Best RV Parks & Resorts near Lewis and Clark National Forest

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  The person at the front desk told me the $250 fine and eviction is because EVs overload the outdated system and cause a fire.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.

This is a newly developed campground, with two shower houses(rare in Montana) with flush toilets, as well as vault toilets. The sites are all spacious enough to accommodate two vehicles, both towing trailers or boats. There are three types of sites in the campground, Rustic (no water, sewer or electricity ), Electrical Only (no water or sewer) and Full Hook-up (water, sewer and electrical hook-ups). Campground has a store and gas is available. The day use area has a frisbee-golf coarse and beach volleyball. I was very impressed with the campground, leaps and bounds above the old campground.

Lewis and Clark National Forest Grasshopper Campground is a nice campground in the Castle Mountains. As you enter this campground you find a trail head to the left and then a picnic area to the right. The campsites start right after the first of two vault toilets for the campground. At the beginning of the campground loop, right behind the registration box you will find the hand pump for the campground. A creek runs right through the middle of the campground. One nice feature of this campground is once the campground gates are closed and locked, you can still drive to sites 1 and 2 as they are before the closure gate, so as long as you can still drive up the road you can camp. Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring. I did notice at least one site also had a BBQ grill in addition to the fire ring. Sites are $10 per night with a 16 day stay limit.

Easy access from 15 and nice RV spots. Boat launch ramp and small beach for swimming, fishing and for dogs to play. A sweet gem! No hook up but a pit toilet

The campground is nice enough, lots of brown grass throughout the park that if irrigated would look fantastic. There is a base rate for your camp spot the an up-charge of $5 a night if you have an electric spot and another $5 a night if your site has electricity. Using the dump station is $10 if you are not in full hookups, fresh water is available at two fill stations, unfortunately you cannot attach your own water filter to the fill stations as they have a hose that is not threaded and you cannot remove the hose.

THE ROAD….I’ve been on LOTS of washboarded roads in the US deserts and Mexico, but never such an unrelenting brutal one as the one to the campground from the highway. I am not the fly over at high speed guy, You may not feel the bumps in your car but your RV or trailer is being trashed. The road is also extremely dusty. If not for that road I would recommend this park, great facilities, launch ramp, docks but I am already dreading the drive back out.

The bathrooms and showers are spotless! Showers are 3 min for 25 cents.

The office staff and campground Hosts can’t be beat, the very best. They helped me immensely finding a spot during a busy summer week.

KOA 8/24: The area we stayed in is for medium sized rigs or smaller. It was wooded and very nice for a KOA. The larger spaces are in a newer and less shady portion of the campground.
FUN POOL PARK, PLAYGROUND, PETTING ZOO, SHORT TRAIL. GREAT ICE CREAM

(72 yr olds in 27’ trailer.)

Overall Rating: 4 Security: No locked gate Usage during visit: pretty full on weekends Visual Privacy Between Adjacent Sites: no Site Spacing: close Pad surface: blacktop Reservations: yes Campground Noise: Fairly quiet Outside Road Noise: no Through Traffic in campground: no Electric Hookup: yes Sewer Hookup: yes Dump Station: yes Potable Water Available: At site Bathroom: very nice Showers: yes / nice Pull Throughs: most all Cell Service (AT&T): fine Recent Weather: very hot Insects: none Host: staff Rig Size: large

Atkinson Park Campground at the north west corner of Cascade offers free camping at the north end of the park. Camping at the park appears to most suited to RV camping as they don't want any camping outside of the parking pads due to not wanting damage to their sprinkler system. That being said it appears that you should have room for your vehicle and a tent as long as you did not have a trailer with you. The park has a pavilion with running water, and BBQ grills. Flushing toilets are also available. The individual camp sites do not have tables or fire rings. Camping is limited to three nights. It appears that the campground has 4 sites, sites 2, 3 and 6 are marked, another spot which I assume is site 1 looks the same as 2& 3, could not find any place that might be sites 4 and 5. Additional recreational activities are available during your stay. The park has a nice sized playground, tennis courts, horseshoe pits and a skate park. For the RV crowd there is a free RV dump at the entrance to the campground. The campground sits along side the interstate so you will have plenty of road noise throughout the night. While this would not be my choice for a location to camp, it is a free camp ground that would be a good spot to stay the night for a tired traveler

This campground is huge it sits on a peninsula jutting out in the the Missouri River. Some spots have trees which provide much needed shade in this dry area. Deer came through the campground while we were there. We had a trailer but the sites seem primitive, no power or water hookups. There was a vault toilet and a place to pump water from but I think we were there right at the end of the season so the pumps might have been off. Trailer was easy to back into our slot, but several places had pull throughs. We would definitely stay here again.

Nice sites, leveled, bathrooms with only a sink. Water available if needed. Quiet peaceful, and a host couple that were very enjoyable. BLM recreation area, so only 15.00 a night. No electric or hookups.

The lake is right at the rear of your camper. Sites are extremely close together and only electric hookup. No sewer or water hook up. Must already have water or get it at the dump station at the entrance. You must use a bucket or jug for water at the campsites as the rangers no longer provide adapters for the hydrants. Not good as a little maintenance could fix any issues.

Very friendly. Campground store, campground hosts.

Lake access, boat access.

Pet friendly.

Picnic tables and gazebos throughout the park.

Clean bathrooms, outhouse and showers available.

Full electric, sewer hook up spots available.

No hookups, great fire pit and picnic tables. Plenty of space for multiple vehicles in each spot. Level and right by the water. All the spots have evening shade. Big mature trees. pit toilet if you need it