NOT FAMILY FRIENDLY! THIS IS A COLLEGE HANGOUT. DON'T GO! KEEP DRIVING...all the way to one of the lakes.
How does a resort minutes outside of a national park have availability during peak season? Oh, let me count the ways.
I reserved a group tent site in May 2023 for 2 nights. We talked about the site with the "pond." I mentioned extra people, up to 12 possibly. 4 tents, dogs, extra vehicles including camper vans (Class B). Site 30 is a smallish field with room for dogs to run and a decent amount of people to hangout. (NO POND. That part is false advertising. It's an overflow drainage hole that is now empty and full of debris.) Site 30 is at the end and not surrounded by other sites. It all sounded fine and very possible.
We pull in after touring the park all day and the tag says we're in group site 42. I'm already thinking, that's not the right number. Site 42 is supposedly a group tent site and in the middle of other sites. Site 42 doesn't have a single inch of flat space. The parking area is not flat, the tent area is not flat. Keep in mind I originally intended to put 4 tents in the space. No way could this site hold that many tents, vehicles or people that I originally intended to bring. The owner didn't know our numbers had been reduced when we showed up.
It's late but we call the office number, and the owner comes to the site. She tells us a larger group also made a reservation and we were BUMPED from 30 and she gave it to them. She tells us we have "giant" vans and usually people don't bring those. Where we parked the vans is where tents should go she said. Again, the space isn't flat enough for tents so we thought we might as well park there. Later on she sees the tents we put up and apparently, they are also "giant." We're travelling with our family. How else do you put 4 or 6 people in a tent unless it's giant? (We'll get to this reasoning.) Did you hear an apology? Yeah, we didn't either.
We're pretty frustrated at this point and it's late. Next door to Site 42 are a couple of single tent sites with framed in, FLAT tent areas. Parking is still abysmal, and our vehicles don't fit. We put one van in overflow parking which was actually almost flat. Seriously! Why make overflow parking flat and not the actual site parking areas?!?
We set up 1 tent in each space. One van still has to park at an angle on an incline and it doesn't really fit. The mom sleeping in that van didn't do much sleeping at that incline.
I didn't get to the party happening in the next sites, yet. Yep, big college-age crowd being super loud until very late also kept our people awake. Kids like this don't drive big camper vans or have big family-size tents. Later we found out from a local, who was nice enough to listen to our story, that this is exactly what TimberWolf is known for: for being the teenage/college hangout site. That's why family-size anything doesn't work at this "resort." The locals rolled their eyes when we mentioned this place and apologized to us that we had to have this experience. Oh! The locals know how to the apologize...the owner, not so much.
Next morning, (yes, the story continues) dads and kids are sitting around the campfire finishing up the $6 bucket of wood we purchased the night before. The owner comes around and tells them about the fire restrictions that just went into effect that morning and tells them to put the fire out. She actually tries to tell our dogs to be quite so she could talk. LOL! Does she offer to buy the wood back? NOPE!!! She says, "You had plenty of time to burn the wood last night." No, we didn't because we were moving campsites and trying to get ourselves set up! Does she apologize? NOPE!!! She sent an email, we should have known better. We're camping and vacationing, not reading emails. Was there a sign on the wood pile the night before that said anything about making sure to use it all up that night because of the restrictions the next day? NOPE!!!
So, we're quite irritated with all the rude, condescending behavior. (Don't judge all Montanans by this woman. Usually, we're really nice and have awesome customer service.) We also heard comments from another family about their stay being one of the worst experiences they've had. We decide to hit the road and find somewhere else to hangout and camp for another night. The owner finds me and asks me for the # of people, vehicles, dogs, like she's working up a bill. I'm thinking, you're really gonna charge us for this huh? Yep, in addition to my prepayments, she wants more money. When we stop by the office to checkout and find out what she's been up to, she just hands me a receipt and asks for more money. Yes, there were slight discounts. But really, there's no value given at this place. What did I pay for? To be on a hill, get rudely treated, and charged for every little thing.
The owner could have chosen to be nice and polite at any point. She could have upgraded us when the other party came in but instead, she downgraded us and expected the same amount of money. Keep in mind, she's used to dealing with kids and party people. That's not us but that's the treatment we got. Fine, keep the kids and let them disrespect your space and the other guests.
Whatever, we walk out of the office and hit the road. PRO TIP!!!! When you leave west gate of Glacier and want to camp somewhere, take yourself all the way to Seeley Lake Campground. HUGE SITES!!!! FLAT SITES!!!! ACTUAL WATER!!! For $10 a night!!!!! $15 if you have an extra vehicle. Hey TimberWolf owner....you should check it out and see what a real campground looks like and operates like.