Best Campgrounds near Medora, ND

This area is also known as Scoria Boondocking on Campendium. Workers came through on Aug 29th 2025 and put up site numbers. Indicated they were trying to get control of where people park. We were at the new #5 site with a 35' 5th wheel. Site is unlevel the further into the site you go but we were able to level pretty easily more towards where you enter the site. We were happy with our site location and views. You could hear road noise from I94 but it wasn't too bad. Also had a view of fireworks from the Medora music show each night around 9:35. Not sure how many sites they ended up marking further up the gravel road. There is no west bound reentry onto i94 from this exit (23). You have to go east bound back to exit 24 to go west again.

The absolute anxiety of getting here and not knowing whether we'd be able to get a spot or not is off the charts. We got here at about 1pm on a Sunday thinking there shouldn't be a problem, yet there were probably only about 4 spots left and only 1 we could fit in. A lot of spots already had tags on them but not one bit of equipment set in place. Assuming it was someone that came in much earlier just to tag a spot...that needs to be addressed. There's quite a few "drinking water" spigots marked on the map but when you get to them there is a sign with a drinking glass and a red slash through it. The only drinking water is at the bathroom and not meant to fill your rv with so dont come here expecting to be able to fill your rv with safe water. The other spigots marked as unsafe have really high fluoride content and feels like slime. But we were told its safe to shower in. Im sorry but I dont trust that at all. If you shouldn't drink it bc of the high fluoride then you shouldn't shower in it. You'll just absorb it through your skin. We're in spot 30 and its pretty spacious but not private at all. Most spots really have no privacy at all. So if that's what you're looking for then look else where. We got barked at by the neighbors' dogs every time we walked out. Very pretty setting but in my opinion its way too crowded. Also not sure if its just the area or time of year but there's just billions of flies all over all the time. Makes being outside miserable. Also my husband got stung by a yellow jacket. I think there's a nest in the picnic table. The grill was full of charcoals and a chunk of burnt wood. It just seems like the sites are not ever checked or taken care of. The only work I've seen done is trash collection. There's an rv dump at least but not sure what much you'll need to dump since there's only one spigot at the bathroom you can fill a jug at.

Beautiful but confusing. I originally went to dispersed camping on the other side of the highway but it was completely full!

Despite the one negative review, I decided to scope out west river. There wasn’t a closure like they mentioned so I thought I was in the clear. But when I pulled into what I thought would be a spot, the road was deserving a 4WD. I went anyway and crossed paths with a couple of locals out there shooting. It didn’t scream safety.

Looking back, I’m sure it could be multi-use and fine to camp. Either way, I ended up the road car camping in what was essentially a turnout. I was awoken to the mooing of cows bright and early.

Cottonwood Campground is a very nice flat campground with many sites. Some allow for pull through others for back ends. There’s also a nice tent space. The cost for a back and was only 20 bucks for the night which we thought was pretty good. There’s a picnic table and a charcoal grillavailable. There is no fire pit. I’m able to get some good signal with Starlink despite some of the trees. There are bison in the area, including one that was roaming in the campsite. It’s a beautiful park and a beautiful campground. There is water, but I have not yet found a dumping station at this site.