Best Equestrian Camping near Virginia City, MT

An absolutely stunning area to camp. A relatively challenging nine-mile-hike in from the Spanish Creek campground. Turn left at the trail map and follow the well marked signs. You’ll have stunning views of the mountains, rivers, and pines on your hike in. A few other places to camp on the way in. You’ll cross a couple rivers—so be prepared to take off those boots. Once arriving at the top; you’ll find a stunning array of crystal lakes, snow melts, and glistening cliffs. We camped on top of a large cliff system across the first lake. As you hike in, there are multiple little lakes to camp and fish around. The highest lake (about 100 meters past the first) is indescribably breathtaking. Surrounded by massive mountains, a rolling stream, and a little dead forest accompanied by a campsite and fire ring—AH! I felt like I was in a simulation. Apparently you can summit the nearby mountains and reached a higher lake called Beehive. My friends went and said they enjoyed it. Tons of fishing in all of the lakes. Diverse wildflowers. Tons of bugs. But all great fun! Will certainly return when I go back to Montana.

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.

Yellowstone National Parks back country campsite WF1 sits on the edge of a large meadow of wildflowers with amazing views of the mountains to the west. Campsite WF1 is the first back country site along Black Butte Trail in the North West corner of the park. It is about a 2.2 mile hike to the campsite from the trail head. Campsite WF1 is open to backpackers and stock animals, however I could see no evidence of any stock animals using this site recently. The site has a large rock fire ring in the cooking area with logs sitting around it to sit on. An arrow on a tree with the site number points to the sites toilet just up hill in the trees. Don't get to excited about the toilet, think of an outhouse with out any walls, and the hole in the ground is not very deep, but a back country site with a seat to sit on is a rare treat. Just on the other side of the large trees at the cooking area is a meadow full of wildflowers, the meadow slopes downhill making a flat area in the field for your tent hard to find, but you can find spots at the edge of the field just in the trees with flat spots for your tent. Water is no problem at this site, the creek is just next to the cooking area, best spot to filter the water is right where you cross to enter the campsite.

Black Butte Trail head(WK2) is located on U.S. Hwy 191. The trail head is easy to miss, the sign for the tail is on the east side of the Highway where the trail starts, the parking area is just south of the sign on the west side of the highway. You will need to obtain a back country permit to stay at WF1. The closest place to obtain a permit is at the visitor center in West Yellowstone. The cost is$3 per person with a maximum of$15 for the night. Site is limited to one group of ten.