Looking for the best Townsend RV camping? Finding a place to camp in Montana with your RV is easier than ever. Whether you're looking for a quiet location in the woods or a happening campground near the attractions, The Dyrt makes it easy to find the perfect place to park your RV.
Cardwell General Store and Campground, located off I-90 at exit 256, is locally owned and operated in beautiful Cardwell, Montana. Centrally located between Butte and Bozeman in the Jefferson Valley of Montana, it is nestled in the tiny ranching community of Cardwell. Laundry, restroom, shower and wifi are some of the amenities offered for our guests.
The RV Park is located directly behind the general store, which offers a wide variety of goods and services to locals and travelers alike. Fishing supplies, tackle, & bait are available for purchase, as well as firewood. The gas pumps are open 24/7 for credit card users, and an ATM is on site. Inside the General Store is an Espresso bar with fantastic coffee drinks! a candy store and a ice cream shop with the best shakes ever including Huckleberry!
The Cardwell General Store and Campground is open year round and harbors thirty-eight pull-through RV sites, up to 60' max, and six dry tent sites. We also have one fully furnished dry cabin. It comes with a queen sized bed with included bedding, table and chairs, mini fridge and Microwave. Heat and Air Conditioning also in this cabin! The cabin is super nice and fairly close to the shower house and you will enjoy it!
The facility includes a covered pavilion, and horseshoe pits for summer evening barbecues with family and friends. For campground guests the North Boulder River and Jefferson River are easily accessible nearby. Plenty of log furniture, swing sets and lovers swings to rest and visit!
Laundromat, restroom, and shower services are available to guests. There is a designated pet walk area for campers or travelers with pets. All pets must be leashed at all times. No exceptions. WIFI is available to our guests. A laundry facility is available free of charge to guests.
If you are looking for a casual, quiet park with friendly service come join us. During your stay; why not check out Helena and the surrounding areas.We are just a few minutes away from experiencing the beauty of the State Capital building, next to it is the Historical Society Museum. How about jumping on the tour train, or take a trolley ride downtown and hear about the uniqueness of our city.If you like boats, there are boat tours at the Gates of the Mountains or put your own boat on one of our three gorgeous lakes [Canyon Ferry, Hauser, and Holter.] Take a couple of hrs. and have a quiet picnic at the Tizer Botanical Gardens & Arboretum which is S of Helena in Jefferson City.Many things to see and do; so stay a couple of days. We offer Clean Showers, Laundry, TV and Lounge Room.
We are an RV Park/Campground conveniently located halfway between Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks nestled in the Smith River Valley. Acres of national forest surround us, with great access for fishing, hunting and exploring as well as local museums, hot Springs and reservoirs to visit. We have 47 Pull-thru sites available, most with full hookups and 20/30/50 amps. We also have space for tent camping, extra vehicle storage and many other amenities.
$25 - $45 / night
Bozeman Campground is located in a peaceful setting, just five minutes from golfing as well as fly-fishing on the Gallatin River. Plan a day trip to Virginia City or Lewis and Clark Caverns. Visit the Museum of the Rockies, which boasts the world's largest T. Rex skull. Take a day trip to Yellowstone National Park from this campground. Just 40 minutes south, you'll find fishing access inside Yellowstone, and 82 miles south is the west entrance to the park. Relax at the campground and let the kids take part in gold panning or let them unwind in the pool and splash park.
Dump Station & showers for registered campground guests only
$45 - $100 / night
Note from the owner of Alhambra RV Park: The water at Alhambra RV Park is tested by an independent certified lab to ensure its safety. The non-potable designation was a legal issue with well certification issues inherited from previous owners. As of September 2018 our well status has been granted as public access by the State of Montana and all water testing has yielding safe to drink and use results. Reports are free to be reviewed by anyone at any time. We strive to be a natural setting RV Park in the spirit of National Forest camp grounds with the benefit of electricity, WiFi, and other modern conveniences.
GuideThere was no sign for this campsite on the highway. I just pulled off the highway where it said access to National Forest, and it appeared fairly close to the highway. There were only half a dozen sites or so, and no amenities. And of course, no cost. I think the actual Moose Creek Campground is farther up the road and away from the highway. But this was perfect for someone who is caravaning and needed a quick place to stop. It's right on the creek and it was delightful. There was one other camper in there the evening I was there.
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.
Guide
This place seemed promising at first. It was hard to find a decent spot at night due to only using headlights of my van. Most of the road is extremely rugged/uneven/full of large holes. The only place I was able to stay for the night was the road leading up to the locked gate. This is about the only nice spot. Other than that this place is • quiet w/occasional traffic along the high way (right next to reservoir) • very few people here, but far enough away from me • no fee required • provides OK view to the mountains • great when you bring along a pet • you will need to be fully prepared for primitive camping
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.
Scout
amazing campground
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.
Legend
Was able to snag a primitive spot for one night. This campground isnt too far off I90 near 3 Forks, MT. No cell service (ATT) at the campground but 5g at the caverns. Hosts were super friendly and nice. I was in A7 which had a nice shade tree. Did not use the facilities so can’t speak to that. They had a guest speaker that night share about the bat population in MT. Very interesting!! Be sure to unhook and get to the caverns early in the morning to get a reservation to tour. We did the Paradise tour as my son is in a wheelchair. The classic tour looked super cool though!
Scout
Not to mention the single-lane cobblestone road, I have a truck and was bouncing up and down the whole way! I didn't find one area big enough to set up camp. I definitely would NOT recommend this spot
Scout
Maybe one acceptable loop, perhaps mostly for boaters. But there are 3 other loops: nothing is labeled, so good luck in finding your spot. The Manager site is not labeled either, and she was of no help. Dry, hard ground, no trees, nothing that might make a visit enjoyable. No drinking water; arid, depressing; i kept waiting for the undead to come over the horizon.
Pretty Lake, though.
TravelerOnly spent one night, but level sites, full hook ups, showers and laundry clean. An area to play games and we didn’t have our dogs this time but the dog zone looked good and clean.
Scout
We were passing through and needed a place to camp. We were surprised how well kept and beautiful the campground is! The host was amazing and works really hard to keep the sites in tip top shape. The lake is right against the sites and makes for a beautiful place to stay.
RangerA bit confusing with all the no trespassing and no parking on/off the road signs. Felt more comfortable once we saw another van parked, and drove past the coordinate location a few minutes to use a tiny widened part of the road. No services.
Traveler
We stayed four days here and it was great! From Wednesday through Friday, we basically had the entire place to ourselves. Even in July, the mornings and evenings were cool and pleasant. The camp has three clean toilets stocked with toilet paper, and a pump water fountain with clean and cold water to enjoy. Overall pleasant but ATV campers showed up Saturday, driving around the camp, but they were polite after quiet hours. Short trail in the campground, and about five miles from entrance was the Continental Divide Trail. We didn’t know about that until we were leaving, so we will come back to explore. 20 spaces. Will accommodate RV off grid, but no generators after 10 pm, which is good. So quiet at night!!
ScoutGreat spot and easy to get to. Exactly where the coordinates are pull off was big enough for my sprinter 170 extended was even able to get it perfectly level a few dirt bikes on the road that stopped at sunset. It’s very quiet and beautiful views and 15° cooler than Bozeman.
Guide
Love the spot, not many people, picnic tables/fire pits at each pull through spot. Pit toilet was locked. The mosquitoes were absolutely blood thirsty and aggressive and after multiple reapplications of bug spray we had to call it quits. The fire barely kept them at bay, but we still got a few bites sitting next to the heat.
Traveler
Big rigs have a great space at the bottom of the hill... but if you're in a truck, van, etc., head on up the hill. The road is in great shape. There are some pullouts, but look for a road on the right (veer left at the private drive; you'll see a sign) and you'll find a great site with a fire ring and somewhat level ground. Chances are it'll be COVERED in cow poop, but hey. It's quiet, aside from the mooing of cows, and totally private. There's probably more up the road, too, I just didn't go further. Solitude.
Scout
Pulled in around 10 to find a couple 5th wheels in a circle and a few vans dispersed, only one sketchy motor home but quiet night. We stayed in the camper all night as the mosquitos were the worse I’ve ever seen at all hours.
Guide
We didn’t stay at this exact site as it was taken but there one more dispersed site about a mile or so down the road.
Was nice being close to the creek and there was lots of fallen trees we used for firewood.
Quiet spot with a small amount of traffic on the road.
Didn’t see any wildlife but the horseflies were a bit out of control this time of the year.
Guide
I made the mistake of picking one of the 2 spots at the end of the camp loop. Sites 16 and 17 site right on the swamp and are infested with mosquitos. You can see standing stagnate water bog on both sides of site 16 where we stayed.
I tried 3 different bug repellants, burned multiple mosquito coils, started a fire and had the large 20ft Thermacell lantern running for hours. They never cleared out and ended up with so many mosquito bites. We ended up hunkering down inside our van with the bug screens on. We did come on a dry hot July day.
The state park, campgrounds and trails are so beautiful its hard to fault the campground on the mosquitos. We are going to request to move sites away from the swamp area. Walking around the campground, the mosquitos are less at other sites but still around. I think our typical protection might work better over there but was ineffective at site 16.
My partner likes to run and the paved trail is really nice and is far enough off the road for a great morning run. I find it super quiet here and the 5G UC T-Mobile signal is plenty to work and stream content.
GuideThe Paradise tour was really easy and it was spectacular!
ScoutCarter Lake south shore. NIce pull through sites with electric. Dump station with easy access. Many sites on the lake and more with lake view. Many shaded sites. Boats allowed. Very pleasant experience.
GuideBeautiful space with views and birdsongs aplenty. Spaces are small and right off the road, but for a free night not far from I-94 with solitude and nature, it’s fantastic. There are a few more pull-offs (again, no privacy and right off the Forest Road) if you drive on down toward Skunk Rd, but road gets rougher (high clearance and/or 4WD fine) from especially if it has recently rained. Those spots were also all taken. Went about a 1/2 mile beyond the GPS coordinates for spot with wee bit more space but the pull-off with these exact coordinates ended up getting claimed by an RV at some point in the night—this road gets solid use in the summer—saw at least a dozen vehicles in the 14 hours here.
Guide
Quiet and almost empty Wednesday/Thursday but not only full weekend 100am wakeup call from a ski boat with a deafening sound system.[The other side of the lake]
The access to the lake was between other campsites but it was too steep for my wife. Site 61 was a tight squeeze at 33' because of an incline at the rear of 2'. Excellent sunsets and moonrises with plenty of room between the sites. No shade at sites but some trees/shrubs on the shoreline.
RangerGreat hosts, clean and well maintained. They do have drop in non reservation sites, but recommend getting reservations as well as cave tour reservations on line In Advance. Walk in for the cave tours without reservations best between 9 and 11 am. Beware, it's a 2mi hike uphill from the campground of you don't want to drive your rv up the caves! Deer visited camp at night! Check weather report, strong winds and we had thunderstorms. Warm showers $3. (Cave tours not included in camp fee, dump is $5 also). Some hiking in area, but .. bears!
Scout
Was able to get a spot right on the water late on a Saturday night. Quiet, fire rings tables and restrooms. Not much to complain about.
GuideCottonwood Reseravoir DNRC land section. accessible for overnight camping under DNRC rules. The reservoir has Yellowstone cutthroat trout and white suckers. No wifi, no trash, no bathrooms. Completely wild. Stars at night amazing. All kinds of waterfowl passing seasonal. No amenities.
Guide
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.
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