Glacier National Park trip, CG recommendations

[270wsmhunter]

Traveling from west central MN to Glacier National Park in August. Planned out stops last night and itinerary looks like this: 1st night Medora, 2nd night Great Falls, nights 3-6 east side of Glacier, nights 7-10 west side of Glacier, 11th night Billings, 12th night Bismarck and home next day.

Started browsing campgrounds last night and looked at the KOAs but at $70+ per night gets expensive. We enjoy state parks but do want electric hookup and ability to dump tanks on way out. Private campgrounds are consideration too as long as it's not a field converted into an RV parking lot. We would also like the ability to have a campfire in the evenings at our own site.

Any and all recommendations are greatly appreciated. Hoping to make some reservations this week.

[dapperdan]

Alabama Jim wrote:
I can assure you that Chris's campground in Spearfish, SD is great. Wonderful cable and wifi. Friendly folks and full hook ups. I will visit there again.

We actually met those people this March at Carrabelle RV Resort in Carrabelle Florida! After talking with them I'd stay at their campground in a heart beat, VERY friendly, down-to-Earth people!

Dan

[ReneeG]

linnemj wrote:

270wsmhunter wrote:
Made reservations in the park for 7 days. Hoping for cool weather for the family, they hate heat.

We were there the third week of August last year. I think the highest daytime temp was 55 degrees with lows in the 30's most nights. Trust me, you won't be too warm! Best advice is to bring warm blankets!

Agree. We've been there twice the first week in September and it's cool. No shorts. Light jackets and sometimes heavier.

[ReneeG]

padredw wrote:
Campgrounds where we stayed:

Detroit Lakes, MN at Country Campground -- very good.

Mandan (Bismark) ND at Lincoln State Park -- gopd

Medora, ND just for overnight

West Glacier, Hungry Horse, MT Mountain Meadows -- excellent

Mountain Meadows is excellent. We've stayed there. Don't remember if they had fire pits.

[GeoBoy]

The KOA's in both east and west Glacier NP. Make sure you shop for groceries before you get to the park. We were there in 2014 and a case of bottled water was on special for $21.99, a box of cereal was $ 9.00 and gas was $.80 a gallon higher than in Browning, MT. Have fun.

[linnemj]

270wsmhunter wrote:
Made reservations in the park for 7 days. Hoping for cool weather for the family, they hate heat.

We were there the third week of August last year. I think the highest daytime temp was 55 degrees with lows in the 30's most nights. Trust me, you won't be too warm! Best advice is to bring warm blankets!

[270wsmhunter]

Made reservations in the park for 7 days. Hoping for cool weather for the family, they hate heat.

[SNOPRO711X]

Traveling to Glacier and back from MN I have used these sites:
Fort Abraham Liincoln state park outside Mandan ND. Nice quiet spot along the river, has electricity, water and a dump station. Lots of things to see and do during the day. 701-667-6340.

Medora Campground and RV. On the left side as you are driving into Medora. Full hookups, decent sites and very easy in and out. Not to far from the musical if that interests you. 701-623-4435.

Cotton Wood campground in TR NP if that interests you. About 5 miles South of Medora. The entrance to the park is near the North side of Medora. The entrance road will take you back over I94 into the park.

Makoshika state park, Glendive MT. No electricity or much shade in the campground

US Army Corp of Engineers campground near Fort Peck MT. Great site, electricity, water and dump station. Very good visitors center.

Apgar campground on the West side of the park. No electricity. Go to the park web site and look at the average fill times for the date you are arriving. During the busy times the campground will fill before noon. I was not real impressed with some of the sites. We did manage to find a nice site on the end of a row after a little bit of looking. When we were there in 2014 I was concerned about getting a site late in the afternoon so we stopped at a FS site just off US 2 at Maria Pass. After we left Apgar we spent a few more nights there. We have also stayed at Two Medicine on the East side. This is a great spot.

We have also stayed at FS campgrounds in the Little Belt mountains SE of Helena. No electricity but the elevation is so high you will not need it. Several of the site are just off US 89? South of Neihart MT.

[2gypsies1]

You don't need air conditioning in Glacier. 🙂

It appears you have a 28' RV. You'll fit. Our 40' motorhome and Jeep fit in Apgar.

[FULLTIMEWANABE]

We stayed in St Mary Campground last couple days August last year, and had no problem with heat issues, opening windows for cross breeze. There is a no generator use loop that we were in but there are other loops I believe that have restricted times usage of generator.

To be very Frank the couple of nights we were there we only spent any time in the RV late at night prepping for bed after a long day being out and about and first thing in the morning packing up lunches and drinks to head out again. Walked comfortably to the Visitor Centre to pick up the complimentary Going to the Sun Road Shuttle. Wonderful to be able to concentrate on the scenery and not driving the actual road for a change.

Whenever we return we will for sure book into this CG again, loved it and had many bear visitors and sightings whilst we were there. Many referenced a grizzly but we didn't see the most distinct hump and other signs on it for grizzlies even with binoculars as it started to head down the hill towards the loops with all the berries in (we retreated before he made it all the way down LOL!) so think it was a substantially oversized black bear. Rangers were very on top and active due to the bear activity and we were thrilled to have seen many of these wonderful creatures in their wild natural habitat.

If you are that concerned about having electric, can you maybe rent a generator for your short stay to enjoy the location to it's fullest? Seriously Glacier really needs to be enjoyed from within if you can.

Just my humble opinion for what it's worth.

[270wsmhunter]

2gypsies wrote:
We always stay IN the park itself - at Apgar. No, there's no electric but there is a dump station. Do you have a generator?

I would love to stay in the park but have concerns with truck and trailer length for sites. I do not have a genset as of yet and not being able to run air conditioner is an issue if warm as majority of family members are "sturdy" and do not tolerate heat well.

[Lauren]

Yup, Glacier (one of our favorite places) is kinda like Yellowstone area - high priced now.

We love the east side for the hiking and laid back. Stay at the KOA.

The west side is the commercial side - like North American RV.

Far more choices on the west side for sure but not the main reason we go there.

[southernsky]

West Glacier, Hungry Horse, MT Mountain Meadows -- excellent
X2

[jensenst]

Last year we stayed at columbia falls campground west side of glacier. Hope you don't have to deal with fires this year

[2gypsies1]

kknowlton wrote:
Not even a lot of shade in Apgar CG (and of course no hookups). Didn't check out a lot of other CGs on that side, other than driving thru Apgar.

Huh? Apgar is in a forest of trees....and it's on the west side, not the east side.