Best Tent Camping near Wisdom, MT

It is a very off the beaten path, tucked away in the woods, true getaway from the busy city life. Travel south on 278 from Wisdom, MT and take the chance on an 18 mile gravel road to find a place only you see in pictures and read about in magazines. Drive through open cattle ranges and find a beautiful campground nestled up to 2 small lakes connected by a shallow channel. Clear water to see the bottom where it's shallow enough. No motorized boats allowed, so bring your own kayak or canoe and a fishing pole or two to enjoy the refreshing waters at the bottom of the mountains. Even in July, you can see snow atop the mountains on the Montana-Idaho border.

• Large, open water front spaces to set up "shop"
• Site 10 had room for 3 tents, 3 SUVs, 1 picnic table + extra side table, fire ring/grill, canoe, chairs around fire and shoreline, laundry lines
• Not crowded (maybe 5 sites taken when we were there)
• Bathrooms are clean (but no locks or hand sanitzer...at least the one I used)
• Water available
• One bear storage container at front entrance
• Must pack up and take out your own trash (no bear proof trash cans)
• Fire rings with grills available

There is a 16 stay limit, and a $15 a night fee.

The road is easy accessible

Tent camping,Camping trailer,Fee charged for some activities ($5) ,Picnic tables,Toilets,Drinking water,Parking

Very clean and well maintained

I have only tent camped here. Really nice flat grass for tents. $12 gets you campsite showers and toilets, WiFi and coin laundry. Also really great access to the bitterroot valley if you’re into hikin and river activities. Everyone’s really friendly and it’s a good place to crash when you’re out on the road.

I’m not sure why others gave this campground reviews any stars under five! First, this campground is on BLM and free, and only costs money if coming with a group of many or some type of organizations’ camping outing; and the fee is so very minimal even for this. For regular, independent camping, it’s free being on BLM land, per their notice board. Despite being a free, BLM campground, it’s well-maintained, clean, possesses established, separate tent sites with a parking block for each separate vehicle, an area for RVs, even, and a maintained outhouse central to the tent sites and RV space. It’s also set right next to the river offering great fishing! There’s homes across the river, and a bit of vehicle traffic from those specific homes, for whatever reasons; but this campsite is still very much separated, regularly maintained, and flippin’ free! What’s there to possibly complain about?! I’ve camped free on BLM land many times, and it is pretty rugged and wild. There are no established tent or RV sites, no outhouses for the bathroom to use, nothing. You make of it as you will. I’m not understanding why every camper hasn’t given Glen Campground five stars! Also, future campers, PLEASE remember to pack in and pack out of ANY campground, including this one. Though it is maintained, they do not come daily as it is a free campground on BLM land and does not have garbage bins or water spigots. The campers that stayed before us, in the tent site next to ours, left litter everywhere and aluminum and tin cans in the fire pit. Come on now, people! Beer cans, canned vegetable cans, and the like are NOT biodegradable and do not burn down in a camp fire! Use common sense!! Pack in AND pack out all your items, including your GARBAGE!!

This is a nice smaller forest service campground adjacent to grasshopper creek. A great spot to stay if exploring the Pioneer Mountains.

There are 7-8 spaces, most suitable for a trailer or van. We were tent camping as were others. There are vault toilets and the ubiquitous forest service green potable water pumps/drinking fountains.

There are no dumpsters so have to pack trash out. There are campground hosts but they don’t have firewood for sale, so either need to bring or be prepared to do quite a bit of hunting for wood. The area around the campground is picked pretty clean of good firewood.

This is bear country and there are food storage boxes located throughout the campground for shared use. I expect the presence of bears is also why they don’t have any dumpsters on site.

The campground sits at approximately 7000 feet and by late summer gets near freezing temps overnight. Bring your fall/winter sleeping bag if tent camping here in late August or late Spring!

Just a few minutes up the road from the campground is Elkhorn Hot Springs where you can pay a few bucks to use the rustic pool and hot springs.

Extra 5$ over other local campgrounds because there is water available and trash. Not especially nice or terrible. Very small sites, most with no room for a normal size tent, sites packed on top of each other. Even the few meant for small rvs have little room. Host on site in a nice beautiful and well maintained site, the public sites are not well maintained. Overgrown with weeds, very disappointing. Hosts don’t do much and are unhelpful. Suggest looking for any other CG in the area, there are several

Details: Toilet and trash on site Tight road, don’t tow anything to big On site managers are unhelpful Minimal room for even the average size tent One car per site at mist of them, nowhere else to park Long but easy drive to Darby, minimal amenities. Hamilton only 15 more minutes

Stayed two nights at this campground in August. There was a camp host setup, but we didn’t see him at all while we stayed. He did not seem to be staying here. The toilets ran out of tp and many people could not get their questions answered. It’s also only about 20 feet from the highway, so expect a lot of traffic noise at all hours. There is a boat loading dock located here as well, so many people were driving in and out all day. Cell service was good if we needed it but there are several more remote areas only about 20 minutes in to the forest that actually feel like camping (Cougar Point and William’s Lake). Overall it’s decent but I recommend it more as a pit stop if you need to crash for a night. The tent sites are well maintained and running water was a plus.

This is a great spot in a tiny town south of Butte Montana. They have a couple cabins, several motel rooms and about 10 full hookup, all grass, RV spots. Also a large area for car/tent camping. The grounds are meticulously maintained by the owner and it has nice views of the bluffs and mountains all around it. Walking distance to the restaurant and bar in town if that’s your thing. Quality hookups at each site, and each site has its own trash can. Clean bathrooms and laundry on site. Owners are very present and attentive on site and super friendly. Picnic tables at every site. One shared fire pit out front of the office. It’s in a very small town, with several fishing spots nearby. Very peaceful location. We would stay again.

A few things to be aware of:

• All sites are back in, but they are reasonably wide and very long.
• It is about a mile or two from the interstate which is convenient but you can occasionally hear a large truck pass by.
• There is a train track nearby, we heard about one train per day in the morning.
• We were here in July and there were some mosquitos. If you plan to be outside probably bring a citronella candle or bug spray.

Lost Creek is in a beautiful canyon spot, with numerous (25) sites to accommodate all types of campers (huge RV’s to tents). Camping spots are nice, but close to one another and the campground is often full. This means, if you do find a spot, you will have to deal with neighbors . There is a beautiful hiking trail that starts at the top of the campground and there is a beautiful waterfall and rushing creek that is a pleasure to listen to at night. (It almost drowns out the noise from neighboring campers if you find a spot on the creek.)

Salmon Fly Fishing Access Site is a beautiful small campground along the Big Hole River. The site has six campsites all nice spread apart from each other, and a decent size day use area. Sites have gravel parking pads, metal fire rings and picnic tables, along with nice grass areas to set up a tent. The fishing access site is with in walking distance to the small town of Melrose. The site has one vault toilet. No water or trash service is available. The site has a concrete boat launch, but be warned that Montana FWP has posted that the water is shallow for larger boats. The campground is nice and quiet, far enough from the Interstate to not really hear the road traffic, there also is a lightly used rail line near by, but did not notice any train noise while at the site. Cost to camp is$12 with a valid MT fishing license,$18 with out, if you are over the age of 62 then those rates drop to$6 or$9 a night.

If you like history, ghost towns and camping then Bannack State Park is for you. Bannack Montana was the 1st Territorial Capital of Montana. The Ghost town allows you a look at how settlers and miners leaved in the early day of Montana. See the 1st Territorial Governors Manson (ok, small cabin). Almost all of building you can enter. The best times to visit is when reenactments are happening at the park. The state park has two small campgrounds, Vigilante Campground with 15 sites and one Tipi site. One of the sites at the Vigilante site is only for bikers. Vigilante campsites can be reserved. The other campground is Road Agent Campground. Road Agent has 8 sites. Both sites have Vault Toilets, water and trash bins.

Camp at Bannack State Park, site of Montana's 1st Territorial Capital. Road Agent Campground is one of two campground at Bannack State Park. Bannack state park is a nice state park, see how the early settlers lived in this old mining town and former Montana Capital. Road Agent Campground has eight campsites with one vault toilet. Campsite sits among mature cottonwoods. Prices are a little steep, $18 for residents, $28 for non-residents.

Snagged a FCFS site at this wonderful Montana state park after reading reviews. So glad I did. Such a nice campground, nice neighbors. Lots of people out on the lake boating. There is a boat launch in the campground. Snow covered peaks still visible in late June. 

Not a lot of shade due to beetle infestation. But wasn't an issue in June. All boats, including inflatable kayaks need to be inspected at a Montana inspection station before launching in the water

I loved it here. Wish I'd stayed longer than one night.