Madison Campground

No showers available at Madison campground. We traveled to the Old Faithful lodge and paid $4 or $5 for showers and watched the geyser while there. Towel rental was available at the lodge as well.

We stayed in the tent only Loop G. You do not get to pick your own campsite. You make a reservation in advance and a campsite is assigned to you. Bear box, picnic table, and fire pit are provided for each site. There are two bathrooms in the loop. There is a “kitchen” sink station in the bathroom building to dump ice chest water and dirty dish washing water. Campsites are very close together. We got lucky and we’re at the end of the loop and campground was fairly quiet. Lots of families and kids running around in summer. There is no cell coverage. Firewood sold on site.

Madison campground is a large campground with 292 single-family campsites, about 14 miles east of the West Yellowstone entrance. The campground is located close to the junction of the Gibbon, Madison and Firehole Rivers. Each campsite has a table, fire ring and grill.Season: Early May to late October.Madison Campground Best Campsites: 7, 26, 30, 42, 44, 51, 52, 60, 77, 85, 92, 95, 108, 119, 130, 143, 146, 154, 163, 171, 176, 185, 191, 220, 240, 256, 271, 275, 287.

Having stayed in 7 of the campgrounds in Yellowstone, I would have to say, this is one of the best. The sites are well laid out, plenty of room in between each site. The area is pristine and you are surrounded by beautiful pine trees - it's an idylic setting. The restrooms are clean and well looked after. Be aware that the dump site is closed when temperatures drop below 32ºF, so it may not be open in the morning when you go to leave. It takes about an hour to drive to Fishing Bridge. Old faithful and the thermals are close by.

Downsides: no verizon wifi

We have been to three of the seven Yellowstone National Park campgrounds. This is the prettiest setting, amidst a lodgepole pine forest, with trails to the Madison River just a few steps away. They only offer dry camping and the sites are very nice, however, they are limited for big rigs. Even our site, which was a pull-through, seemed like the curve was set for a smaller rig, and was a little tricky to get into. But we fit as did our tow car.

The sites have picnic tables and fire rings. There are restrooms, with a special separate sink area for dishwashing, as dishwater is not allowed to be dumped here since the smells could attract the bears. There are also faucets with drinking water around the campground and dump stations at the exit.

This is grizzly bear country so barbecues have to be put away after use, as do any utensils, dog bowls etc. There is a huge recycling area, which we really appreciate.

Generator use is restricted to between 8a.m. and 8p.m. which makes sense since they do mix tent and RV camping in the same areas.

We found this campground quite convenient (about 16 miles) to the Old Faithful Geyser area, about an hour from Canyon Village and the Hayden Valley - where you can see grizzly bears and wolves, and just over an hour from Fishing Bridge. The town of West Yellowstone, with shopping, restaurants and Wi-Fi options is 14 miles away.

We stayed in Madison because it was centrally located. Nice setting under tall pine trees. No hookups and no camp store but they have an ice machine, water and dump station. It's about 16 miles north of Old Faithful. I would highly recommend eating at the Old Faithful Inn. It's beautiful inside and the food was good and prices decent.

Unfortunately you can't reserve a site ahead of time, otherwise I'd tell you to get site 183. It was huge! Check-in took about 15 minutes. They have an on-demand ice vending machine. That's it for things to purchase. No showers, laundry or store. They do have a dump station. If you need water, spigots in the CG don't have threads so you might want to fill up at the dump station on your way in.

Most of the loops look identical. They each have about 15-20 sites. They're close to the road but I didn't notice road noise being annoying. Our campsite was relatively flat. Nice bathrooms, but old. You can walk to the river where you can see lots of elk. You can swim and fish here as well. Junior Ranger station and amphitheatre within walking distance.

Firehole Falls is a great place to go for a swim and it's only about 5 minutes away.

Boiling River swimming hole (hot spring mixing with cold river) in Gardiner was one of our favorite things in all of Yellowstone.

The popular Madison Campground was very clean and nice. Our spot was on the edge of the campground and had a good amount of privacy, I would say most sites however don’t offer that much as they are fairly close together.

The check in was VERY busy and despite dealing with tons of people, the workers were very pleasant and extremely helpful.

The bathroom/restrooms were heated (a huge welcome as we got about 8 inches of snow) and were fairly clean.

The neighbors were loud into the night and from what I could tell a lot of campers here were maybe new to the game. Not the sites fault however, a beautiful place, but far from remote and less tranquil than we had hoped.

We were thwarted by this campground and just wanted to share our experience so that others don't get burned in the same way. We were aware that this was one of the Yellowstone campgrounds that was reservable in advance. However, while looking at the NPS Yellowstone site in the days leading up to our arrival in Yellowstone, we got the impression that there were some first come first served spots, mostly because the Yellowstone site shows a "time filled" for each campground. Madison's campground showed, on average, 6:45 AM time filled on the chart. Thus, we arrived at the campground at 5:30 to be first in line, only to have to wait until 7 AM to find out that the time filled information on the NPS website is really misleading, and there was really nothing available at Madison that would fit the bill. The attendant said they rarely have tent sites that open up in that way, but basically never have RV/Camper sites available without a reservation.

Madison is a large, reservation-only campground that is well located within Yellowstone to take in the major thermal basins from Norris through West Thumb, including the Old Faithful area. Other parts of the park are also within reach, depending on your tolerance for long drives.

Note that reservations can be made over a year in advance – Xanterra opens reservations for the following summer season during the current summer season. The largest site size that can be reserved is “up to 40 feet” which includes the complete rig. However, we are 46 feet long when fully hitched and we would have fit into virtually all the pull-throughs we saw. I wouldn’t take the chance of reserving a 30 foot site for our rig, but typical rigs should not be deterred by the supposed 40 foot limit.

The campground is located alongside the lovely Madison River, which appears to be very popular with trout fishermen. Since it does not have a major activity center nearby (no hotel, gas station, etc.) the campground is very serene and traffic in the area is limited to the drivers heading in and out of the west entrance. We stayed here the week of Labor Day and found the campground to be well-managed, clean, and generally quiet. (There’s someone with a contractor generator in every crowd, but generators are limited to 8 am to 8 pm.)

Our site was perfectly level and nicely paved. Separation between sites is OK but not great -- there’s no avoiding the fact that this is a large campground with hundreds of sites packed into a relatively small area. It’s comparable to other national park campgrounds we have visited. The trees throughout the campground are nice for atmosphere but make solar generation very hit-or-miss. Most sites seem to have some area within the site that would work for placing a portable panel, but not all, and of course sites are assigned by the campground management so campers can’t really control this. Our site, A26, had perfect open sky toward the west so we had ample solar throughout our stay.

The campground has flush toilets but no showers. Potable water is available at spigots throughout the campground, and there is a dump station with multiple lanes. There is a small seasonal shop on site that sells snacks and essentials. There is also a ranger-staffed information station within walking distance of the campground that is well worth visiting to get maps and park information, like road construction advisories.

We had no cell service at all on AT&T. Service ends a few miles east of West Yellowstone after entering the west entrance. There are a few pockets of service at the major visitor centers like Old Faithful and Grant Village, but service was totally clogged and virtually useless during busy times of day.