Best Tent Camping near Nashua, MT

General: 86-site US Army Corps of Engineers Campground located on the Missouri River in four loops, each with a different name: Lismas, New Deal, Wheeler, and Faranuf. Wheeler is for tent sites, the camper pads are gravel, and there are no electric hookups; the other three loops have mostly 30-amp but several 50-amp sites and the camper pads are paved. Faranuf has pull-thru sites that can accommodate larger RVs. 

Site Quality: All sites are level and are spaced a decent distance apart from each other. There are some trees for shade but still many are in full sun. 

Bath/Shower House: The New Deal and Wheeler loops have vault toilets and Lismas, and Faranuf have flush toilets and showers. The restroom in Faranuf is air-conditioned! The one in Lismas appears new (the old one is still standing but roped off) but points off for no soap! Also no hand sanitizer in the vault toilet in New Deal. 

Activities: There is a paved recreation path that circles the campground and is about 2.5 miles. Other recreation activities include basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, cornhole, disk golf, and two playgrounds (one in Faranuf and the other in the day-use area). Recreation equipment is available to borrow. There is also a wonderful interpretive center where you can learn about the history of the dam, as well as past and present wildlife. In the summer, it is open Friday– Monday, 9 am– 4 pm and the hours are less in other seasons. A must if you have kids! Many in the campground had boats. Kelly, the volunteer at the gatehouse, was effusive about all the area had to offer. 

We were only there for one night passing through, but we did visit the interpretive center, and run on the nature trail. The only bummer about this campground was the persistent wasps that made eating and sitting outside challenging.

This is one of the best places to take in that Big Sky that Montana is famous for!  The combination of the rolling hills that seem to go on forever and the reservoir make this a great spot to camp!  There are tons of opportunities to recreate in so many different ways!  At most of the grassy camping peninsulas you can launch your boat or SUP right into the water!  There are places where you can get some solitude and other places that are fit for a reunion or weekend party/getaway!

Now getting to the actual campsites.  Most of them are relatively primitive with only a few fire rings and picnic tables scattered about.  The grassy peninsulas are also not really split into individual campsites and it feels more like a camping field.  This means that if its busy your neighbors will likely be right on top of you if you can't get one of the isolated spots.  There are vault toilets near most of the spots along with running water at the day-use areas.  Another great thing about these spots is the presence of a great fish cleaning station!  To get cheap gas and food head into the nearby town of Glasgow which will be at least $1 cheaper per gallon than the marina pumps

We stayed in OF 8, which has no hookups. The site, as is many around it, is huge. This site is nearest road so keep that in mind. Traffic was relatively quiet when we were there during weekday. Many sites have view of water although some are just peekaboo. Shade in many sites but not the big OF sites. Sites with hookups have nice paved pad. A few of these are really deluxe being off on their own with great views. Campground is not walking distance from lake. Lake is impressively HUGE. Nice fire ring at each site. Most sites appear to not be super level. We did fine in 8.

This was the first place we tried in this area for a free spot to camp on the way from Banff/Jasper to Wisconsin. It was decently busy with a few spots left when we arrived at 2:30pm on a Saturday. By the end of the night all the spots were filled with people squeezing their rigs in between “sites”. There are numbered picnic tables and fire rings, but also campers dispersed throughout. You can walk right down to the water and there were plenty of people boating and swimming. Vault toilets were clean, no other amenities. Sunset was beautiful! There were some large groups with multiple RVs together and 5+ cars- it looked like they had been there for a while. I didn’t have any trouble sleeping but my boyfriend said there were generators running all night and some fireworks around 11:30p. Overall felt safe, worked for what we needed, and was free!