Eagle Creek Campground - Custer Gallatin National Forest

Eagle Creek campground is located in Southwest Montana approximately 2 miles NE of Gardiner and 3 miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The Yellowstone River is 2 miles from the campground and offers great fishing and rafting. They area is also home to an abundance of wildlife including antelope, bison, deer and elk.

Most sites are grassy and may not be very level, but all will be doable with some plastic leveling tiles and/or positioning of your tongue jack. There is no privacy between sites but for the most part are spaced far enough apart that you are not right on top of your neighbors. To get to the campground, look for the small sign near Kremer C-Store in Gardiner. From there it is roughly a 2+ mile climb on a dirt road to the entrance. The road from Kremer's is dirt with a few switchbacks. I was here in June 2016, and the campground was full every night and many times before 4 p.m. This is a good option for an overnight stop to get a jump into Yellowstone NP to secure a non-reservable site in the N.P. or even to stay here (you can't beat the cost of $7.00, S/A 1/2 off) and explore the park from here (the North entrance is right in Gardiner and then a 5 mile trip to Mammoth Hot Springs area). Due to the size, the campground was quiet at night. Most of the sites will fit a travel trailer and a few will fit a bigger beast. Just to give you an idea, the campground host had a Class A with a toad that he pulled up here. Verizon is great - 3-4 bars LTE. None of the sites are reservable. I believe the best site is the one that you will see first upon turning into the campground road (one-way narrow road), site #1. It will be however the furtherest from any vault toilet.

There is no water or dump station at this park and only vault toilets.

Beautiful views from this scenic campground right outside Yellowstone. First come, first serve sites. Some sites have animal pens - horse camping? There were pit toilets that were clean. Easy access to downtown Gardiner.

We arrived later in the day and thought we would head over to Yellowstone in the morning to find a first come site. It was so peaceful (Mammoth Springs campground looked really crowded) and we could literally see Mammoth from our site, we stayed there the whole time. You can’t beat the price and it was completely worth the extra 15 minutes to get to the park.

Mammoth camp ground was full so we stopped in Gardiner, MT for pizza at Yellowstone pizza company and look for an alternative we found Eagle Creek many people here even on 10-2-18 but we still found a spot. Its a nice place and the ranger came around early in the morning to check up on things and clean restock pit toilets (vary clean) If looking for free WiFi go to the library in town its free and fast.

Madison and Mammoth were the only campgrounds open before May 17 in park and filled before noon. You can see Mammoth from the road and it was not only full but looked like a sardine tin. This is a lovely alternative campground and we ended up staying here our whole visit, which was shortened by rain. Road up is very steep but definitely doable. Designated sites without pads, you just drive onto the grass. Creek running by, buffalo in campground every night. Peaceful and quiet. Heavily used, we stopped about 2pm the first night and there were lots of people coming in looking for a site in the early evening, with no luck. Better than staying in the park actually. We will camp here again when we return to Yellowstone. No cell service at all, but there isn’t any to speak of in Yellowstone either.

Only 2 miles from Gardiner, MT and about 4 miles from the North entrance to Yellowstone National Park, is this small Nat’l Forest Campground. It is suitable for big rigs but beware, the drive coming up was a little steep and scary, but easy. No water, dumpsters or dump station, but there are pit toilets and food lockers. Each site has picnic table and fire pit. There is a camp host on duty. We are here mid June 2019 and the park is full.

Great spot away from it all, yet so close. Nice and quiet, yet a 20 minute drive to Mammoth visitors center. Great Verizon 30/10, AT&T might be had with boosting.

Only $7/night, 5 minutes from north Yellowstone entrance! Super nice camp host, big spots and there were elk roaming through the campsite every morning - which I thought was super cool. Vault toilets only amenity and no ATT service.

Don't let Google maps fool you, this isn't a hard place to get to. It's on a gravel road with a 6-8% grade going up about 2 miles. It's wide enough for two vehicles to pass and isn't bad if it's raining. There is a sign that asks to put your vehicle into 4WD prior to ascending so they can reduce the washboard effect on the road. We had absolutely no issues getting our 42' 5th wheel up to this location. We had several friends with 5th wheels, 32' and 28' class C, and one class A get up without issue as well.

The campground is snug, but the sites are huge. We were able to get a couple campers in several of the sites while still following the 3 car limit. There are a couple horse camping sites up top with stock areas. Camping here will cost you about $7/night and is well worth it.
There is a vault toilet onsite, but no water. Each site has a campfire ring, but they don't sell wood. There are bear boxes at each site for storing food items if you choose to tent camp.

This is an excellent location to get into northern Yellowstone. It's about 30 minutes from the Mammoth Hot Springs. There are a lot of great places to eat in Gardiner which is about 10 minutes away. There's also a lot of outdoor activity offerings in Gardiner. There was good Verizon and ATT coverage. We were able to watch Netflix, Face-time, and have video calls for work.