Best Tent Camping near Pray, MT

Snowbank is an excellent off-the-grid semi-developed and hosted FS campground.  Spacious and private sites better for small RVs, trailers, and all tents.  Clean vault toilets, bear-proof storage boxes, and plenty of community water spigots.  Decent picnic tables and fire rings at each site.  No hookups to my knowledge.  The campground is on recreation.gov and sites are reservable.  Access to a great trail and FS road from campground, other hiking nearby.  Also, a 20 minute drive to Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa (food, bar, soaking).  Expect to see wildlife, and this is grizzly country so proper food storage and best practices are required by law.  No cell service.  Excellent spot before or after visiting Yellowstone.

Eagle Creek campground is a nice small 16 site campground a few miles above Gardiner Montana and only a few minutes from the Yellowstone entrance.  Getting to the campground requires a steep 2 mile drive which the road recommends 4 wheel drive for to help with the incline and to prevent washboard.  Sites sit in a grassy open area with willows and other small trees and bushes around the edge.  Small creek runs along the campground.  Site #1 would the site to get it you can, out of view from the rest of camp and has two picnic tables.  The site has a vault toilet.  All sites have a metal fire ring and picnic table. Bear proof food lockers for food storage at most sites.  No water or trash service.  I filtered water from the creek.  Their is a horse Corral adjacent to campground.  Campground was nice and quiet at night with great view of the night sky.  No cell service.

Red Cliff is a large comfortable campground with a few electric sites; water is onsite at a well so fill bottles or onboard tanks to take to your site.  Sites are reservable through recreation.gov.  Many sites have shade most or all of the day, and they are not too close together.  Many sites are on the Gallatin River, an excellent fishery and pleasant location.  Many sites will accommodate large rigs, but small to medium trailers and RVs/camper vans are the norm. No cell service.

Vault toilets are well spaced and clean, no plumbed bathhouses.  Many recreation sites and opportunities are nearby and this is the closest campground to Big Sky Town and Resort which has grocers, breweries, shopping, restaurants, and a hospital.  It is still amidst wilderness, though adjacent to Hwy 191.  BEAR SAFE FOOD STORAGE IS REQUIRED BY LAW.  Bear boxes are provided at many sites, or lock up your stuff in a hard-sided vehicle.  You may see elk, deer and bear.

There is a great onsite trailhead for hiking and horseback riding.  The Cliffs themselves are developed for rock climbing with bolted sport routes from 5.6 up to 5.11 and 5.12.

This is a clean well-kept FS campground.

Pebble Creek was our favorite campground in Yellowstone National Park. A less crowded area of the park, probably why we loved it! 27 sites and all are available first come first serve- no reservations! The location and lack of reservations make this a quiet, peaceful campground. It sits at 6900 feet elevation. All sites have a table, fire ring, and food storage locker- it is bear country! There are vault toilets and seasonally there is potable drinking water. Our first night there we stayed in one of the"pull out sites" on the west side of the campground. It was ok, however they are not true pull outs, you just park on the side of the park road.... not bad considering the low use of this campground. On our second night we scored a spot on the east side right across from Pebble Creek.... it was perfect! We enjoyed drinks in our chairs at the creekside and a beautiful night listening to the peaceful sounds of the creek. It appears they have changed the site numbers since we visited to add some tent sites, so do not pay attention to the site markers in our old nostalgic photos!

About 20 minutes south of Bozeman, MT on scenic Hyalite Canyon Road sits Langohr Campground. There are 19 spacious single sites and the 20th site is a group picnic site for day use. Langohr Campground runs along Hyalite Creek and is tucked inside Custer Gallatin National Forest in a small open meadow with Douglas fir, Lodgepole pine, and Englemann Spruce. 

I was fortunate to find a campsite as a walk-in even after arriving mid-afternoon at the beginning of June 2019 because it was too late to reserve online. Each site does have a picnic table and fire ring, and electrical sites are available. Some are drive-in or back into sites, and a few are literally next to Hyalite Creek which is an added bonus. A heavy snowfall occurred a week before and remnants of it were scattered along the campground. Good thing I brought a snow scraper to clear the picnic table of snow. The fee is $20.00 per campsite for two vehicles and $8.00 for any additional vehicles. The group picnic site is $45.00 for day use. I paid cash for the site, but I believe you may also pay by credit card.

Many of the campers were settling in and had parked RVs and pop-ups. Pets are allowed but must be on a leash as wildlife such as bears, deers, moose, and elk frequent the area. Bear lockers should be used for food storage or properly stored in vehicles. There are huge bear safe trash and recycling containers near the entrance for campers to use. The bathroom is clean, free of odor and bugs, and it is a vault toilet. There are no showers, dump station, or camp store, but you are close to Bozeman.  The camp host was settled on site 11 and sells firewood for $6.00. You can take a walk along the Hyalite Creek or drive 3.5 miles south down to Hyalite Reservoir for other activities such as fishing, kayaking, canoeing, climbing, hiking, and boating. The night sky was pretty spectacular especially with the trees around on a clear day.

Red Cliff Campground is a large Forest Service campground in the Gallatin River canyon. The campground has 63 campsites which can be reserved. This nice campground is set among pine and spruce trees. Their are two sections to the campground, the south section is more heavily wooded and has electric sites for$28 a night. The north section is more open, especially at the uphill portion of the loop with sites for$20. Several campsites have steps leading up to the campsite. The entire area was very green, with nice tall grass cover through out the campground. The Campground is set across the Gallatin river from Hwy 191, allowing the river to slightly muffle the sound of the constant truck travel on the highway, still the road noise is the big downfall for this campground. Each site is equipped with a large picnic table and metal fire ring. Bear lockers for food storage are located though out the campground, but you might need to share space with others as one lockers serves multiple sites. Vault toilets are located through out the campground. Water is available as well as trash and recycling. If you need firewood it is available from the camp host. It appears that about 1/3 of the sites are located along the river. If you like to hike there is the Elkhorn trail head at the south end of the campground, and of coarse don't forget to bring that fishing pole.

Back country site 2S2 sits on the southern edge of the Slough creek valley just south of the main trail.  A brief hike along the access trail gets you to the site.  This site sits in a group of trees which makes for a nice location out of the sun and with some wind protection, but the trade off is limited views of the valley, and the view of the valley are the best part about hiking this part of the park.  Site has an excellent water source right next to the tent and cooking areas.  The site has several good flat locations for your tents.  While the cook/food area has a bear pole for hanging your food you will not need to use it as the camp has a bear locker for food/gear storage.  The bear locker also gives you a great flat cooking area that doesn't require bending over your campstove.  Fires are allowed when not restricted.  Site is limited to 6 people for a max stay of 3 nights.  Don't be surprised to find bison very near your camp as they rang through the valley.