Best Tent Camping: Montana

Jan Nesset is an award-winning writer and editor who returned recently to his home state of Montana, a move he considers a reward after two decades of chasing career and adventure across the West. Jan has held most steady at the helm of both national and regional outdoors magazines, and he has worked as a wilderness ranger, traveled the Sahara by camel, biked across the Andes (twice), climbed to summits around the globe, won a survival-based reality television show, paddled several of Amazonia's rivers, and led a National Geographic-sponsored adventure across America--all this and more at a pace that has disintegrated several tents. Christina Nesset actually sets the pace, accepting a shredded tent as the cost of a well-lived life. Chris is an accomplished outdoors enthusiast with an impressive travel resume. She is also the director of a Montana conservation organization and takes her love--borderline obsession--of backpacking and tent camping into her job. A Virginia native, Chris had a long-held childhood dream of moving to Montana where she and a friendly dog would pursue an active lifestyle from a cabin in the woods. While the cabin may more resemble a comfortable mountain home and the dog has yet to leave the pound, she is truly living the dream. The Nessets live on the outskirts of Bozeman with their two children, Silva and Aleksia, and together the die-hard tent campers enjoy the mountains, rivers, and prairies of The Last Best Place via foot, paddle, rope, and bicycle.

Montana Campground Locator Map
Map Legend
Acknowledgments
Preface
Best Campgrounds
Introduction

NORTHWEST MONTANA
1. Bad Medicine Campground
2. Big Arm Unit-Flathead Lake State Park Campground
3. Big Creek Campground
4. Big Therriault Lake Campground
5. Cut Bank Campground
6. Fish Creek Campground
7. Holland Lake Campground
8. Kintla Lake Campground
9. Lake Alva Campground
10. Pete Creek Campground
11. Peters Creek Campground
12. Sprague Creek Campground
13. Thompson Falls State Park Campground

NORTH CENTRAL MONTANA
14. Cave Mountain Campground
15. Home Gulch Campground
16. Kading Campground
17. Logging Creek Campground
18. Many Pines Campground
19. Park Lake Campground
20. Thain Creek Campground
21. Wood Lake Campground

EASTERN MONTANA
22. Beaver Creek County Park Campgrounds
23. Camp Creek Campground
24. Crystal Lake Campground
25. Makoshika State Park Campground
26. Sage Creek Campground

SOUTH CENTRAL MONTANA
27. Battle Ridge Campground
28. Beaver Creek Campground
29. Falls Creek Campground
30. Greenough Lake Campground
31. Halfmoon Campground
32. Hood Creek Campground
33. Potosi Campground
34. Sheridan Campground
35. Spire Rock Campground
36. Swan Creek Campground
37. Tom Miner Campground
38. Wade and Cliff Lakes Area Campgrounds
39. West Fork Madison Dispersed Sites

SOUTHWEST MONTANA
40. Bannack State Park Campground
41. Charles Waters Campground
42. Dalles Campground
43. Grasshopper Campground
44. Lost Creek State Park Campground
45. Martin Creek Campground
46. May Creek Campground
47. Miner Lake Campground
48. Reservoir Lake Campground
49. Twin Lakes Campground
50. Three Frogs Campground

Appendix A: Camping-Equipment Checklist
Appendix B: Sources of Information
Index
About the Authors