The fort at 49

This interesting little campground (CG) was right off I-94. You pull up to the self-check-in kiosk(for better words) adjacent to the restaurant to get your envelope to pay for the site. There is a drop box to deposit your envelope after completed. We had called a month earlier about RV reservations, but they only had a couple of campers come in the two days we were there; maybe in the summer months, you would need reservations. They had one long-termer. A few truckers overnighted on the far side of the property in a large parking lot. The restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays, so we called the number on the board, which is the owners, to let them know we were here and would like reservations at the restaurant on Tuesday since we were staying here for two nights, but as this was off-season and not the weekend, we didn’t need them. There are 20 sites here; if you would share utilities and drive in opposite directions, otherwise there are 10 sites. The sewer connection on site 8 was more flat to the ground, so we backed into that FHU site. In the first 4 sites, the sewer connection is about 4 to 6 inches above the ground. There’s a large grass area so that you could pull in like a pull-through, but your utilities would be on the opposite side unless you chose site 1. The utilities are pretty much in the center of these hard-packed grass sites with some gravel mixed in. All the sites are in a straight line parallel to I-94 with a large field/parking lot for the restaurant in front, which made backing a breeze. Water pressure was good at about 50 psi, and there was no problem with the electric or sewer as they looked new. We got 4 bars on Verizon, and there’s a clear shot of the sky in any direction, as there are no trees or obstacles. There are no picnic tables, firepits, or WiFi. The majority of CG reviews on this place stated that the highlight of this place was the Fort at 49 Restaurant, which is open Tue- Sat. They used to be open for lunch Wed-Sat, but are not anymore, just dinner from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. The restaurant utilizes a chalk menu with about 8 items, with 4 of the items being weekly special rotations. The wife and husband(Becky and Dave, who were delightful hosts), owners of the restaurant and CG, are both professional chefs and actually met in culinary school in Texas. Dave does most of the cooking, and Becky attends the bar and tables. The restaurant has a full-service bar with a decent wine selection, which features a local winery, Yellowstone, that uses grapes from Oregon. We tried two different Yellowstone red blends, and they were both very good and well-priced for a restaurant. The food was really, really good and worth the stay. Other than that, there is nothing special about this RV park, nor is the town of Custer. We’d overnight here again but would make sure to stay on a night the restaurant was open.