Best Tent Camping near Three Forks, MT

Between the free coffee, breakfast, & hot spring access our stay was worth it. Tent sites were small, no privacy. I wish we would have had our RV. Not an ideal place to tent camp in my opinion. Near a busy (noisy) highway. Clean facilities. Staff were all friendly & helpful.

This is your average family campground with RV park and grass closely packed tent campground (like literally right on top of one another split by single pine trees). Very much like a KOA (pool, shop, WiFi, showers, laundry etc.) but half the price ($26/night for basic tent site). No fire pits, there is a picnic table for each site.

Near the town of Three Forks, to which there are both short/scenic bike trails and an 18-miler. 6 of the 17 tent sites are 1st-come, 1st-serve. With a ton of historical displays, friendly park rangers, an open-air, welcoming vibe and a sprawling variety of other things to explore, staying here will put a smile on your face.  There's decent distance between some of the sites, but some of them aren't very large.

$14/night tent camping. Spent two nights. Thursday night was great. Plenty of site for everybody to spread out. Friday night was much more crowded. Sites are all nice and flat and level for tent camping. Vault toilets are very clean. There is a playground if you have kids. Decent hiking, unfortunately the caves themselves were closed during our stay. Easy access from I-90. Would stay again mid-week or off season, but during prime time I'd prefer a bit more seclusion.

If you are in a tent they will gouge you for $40 per tent for a crappy tent site with no services, no grass, and uneven ground. Also they will refuse to give you a receipt if you pay cash. Our group had 4 tents so we spent $160 on a poorly maintained tent site. It was an outrageous amount. A large RV and pickup truck pulled in to a site right after us and they paid $40 for that whole site. One good note is that the showers were clean and nicely done.

$60 for a late check in tent site. Pass

OK this place is awesome. Great hotsprings. Greatly needed after hiking in the area. Clean rv and tent camping. Supurb staff. Lots of things to do for the kids. Free breakfast. Lots and lots to do in the town.

I really hated my time here. I gave 2 stars because the people are nice and the site and facilities are generally well kept. Maybe my problems were largely seasonal, I stayed in mid September. First of all the tent sites are very close to a highway which is busy with big rigs and traffic all night, there is also a train that goes off as it nears. While I was here next door was also construction that had vehicles beeping early in the morning. Sleeping here was rough, I woke up from noise at all hours. The other main issue for me was the bugs. They were on EVERYTHING (pictured), again, maybe a seasonal issue. The tent sites are also under these trees that drop sticky leaves all over the site and leave a sticky residue all over your car and tent. RV camping here is probably much better because it's quieter and not so close to the road. I would recommend, at least in this season, spending a little more and going to the hot springs campground.

Beautiful sunsets, clean bathrooms and laundry room. We tent camped and the grounds are beautiful. Fun little hike behind the campground to see the hills and valley. Pool is great, does get busy in the middle of the day. It does have a lot of road noise and trains but I love the train sounds so it isn’t an issue for us. Friendly and kind staff, overall wonderful campground if you want to be close to Bozeman.

At more than $60/night for a primitive tent site, I only popped for this spot because I needed reliable service for a meeting the next morning.

The hot springs themselves were man-made pools and packed when I was there.

If I was in an RV and spending a long weekend in Bozeman, this spot was conveniently located.

Just a little pricey for my needs!

The campground was clean and well built. The showers are okay, but very low water pressure and smelling of sulphur. I believe the hot water is fed by the natural hot spring. I was a bit frustrated that they required us to stay in a "deluxe" tent site with a truck tent, as they a re quite a bit more expensive. We were also forced to find a new campground after two days because they shut down half of their campground for the season, even though the other half was completely booked up for weeks in advance.

We came in late and it was already dark. That may have contributed to the confusion in where to go when we first got there, but once we were there it was fine. Not a lot of privacy between spots but to pull in, set up camp and leave the next day it was worth it.

We LOVED visiting with the horses and they were very friendly and did not even mind when our dogs barked at them.

Biggest negative is that you can hear all the highway noise and trucks like to jake-break in this area. On the other side of the highway there were railroad tracks. The train blew its horn through this area ‘frequently and when it stopped you could hear all the train cars smashing together. This woke me up a couple times throughout the night but otherwise fine.

There is a pit toilet, with hand sanitizer.

We camped in a tent with our 2 dogs and young toddler.

Despite the lack of some amenities (e.g., no showers and no firewood for sale when we were there), we greatly enjoyed our stay at this National Forest campground located right on the Gallatin River. As kayakers, we were there to paddle the river so we couldn't have asked for a better location. We stayed in tent site #11, right on the river, which also served as our put-in for the class III-IV Greek Creek to Spanish Creek whitewater run. The campground is easy to find right on Hwy 191 but once off the road and down by the river, it has a more remote feel to it. Campsites are wooded and we saw bighorn sheep right along the road! Groceries are available about 5 miles away. Reservations for this campground can be made online at www.recreation.gov or by calling 1-877-444-6777.

Great layout, Bozeman is a super nice location, and these people don’t skimp on the hot springs pools. 15-20 different sulfur pools, all of different temps. The pools were both indoor and outdoor, with one big enough to do laps in. Workout area with 20-30 aerobic machines and plenty of weights, a sauna and steam room and fantastic front desk service. The tent sites are - again for an RV location - in an open lawn area with no privacy. And I must admit to being spoiled from Japanese onsens, where cleaning/bathing is an important ritual for everyone, where there are pools with lavender, pools to get energized, pools good for various ailments, etc. Here in Bozeman, the only variations between the pools were size and temp. Again, if you hadn’t been to Japan, this place gets A and B grades from a lot of people. It’s just hard for me to see people who obviously haven’t taken a shower get in the pools.

The campground at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park has all the amenities you would need. Power and water hook ups, bathrooms and showers, a nice big playground for the kids. But, it feels more like a big parking lot with little shade or privacy. Great if you are in a camper, but maybe less appealing if you are tent camping. The campground lies at the base of the mountain that the caverns are in--about 3 miles. Once you are up near the caverns there is plenty of parking for RVs or cars. There is also a shady area to kennel your dogs for a fee, as they are not allowed in the caverns. There is also a small deli and a gift shop.

The total hike to and through the caverns is about 2 miles and about 2 hours. The hike to the caverns is about half a mile, and was fine for our 4 year old. However, the two year old, we carried in a pack. Once inside the caverns, there are over 600 stairs and a lot of bending and stooping, so take that into consideration if anyone in your party has mobility issues. There are handrails throughout and no particularly dangerous areas, other than some slippery spots. As long as children are old enough to know to stay near, they should be fine walking and holding hands.