meadows and some very good fly fishing.
Scout
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.
Legend
Departure Point campground is basically camping in a parking lot. Four "campsites" are lined parking spots in a large paved area with a picnic table and fire ring at the end of the parking spot. The four spots are right next to each other. If you want to set up a tent you will be setting it up on the pavement. The area has two vault toilets, running water and trash service. Down below the camping area is a nice day use area with four picnic tables three of which are covered and right on the edge of the lake. Camping is not allowed in the day use area along the lake. So if you want to tent camp you will want to head to one of the other BLM campgrounds on the lake.
Guide
We were able to get a site for the night in June only because it was a Thursday night. I was told it books up early for weekends by reservation. We got a tent site (parked in lot, walked to site maybe 50 feet). It was perfect with shade and right next to the water. Many sites had little or no shade, though. My son loved finding a few toads in the water. The deer seemed to have a route right next to our site and came out by the water in the evening. It was beautiful. Many places to walk around and explore.
Legend
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.
Legend
Hooper Park is a nice city park on the east side of town which contains a camping area. The campground has RV sites with electric and water hookup and sites with out hookups for tent camping. Campsites sit in a nice flat grassy area under large ponderosa pines. Restroom facilities area available as well as trash bins. Camp sites prices are based on the type of camping you are doing, RV vs Tent and if you are using an electric site or not. The park has a large pavilion that comes in handy if it starts raining and you want to eat your meal while staying dry. The park/campground is on the east side of town and a short walk just about everything Lincoln has to offer. This is a good spot to stay if you are traveling and need an easy to find campsite with out having to travel miles down a forest se
Legend
Quigley Group Use Area use to be called McDonald Pass Group Use Area, and the names can be confusing as the old entrance still has a sign saying“McDonald Pass Group Use Area” The new and current entrance list the area as Quigley Group Use Area. What ever name you call it, this is a primitive group use area. You will find one vault toilet for the area and that is about it. Their is a loop for the group use area that at times is paved, but most is a dirt two track. Most of the pull offs in the area have become overgrown. You will not find any metal fire rings, several rock rings have been built. Their are no picnic tables here to use. The site has no water or trash service. The closest water will be at Cromwell Dixon Campground which you will need to drive to as it is two far to walk to. So if you have a group planning on using this site be prepared to bring everything except a toilet. Finding information about this group use area is hard as the Helena National Forest web page does not have anything listed for it. What I was able to find out is that the site is currently free, but the Forest Service has proposed that the fee go to$50 for the site. I stayed here about 8 years ago during a Boy Scout camp. During our stay we cleaned up the tree debris in the area, but since then the parking pads that we used have almost disappeared. This group use area is really suffering from lack of use and maintenance.
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.
LegendCooper Creek Campground is a nice quiet campground in the Helena National Forest. Cooper Creek Campground offers 20 sites with metal fire rings and concrete picnic tables, and has three vault toilets and potable Water is available from a hand pump. For those who like to fish, the campground is along Cooper Creek and Snowbird lake is just across the road from the campground. Like to hike, the trailhead for Snowbank Creek/Sucker Creek trail is just across the road next to Snowbird lake. The trailhead has plenty of parking space and a Vault Toilet. Like bears, good, this is grizzly bear country so Food Storage Order is in effect. You will have to store your food in your vehicle as storage lockers are not available. Campground does have trash service. Cost in 2018 was $8 a night put this is planned to go up to $15 next year, but still well worth the price.
A Ranger review of the Vivobarefoot Primus Trail SG / Soft Ground.
I really like these shoe, but when I first pulled them out the box I wasn't sure. My first experience with these shoes was a little hard, hard as in, these shoes were hard to get in to. I though I was going to have to send these back, but I finally got them on. These shoe need to be broke in as they are very snug around the ankle. Luckily the shoes get easier to put on as you wear them, but still a bit of a challenge. That snug fit at the top of the shoe has its advantage, you don't get debris in your shoe as there is no room for anything to make its way into the shoe.
I was concerned at first that these shoes would not provide enough protection from rocks, but after taking them out on the trail my mind was changed. I was able to hike a rocky trail easily and comfortably, I even purposely stepped on loose rocks to see how it would feel. While I could feel the rocks, the shoe was tough enough to protect my feet, even the front of the shoe has enough material to protect your toes if you stub your toe on a rock.
A few things to note when you take the shoes out of the box, be sure to put the inserts in the shoes. I missed them at first and wore the shoes for several days before noticing them. While they are slim, those inserts made the shoes so much more comfortable. The shoes have elastic laces, but also come with a set of traditional laces, but the shoes fit so well I could probably go without the laces at all.
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.
Legend
Small camp area at a Montana Fishing Access site. Sites are at a pull off on Recreation Road. Two sites at the fishing access site. Both have a table and fire ring. One outhouse is at the site, no trash bins. Fee for staying, fee based on if you have a fishing license or not. Good location to cool off on a hot day as the creek is shallow. Some noise from the near by I-15. Better as an RV site than a tent.
Legend
Galena Gulch Campground is a free nicely maintained BLM campground just off of interstate 15 south of Boulder Montana. This campground has 10 sites all with metal fire rings and picnic tables. Two ADA accessible vault toilets serve the campground. This is a trash-in trash-out campground. Be sure to bring your own water as there is no water at this campground. Most sites sit along the Boulder River. Camping is limited to 14 days. This is a busy campground despite it not being listed on the BLM's website and their being no indication from the interstate that the campground is present. The main drawbacks of this campground is the noise from I-15 and how busy the campground is. The sites are nicely spread out giving you plenty of room. The entire campground has nice grass covering and is well maintained making finding a good spot for your tent an easy choir.
Legend
Chinamen's Campground has 30+ sites however most of the sites are small and many tent campers may have a hard time finding a spot to pitch a tent in many of the sites. Good sites fill up fast. Campground has a boat launch area. An ADA spot and Vault toilet is available.
LegendHolter Lake Recreation Area campground is a very nice campground with 52 camp sites. The entire campground including parking pads is paved. The site also has a swimming beach, boat ramp, docks, fish cleaning station, and accessible fishing walkway. The site has several vault toilets as well as water faucets through out the campground. This is a very busy campground with sites filling up fast, especially on the weekends. All sites are first come first serve, no reservations. If you want to avoid the crowd bring a tent and camp in the tent only area, when we visited no one was using the eight tent only sites, yet all the other sites in the camp ground were full. Each campsite has a fire-pit and picnic table.
Ranger
Good campground for RVs, gets windy and not much shade for tent campers.
Ranger
All sites have close access to water. Nice RV sites and some good shade sites for tents.
GuideThis site has extensive day-use picnic areas and a regular campground. This is a totally open site with no shade or privacy. If you don’t have a boat and don’t want to BBQ, there’s not much to do, but the views are pretty all around. Went here with a local. If you’re visiting Montana from out of state there are, IMHO, much more beautiful and Montana-y options.
Tent camping near Helena National Forest in Montana offers a blend of stunning natural beauty and a variety of outdoor activities. With several well-reviewed campgrounds, campers can enjoy the great outdoors while having access to essential amenities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular tent campsite near Helena National Forest?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Helena National Forest is Fish Hawk Campground with a 3.3-star rating from 4 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 18 tent camping locations near Helena National Forest, with real photos and reviews from campers.
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