Charles Waters Campground

Very nice campground next to beautiful creek and real close to the trail head to Bass lake. Easy hike for the first 4 miles then gets a little more challenging. The trail stays near the creek with cascades and lots of nice spots to stop and enjoy life. The campground has about 5 pull through spots big enough for big rigs. Cell service is poor, but if you drive down the bridge service is ok. Also texting works from campsites.The road up from the high-way is getting rough,( pot holes ) but not bad if you can use the whole road and not much traffic so that usually works. Also a nice drive to Bass creek over look via the logging road about 9 miles. The over look is a great place to have a picnic and a bottle of wine. One of the nicest views you will very take in! The road to the overlook is good/not bad for a logging road.

Only 13 miles from our home, we have camped here many times. Several sites (including pull-thrus) will accommodate our 36 ft. fifth wheel. Great hiking trails, rocky, cascading creek, very quiet nights. Mostly wooded, a few open sites. Nice, fairly level sites.Great hosts. "Bruce" brings around "Smokey the Bear" frisbee rings for the kids in your group, reminding about forest fires.

I was surprised we could get a spot late on a Friday afternoon. Only about a fourth of the sites were taken and we got a nice pull through. We didn't get any Dish satellite service here because of the beautiful towering pines and hills here, but we have been using my Verizon Jetpack with only minor interruptions in streaming. We were extra lucky because the camping is free until May 11th. I was expecting to pay $10 or so, which would have been well worth it. There aren't any hookups at the sites, but they are paved and pretty level. The water is still shut off from winter and there isn't any trash service for another week too. There are several faucets around the campground that would be active later, I'm guessing after May 11th;)

Given the size of many of the sites and the close proximity to Missoula, this is a gem.

We found out why the locals love this place so much. It’s quiet, only a few miles west of the main highway and perfectly located along a pretty mountain stream. We only wish that we could have stayed more than one night.

This small campground in the Bitterroot National Forest is situated along a burbling creek, and features huge sites with great privacy, along with excellent hiking right from the campground. The campground is easy to reach from US93 on a paved road, and there are plenty of places to get supplies (gas, food, propane) within a 10-15 minute drive either north or south along US93. The campground is less than 25 miles outside Missoula, so we were surprised it wasn't totally packed!

The sites are a mixture of backins and pull-throughs, with one site reserved for bicycle campers. The biggest surprise was that all the pull-through sites are huge! We could have fit two of our rig into our site. The campground is on a slope so not all sites are perfectly level, but we were able to get level without too much trouble by choosing to park the trailer in the flattest area of the site. All sites are paved (except the bicycle site) and even the backins are fairly generously sized.

The campground has trees, but they are not super dense and we picked a more open site so we were able to rely on solar power throughout our stay. The sites right along the creek tend to be the shadiest, but don't worry -- the lovely creek sound carries throughout the campground. Sites are spaced out very well and the privacy was excellent. The location is quiet at night, with nothing but the sound of the creek (and, in our case, a nearby camper who played awesome fiddle and mandolin music every evening). The campground has pit toilets, plenty of water spigots, and even has aluminum recycling.

There are two significant trailheads within walking distance from the campground. The Bass Creek Trail heads west from the campground into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area, and follows Bass Creek for 10 miles to a high elevation lake. On the east side of the campground is the Larry Creek trail complex, which features a few short nature hikes as well as a web of much longer interconnected hiking and equestrian trails. Both options were great choices for different styles of hikes, and neither was at all crowded.

Cell service was pretty reliable on AT&T with a few bars of LTE or 4G at all times, though speeds were not great. Unboosted: Download: 1.63 Mbps Upload: 1.03 Mbps

The reviews I used to choose this campground were spot-on. Big sites, all paved, with plenty of privacy. There really isn’t a bad site in this entire campground. There are also hiking and biking trails at the trailhead located at the entrance to the campground. The camp host is great and he’s been here for 5 seasons. The vault toilets are reasonably clean and there are drinking water spigots located around the campground. The drive to Missoula takes about 35 minutes, which isn’t bad considering all the other pluses about this campground. There are plenty of amenities located in the closer communities of Lolo and Stevensville, including 3 breweries. I also loved the low-key, first-come-first-served basis for securing a site. You just grab an open site and stay and don’t have to wade through an overly complex reservation system. Great spot!

We were here the beginning of May and there was no fee until May 13. Then the services start and fees are collected, only $10 per day. Road into the campground is paved, the two camping loops and all campsites are paved. There is a camp host during the season, there is trash disposal, water available and pit toilets but otherwise it is Boondocking. There are a lot of pull thru sites along with back ins. Bass creek can be heard from some campsites. Camp host also has firewood for sale.

We pulled in to a full campground, but the host hooked us up with the 'horse camping spot' that is just outside the campground. It is in the parking lot for the Bass Creek Trail. So just 1 additional campsite that is not used. While there is a bit of foot and car traffic for the trailhead during the weekends, it isn't much otherwise.

We had a relatively flat dirt space with plenty of room for our rig and vehicle (31' Class A). We had a picnic table, fire ring and could hear the river (but not see it) from our site. We had a nice little trail down to the riverside to soak your toes in.

The host was extremely friendly and does a good job of taking care of the park, keeping the quiet hours and assisting people in finding spots.

We had just enough service to get phone calls, stream and take care of work.

It also helped that there is a brewery (with an outdoor pizza oven) within 4.5 miles of the campground - Wildwood.

Several trails for hiking, biking, and 4 wheeling start right at the campground. A short nature nature hike, a great biking loop and a hearty uphill hike to Bass Lake. The Bass Lake hike can be tied in with all sorts of hikes and spend endless amounts of time up there. We also 4 wheeled up the hill behind camp for a beautiful view.

What an excellent campground. Great hosts here keep it all clean and nice. First come first serve. You can get a site most days if you get in early enough. Weekends fill up in the summer. I stayed July 4th week 2019 and it did fill up and stayed full starting 3 days before the 4th. All paved level sites. Some with total shade others with lots of sun. The sites are large! #26 is a pull thru with a mix of sun and shade. My solar panels got plenty of sun. Several pull thrus and some back ins. Tons of trails across the road in the horse area and you can mountain bike there. Then 2 miles down the paved road to Hwy 93 there is a 45 mile long paved bike path. Stevensville is very cute. Big grocery store there, brewery and more food options. Hamilton is very cool too. Missoula is 30-40 minutes away. Quiet and dark in the campground. No fireworks allowed, yay! $10. Probably half if you have a Senior card. Unfortunately no dump here. And come with full water if you have a pressure fill. The water here is good but you can’t hook a hose to it. You can only fill jugs. Verizon is good enough to work. 4 OTA TV channels all PBS, good programming. If you can dry camp this is heaven to base out of at a very reasonable price.

We stayed here for a weekend in August. It was awesome and we would definitely stay there again but we learned a few things. First, I tried to be cleaver and 'reserve' a spot early on Friday morning, only to find out that you can't just pay for a site, put up the tag and come back later to setup. You are required to setup camp within 30 minutes of occupying a site. I went home, packed up the family, hitched up the camper and showed back up at the site 3 hours later, only to find that the Campground Host had pulled my tag and someone else was occupying the site. After a lesson in the rules from the Host, he hooked us up with the Horse Camp which was connected to the campground, had a gravel pad, picnic table, fire ring and was only 100 yards from the toilets and water station, so it worked out all the same (maybe better). The campground was completely full on Friday night and had only a few sites available on Saturday. Many sites are on Bass Creek and the campground has easy access to the trailhead with miles of trails to hike. Hard lesson learned but we'll definitely be back to Charles Waters Campground often.