Johnson's of St. Mary

Update from below our first stay. I now will take back the 1/2 star and keep it at three. We stayed there in late August of 2018 once again. When we arrived, the area was quite smoky from a large fire in Glacier National Park. At check-in, I mentioned that we might need to leave earlier than our 5-night reservation and was told that I would not get a refund because they require all changes to be done 48 hours prior to check-in. She said they make it a point to mention this when you reserve (I don't recall) and include it in the written confirmation (it's possible I missed it). I could maybe understand this if people decide to change on a whim, but not when there is smoke from a fire. They said the only way they would refund was if there was an evacuation order - well yeah. We left after two nights and they kept our money, I don't consider that good service.

Review from first stay here - I would give this campground a 3 1/2 if I could. The rate reflects a Good Sam discount and is for electric and water only. This campground is pricey, as are all campgrounds in the area. The setting is quite beautiful, with snowcapped mountains on one side and a lake with smaller mountains on the other.

The campsites are very narrow and not very long. Fortunately, we have a small car. We were there early in the season so there was no one on our living side. We were in the first row up on the hill, with fairly good views, but the full hook-up sites had the 360 degree views - and were also more expensive.

The location is one mile to the St. Mary entrance to Glacier National Park, and eight miles to the Many Glacier turn-off. This is one of two campgrounds we identified that fit big rigs in this area, the other is a KOA, which is more expensive.

The campground has rest rooms, showers, a laundry room and a dump station. They also offer propane. There is a general store in town with a pretty decent selection.

There is a restaurant on-site, which seemed rather pricey, so we didn't eat there. We did, however, order a soup and dessert - apparently two of their specialties. Both were delicious.

This campground has a great location near East Glacier National Park. The view is pretty good from most spots.

Other than that, its just a grassy parking lot with some hookups, at least in the overflow-style spots out front by the entrance that we stayed in.

We pulled into Johnson's of St. Mary after a long day of driving and after unhitching enjoyed the amazing views of St. Mary's Lake and the mountains of Glacier National Park from site #24 on the upper loop.

The park is a good value for the location- just a mile from the East entrance to GNP and half mile from St. Mary's restaurants and a grocery store- and the staff was friendly and responsive. We also appreciated how dog-friendly the park was with many campers having dogs and a nice, grassy area on the upper level.

The downsides of the park are the narrow sites and that it wasn't the cleanest park with both the natural challenges of how dusty it is on top of the hill as well as the state of the public bathrooms. Wireless was slow and cell coverage for AT&T very limited.

Overall though, we would stay here again - you can't beat the views from the upper sites and location so close to Glacier!

If you hare looking for an inexpensive place to plug in...this might be it. It was much cheaper than the other places around. The view up on the hill is amazing, but you are basically parking on grass with a tiny bit of gravel. Sites were not very level. You are parked right next to your neighbor so no privacy. They do have some full hookup sites, we only had water and electricity, but they have a nice dump station as you exit. The restaurant was worth the visit! We were there early season so they were not full...thank goodness. With the one way roads it would have made it very hard to get back in front of our trailer to hook up. Since no one was next to us, we just drove through that site and backed in. Bathrooms were far away from the RV sites, but clean. Wifi was there but very slow which was too bad since cell service is almost nil.

We very much enjoyed our stay here. The sites are terraced on the hill above the lake to take advantage of the beautiful views.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get level (down in back when facing the lake), but made do. All utilities worked well and our satellite connected easily. Zero cell service at the campground and all of the little town (AT&T). The site WiFi worked sporadically.

Spaces are tight and even more un-level where the small picnic table are set on grass with pretty trees. They are very long with plenty of room for big rigs and toads.

Very quiet and dark at night - wonderful!!

The cafe has good food but plan to wait for it. Buy groceries before you come. The "supermarket" has less offerings than some 7-11's, mostly beer and snacks.

Until the construction is complete on Hwy 89, take Starr School road from Browning. The winding narrow road from there to St Mary is "exiting" to drive but not an issue if you take it slow.

The campground is up on the hillside with a nice view of the mountains and lake. Unfortunately, we were there while the Howe Ridge Fire was getting going and our views were very obscured by the smoke. But, the views looked like they would be nice!

There are three areas. Back-in water and electric sites on the lower level, pull-through full hookup sites on the hillside, and non-utility tent sites in the woods. We found this to be a great basecamp for visiting the park with good amenities. We had been boondocking for fews prior to this stay and it was like Christmas is July!

There was wifi but it really only worked by the office and was slow. The verizon signal was very strong but everything else was very weak or non existent.

It was definitely a tight squeeze with your neighbors but overall a good stay.

We booked last minute (night before), and although all sites with hookups were booked, we got a dry site in a pretty location with good solar access. We saw at least three other dry sites that could take an RV or tent that weren’t booked.

The showers were clean. They have little space for toiletries. They are coin operated. You get one token per day, per person, which serves you 6 min. of shower time. Additional 6 min. tokens are $5 each. The laundry mat was busy (we were there mid afternoon), though people were attentive and moved their laundry through pretty quickly.

You can tell this place is much more a jumping off point to visit Glacier NP than a traditional RV park, and everyone seems to be busy taking care of their business, which is a good vibe. We liked the utilitarian and fun till feel from this place, as it’s not fancy, but provides really nicely all one needs.

The restaurant covers all the bases, and is a nice amenity. There is a hotel and cabins for non camping friends as well.

The location is ideal if looking for quick access to Going to the Sun or trailheads in St. Mary/Many Glacier. Don’t expect to be connected though. We had absolutely no cell service and their WiFi only works if you are right in front of the main office. (We have AT&T) Our site had 20 amp and water only - and we recommend this option as the sites with full hook-ups are spaced like a parking lot. Our site backed up to an aspen forest and we had more space between our neighbors - which we prefer. Also, we tried to eat breakfast the morning on our departure only to find out that the restaurant is only open for breakfast on Fri, Sat, Sun. (just a side note!) Overall we enjoyed our stay here and give it 4 stars because of the location!

If you're looking for full hook ups and an open area to camp, this is not be the best place. They do have full hook ups, but the campers are packed in and there is no extra space to just hang out, unless you have a small rig. Most of the rigs we saw, took up the entire space, and left no sitting area. After walking through the campground, and seeing what was available for FHU, you couldn't pay us to stay in those spots. HOWEVER... the dry camping areas and power-only spots are MUCH better! Some spaces are very odd in their location, (we saw 3 that were right on top of each other), but for the most part, they're spaced out. Spaces 17-22 circle a field large enough for a good friendly football/kickball/capture the flag game. Multiple tents can fit in sites 20-22, and did while we were there, but the sites would be able to fit larger rigs rather well. Our site, 19, was one of the odd ones. There's not a set way to situate the camper, so we just had to pick what worked best for us, and as a larger rig, we kept it perpendicular to the back of the site. There are tables and fire rings in each of the sites, 3 central water spigots with potable water, and the bath house wasn't too far away. When you check in, you get 1 token per person per night for the showers. Each token is worth 6 minutes of hot water. There are 2 bath houses, one up on the hill next to the tent and dry camp areas, and the second at the bottom of the hill behind the office. The upper BH is old but was pretty clean when we used the showers at 10 AM before checking out. At the time only one of the ladies' 2 showers were working in that BH. Checked the lower BH at 11, while my husband was dumping the tanks. The lower BH has 4 showers. All the showers (in both ladies' rooms) had very high shower heads, great for tall people, not so great for 4 year olds when trying to rinse shampoo and the water goes around his head. If you have small kids, bring a cup to help rinse out hair. There are horse corrals behind site 19, with 2 more sites next to them. We had horses in ours for most of our stay, only heard them in the morning, when our windows were open. The campground is a short distance to the St Mary visitor center, so location was great for those looking to hike or drive the Going to the Sun road. I do want to point our that our RV Garmin was trying to take us to a road inside the park that is named basically the same as the campground road. If following the directions sent with the reservation confirmation, and driving 464 out of Browning, the campground is on the left side of the road immediately after their larger sign. If you make it to the gas station and turn toward the visitor center, you've gone too far. The price is high for dry camping, but you're really paying for the location. Overall, we loved our visit, and if we come back to the area, we will definitely stay here again.

We spent Sun, Mon, Tues night here with two vehicles and four adults at a tent site. The bathrooms were very clean, showers weren’t bad at all. I rarely encountered anyone while in there. We were well spaced out, but I could see where it may get to be tight quarters if it filled in more. We stay 3/10 of a mile(I think, if not, close!) from the St. Mary’s entrance. We also were pretty close to Many Glacier. Nice little area. Town had all we needed. It was an hour plus to Two Medicine and about two hours to the West Glacier entrance. Stunning rides though, so we didn’t mind. I’d absolutely stay here again and would recommend it to others. We did not see these critters, but people near the restrooms told us they saw a bull moose come through. Another person saw a mama grizzly and her cubs near by!