I didn’t love our spot. It was expensive, over 30 dollars a night, and there wasn’t really any privacy or separation between campsites at all. Maybe if you could pick your site this would be a nice camp but we didn’t have a reservation so we didn’t pick our location
The site is well maintained with a registration area, trash/recycling center, and small supply store for the ground residents. A small lake and large river run alongside the back sites (G and H), but no more than a 10 min walk from any other site in Madison. Tent set up locations in gravel pit, bear box, park bench style table, and fire pit provided on each site. Multiple bathrooms per loop with potable water, sinks and toilets only. Quiet hours from 10 pm to 6 am make the area lovely to sleep in. We arrived a little last, so the uploaded videos of the lake and site are dark (sorry!).
Tenting inside Yellowstone was a real treat. Facilities all top notch. Wished our tent site had more tree coverage with the heat, hopefully the conservation efforts including keeping hammock ropes off direct contact help to keep the trees healthy. Hope to return again in the future!
Great place, we had a wonderfully quiet night here. Plots are spaced well apart so your neighbors don’t bother you. Friendly staff all around. $28 a night and $10 per firewood box. The proximity to the river was great and made for some nice river bathing. Recommended!
What can you say? It's Yellowstone where the Fire Hole and Gibbon converge to make the mighty Madison River. Great campsites, clean facilities and easy access to all areas of the park. Fly fishing right outside your door and this is the birthplace of our National Park system. Camp host, employees and rangers are all so helpful and just great to talk to. This is the summertime camping experience. Can't wait to get back!
We stayed here during our visit to Yellowstone on 6/12/21. Right on the Madison River. Great for fishing and relaxing and wild life. Dry camping with dump station on site. We stayed in site A5. We would stay there again.
We stayed here on Saturday and got site 191. I would have done research and requested specific numbers looking back, as I think Yellowstone would have tried to get us the right sites. We had a campervan and pop up tent. We stayed here on a Saturday. Our site was huge and had a bear box, fire grate, and picnic table, but had ZERO shade and no trees we could use for hammocks. We were right next to the trail that leads you to the riverside which was nice. You do get a little foot traffic but I didn’t see any sites that really offered a lot of privacy as is typical in national parks.
We were close to the bathrooms which was nice, but not right next to them.
Avoid sites right next to the bathrooms. I think it was 160 or 162 that was absolutely TERRIBLE and had bright light and noise all night from the bathrooms being right next to them. I thought the site next to us #190 looked nice and they had shade.
There are dump sites and water fill ups near the entrance which is convenient. We had a 19 ft van and the pop up canopy, so we were stuck in the RV loop.
Note that third picture is of the river you can walk to from the trail right by our site!
It's been 12 years since I stayed a week in Yellowstone and this place still stays in my heart. This will always be the most beautiful place on earth to me. You can stay for a month and still not see everything.
We were lucky enough to snag a spot at this campground a couple of weeks before our trip when one opened up! It was a great central location and relatively quiet. The lights from the bathrooms were on all night and made sleep a little difficult.
We only stayed one night because of our travel plans hopping from one place to the next. It was definitely nice having showers and an actual restroom though. Definitely not roughing it.
The next morning we heard a pack of wolves howling from across the valley. This was pretty incredible! We felt very safe though with so many people, light, and noise.
I didn't get any great pictures of the campground. But, we got tons of pictures surrounding it...here are just a few.
We stayed at Madison campground in July 2019. The location is amazing! The Madison and Firehole Rivers converge close to this campground and the views in the valley are stunning! Our campsite was within walking distance to the river. Our site sat in a grove of trees and we had no issues setting up our tent as the ground was level. The campsite was very quiet, we could hear a little road noise from time to time but it wasn’t bothersome. We were very close to the restrooms as there are two in each loop. Restrooms have running water and a station for washing dishes but the restrooms were not cleaned daily so they could get a little messy. If you are a tent camper, showers inside the park are quite a drive from Madison - either Mammoth or Old Faithful. Camp showers are not allowed in the park. You can drive to West Yellowstone for pay showers in town.
Personally this campground was extremely packed and tightly spaced. There was also minimal tree coverage for shade during hot days. Aside from those few things, this campground is centrally located if you are trying to get to all the various attractions at Yellowstone including Ole Faithful (16mi), Grand Prismatic and Excelsior (10mi) as well as the canyon in north Yellowstone. Shower before arrival otherwise you’ll be traveling to North Yellowstone for showers.
Beautiful, clean, scenic. Rangers circle to make sure camp's are clean and that campers are not leaving things out that attract wildlife. There is a bear box at every campsite in the tent only section. Bathrooms are clean and close. Super close to most of the gems in yellowstone Fantastic place to camp.
Drove our little 20ft trailer a long ways to get to this here but Yellowstone will always be worth it! Not many campgrounds to choose from when trailer camping in Yellowstone but we were happy with our choice. Had to book way in advance (as one might assume). We requested a couple spots when booking but did not lucky. We were placed smack dab in the middle of the campground. No privacy and minimal tree coverage. Although the host did place us near the other party we were with.
This site is in good proximity to many big attractions in the park. We were gone from camp from dawn til dusk so it didn’t really matter what campsite we were in. No showers, bathrooms decently clean (especially for how many campers camp there). Located a short walk from the river. Word of advice; these park rangers and hosts don’t F around. Read the rules and regulations before booking and if you cannot manage to abide by ALL the rules, be prepared to be ticketed or just book campgrounds outside of the park.
If you can, request the sites at the back of the campground nearest the river but don’t get your hopes up, it’s a gamble.
Nice campground but there are many sites here. No privacy from one site to another. Scenery is spectacular. Still, Yellowstone is a favorite place and no matter where you stay it’s a win!
Easy to read the map to navigate, they have some pull offs that are hidden. They have restrooms at some pull offs that are easy to get to and even with lots of ppl the lines where not bad
Yellowstone is quite the hot ticket for camping and depending on what you are wanting to do there are several major campgrounds which might appeal to your needs. When entering the Western most entrance one of the best locations to stop and unhitch or set up for your adventure is Madison Campground located just a few short miles inside the entrance.
I stopped in here to check out the area and also enjoy a little rest and was very impressed by how large the campground was but how homey it really felt. There are several loops in this campground which allow for hundreds of campers, but with all these campers it remained comfortable and not loud. This campground does allow generators during certain hours, so it is very common to hear the low hum of these around camp, but the trees and placement of sites seems to make this site still very comfortable.
The loops are all designed for one way traffic, which cuts down on much of the congestion but also on the chaos which could occur from so many options in each loop. I found that unlike some campgrounds which can become a maze this one was very easy to navigate.
The campground has both a general store, which has some of the things which you might have left at home, and also both an ice machine and soda machine. In addition there is a RV dump station and an amphitheater where they do nightly programs.
The bathrooms here have flush toilets and running water but no showers, still very convenient and if you do happen to want to shower after paying for entry you can visit some of the other area campgrounds.
The big negative to not only this campground but the park in general is that there is no cellular service or radio, so if you are needing to find out park information which is not listed in the brochure given to you at the gate you will want to do so before coming to the park or stop by one of the information desks located at various park checkpoints.
When settling into the campsites there are both pull through. and pull in sites. I noticed that many of the larger rigs were easily able to fit into the pull through sites and tent campers were scattered throughout. Bear boxes are provided alongside fire rings and picnic tables. Fire warnings are always posted on the kiosk at the opening of the campground so make sure you check in and check this out.
During summer the rate for a single night is $26 which is around the middle of the price points for campgrounds around Yellowstone. This is higher than the vault only style campgrounds which makes sense. But because of the amenities offered this site also fills up quickly so I recommend booking online well in advance of your stay.
TIPS:
Loved the location because we could easily access most sites of interests. a little scare at check-in when we were told we had different size campsites than we had reserved in spite of confirming our reservations just a few days before we arrived. I don't know where the glitch was but our three sites worked out well. We were assigned sites nearby one another and the sites adequately accommodated our equipment (a 27 ft trailer with slide on #D153, a pop-up on #156 and two tents on 140). Sites were roomy and backed up to a common area. We pulled in backwards to D153 so our door faced picnic table. We learned that you must have printed tickets for all Xanterra reserved tours. We were supposed to receive these tickets at check-in however we did not receive our tickets. Happened to learn about this when trying to add to our reservations. Near disaappointment luckily averted. Make sure you get your Xanterra tickets printed when you check-in! Did not use bathrooms but plentiful and conveniently located. Great, spacious bear boxes. Nice dish washing stations.Two great rivers nearby for fishing and watching sunsets. Loved nearby Fire Canyon road, which offered good fishing and a swimming hole! Great evening ranger programs. Great place to do the Jr. Ranger program. Ice, drinks, snacks available for sale at campground. Good recycle program.
Madison Campground is a huge campground with 278 site, needless to say you will not be camping alone here, or with much privacy. The campground is set amongst lodge pole pines. While this is a large campground the sites are decently sized and not right on top of each other, but close. We had a quiet stay, but with the size of this campground your odds of that one loud group or family being near will be quiet high. Allow yourself plenty of time to check-in, as the process will be quite slow if numerous campers show up at the same time. The campground appears to have two heated restrooms per loop, with a dish washing station at them. You will not have to throw out much trash during your visit, the campground has a large recycling area, including compost. You can recycle type 1& 2 plastic, cardboard, aluminum& steel cans, glass bottles and camp stove fuel bottles. The campground roads are all paved as are the parking pads. Each site has a picnic table and metal fire ring. Bear food lockers are located through out the campground, but you might need to share with fellow campers as each site does not have their own. Of the 278 site, 62 are tent only and there are 3 group sites. Cost to camp is$28 per night. The price is a little steep, but this campground has the advantage of being fairly centrally located to most of the top attractions in the park, plus you are only 15 miles away from West Yellowstone where you can stock up on everything you might need.
Crowded, run down bathrooms, no showers, shitty air quality, and we were eaten alive by mosquitos in late June. We did enjoy chatting with Oli the park ranger, at check-in and the camp store was good.
What a fantastic campground. The large tent sites are open enough for kids to run around, and doesnt leave you feeing cramped. Wildlife, bears, bison, all nestled along the beautiful banks of the Madison River. Oh, also they have large bear boxes, which make food storage easy. I would live here if they let me!
One of the best places in the world. Hikes, driving, bison, elk. A place to camp, what else could campers want? We love the little drives that are less than 5 minutes away. We just slept in the car and parked in a visitor spot, but the campground is beautiful and very full. We were 3 months a little too late to get a spot. Make reservations! The drive we did is the loop that’s just around the corner and is absolutely beautiful.
We had a herd of buffalo walk through our campsite while we were here which we were told is not an uncommon occurrence. The nearby river is beautiful and brings various critters as well. Campsites are located close enough to the main road yet does not feel that way.
Camped here for two nights, fishing access a short walk down the bank. Three bison lumbered through our camp shortly after dinner! It hailed on us in late May and rained pretty consistently but the campground was great! Friendly staff upfront.
Yellowstone is always crowded, so we reserved in advance. We enjoyed our stay here – saw lots of elk and bison. Our site was fairly small, but provided what we needed – a place for our car, our tent, and the hammock!
Great site with a great ampitheater and ranger program. Where are the showers? Why cant I pick my own site? Questions I have for Yellowstone
This campground is located near the west entrance and is great for just getting into Yellowstone. Its not my favorite but at least you can reserve it and have a place to lay your head. I think because I enjoy the other campgrounds so much I have a hard time giving it a chance.
Madison is a nice campground. Our tent site was kind of on an incline. Only downside is its fairly busy, however I don’t think there is really anyway around this in Yellowstone.
The staff at check in were friendly and helpful. The camp sites are pretty close together and can accommodate tents, small and large camper trailers. There are bathrooms, dish washing area, picnic table and shared bear boxes available for food storage. There is an amphitheater a short hike away from the camp site where a commentary is given by park rangers at 9pm every night. A small store is on site stocked with bear spray, blankets, food items and first aid supplies. This is one of the only camp sites in Yellowstone Park that can be reserved in advance.
We camped here the beginning of August. It was crowded but the bathrooms were clean which was great for camping multiple nights.
No too much to say about this campground. No showers, no electrical. Small sites.
