Muchwater Dispersed Campground

This area is on a bend of the Clark Fork river just upstream of the Cascade Campground, and just downstream of the overpass where the railroad crosses the highway. There are signs on the highway just before the turnoff, but slow down or you'll miss it. The access road is good and there are 2 clean vault toilets. There are at least a dozen informal sites, including several that could be used for 2 or 3 RV's. We used a 20' trailer, but saw a larger one in another site. Some leveling was required at our site. There are a number of fire pits, some built by the USFS and some good user-built ones. The sites are well-separated, with timber between. All have river access, and some overlook the water. There was just one picnic table, and the first site.

Everywhere along this corridor, there will be some highway and railroad noise. This area is as far from the highway as any of them, but fortunately the railroad is on the other side of the river. A number of trains come through each day, and make the expected noise, but you don't feel like they're coming right through your camp. Also, since there are no crossings nearby, the trains don't blow their whistles there.

Quinn's hot springs is just 5 minutes down the road, with a good tavern and restaurant. If you're going there, suggest you check their website. It's a popular destination--reservations are recommended for dinner and for soaking.

We got very spotty Verizon coverage there--enough to check texts.

Nice campground beautiful setting
No picnic tables
Clean out houses
Trains are constantly going by day and night. Very loud when passing campground. Will wake you up often.
Few sites with stuff set up on them, but nobody there the entire time we were there. I dislike this when people claim sites for long periods of time and aren’t even there.

We rolled in on a Saturday afternoon and got lucky to get a spot right on the river! All of the sites are spacious and unique. We had no issues getting our 31ft travel trailer in there. Most sites have a fire pit. The river is cold but pretty clean. We took a refreshing dip! The train on the other side of the river does go by quite a bit. Maybe 5-6 times a day. It’s very loud, but we didn’t mind it. This was one of our favorite places! If you have time, check out Quinn’s Hot Springs and Resort! You can’t beat a relaxing soak and a hot shower!

My favorite campground (traveling now for 2 months). Free, gets busy on weekends with boaters/floaters, but sites are large and spread out, so you don’t really notice. Some sites hard to get into, so check before you pull in, but plenty of room for larger rigs if you don’t mind a bit of a rough road and a lot of dust. A few vault toilets, but we didn’t use them. You can fill up water containers at a water source on 200, just south of Paradise before you turn right on 135. (Locals told us they drink it all the time despite the sign. No problems so far here). No Verizon cell service, but occasionally our WeBoost system would allow us to call/text. Drove a few miles toward interstate to get decent cell service to roam the web. We got there midweek and found a spot right on the river. Train runs across the river, day and night. Decent grocery store in Plains, MT. Easy drive to the Hiawatha bicycle trail (google it: all down hill over old railroad bed, shuttle bus can take you back to your car). River was nice and cool on a hot day. Would go back in a heartbeat.

Got here at 2:30 pm on a Wednesday and only three or four other campers. Plenty of spots to choose from but I needed one without a large dip. My 30’ class A with a toad happens to drag if there are dips. I finally found one that led to a pull through that had four or five good spots but with tight turns between trees. The last spot was wide open with sunshine for the solar panels, right next to the River, and a wonderful view of Clark Fork River and surrounding mountains. And it was level!
The road loops through the campground (about one mile long) and entryways on both ends of about three to four hundred feet. Two clean latrines at either end of the loop. Plenty of space between camps.
The train came by on the opposite side of the river pulling oil tankers. I would prefer the safer pipelines as one train accident would throw 200 to 300 tankers into the River which flows into the Columbia River and potentially damaging 1000’s of miles of salmon habitat. At least the train didn’t blow its horns!
I had barely enough signal from Consumer Cellular (AT&T) to read texts and hopefully send this review. Verizon and T-Mobile had no signal at all. No movies!

Found a spot on a Friday around 6pm. Sites are spaced far apart. Room for all size campers. Tenting would be harder as a lot of rocks, uneven ground and pine cones. Two pit toilets, very well maintained. No garbage cans or water source. No electricity or lights. Whole area was very well kept and clean. Generators allowed between 6am-10pm. Train runs through close by frequently but didn’t bother us. Also some hwy traffic noise.Spotty cell service. Could call and text some. Quiet and dark at night❤️

Very nice disbursed campground adjacent the Clark Fork River. We arrived at 2 pm in mid September and had our choice of several campsites. The one we selected was quite large with no one close by. Only amenity was a vault toilet and firepit. Some road noise and a few trains but not bad. The river was about 125 feet from our camp site. We would camp here again.

Needing a break from long travel days we stopped here for 3 nights. It was the most peaceful boondocking we have had. We are in a 36' Class A with toad, no problem with access to several of the sites, however I would recommend going ahead with bikes/car to scout out which site is best for you before driving the loop with a large RV (I would not hesitate taking a 40 ft in, but would scout it out with a car/bike first) Only 3 sites were occupied and we got one with enough sunlight for our solar collection needs and right on the water - best site of all in my opinion. Could not get enough Verizon signal to send a text message. For brief moments I would get 1 bar of signal, but not enough for a call out/in.

Beautiful views with easily accessible sites! We loved our campsite that was right on the river, and getting in and out with our big rig was easily done!

Only drawbacks were that our site was a little close to the main road, so we could hear traffic during the day. There are train tracks that run across the river and a few trains flew by (which our kid’s loved and we didn’t mind). And last drawback is that the ground of our site is a super fine dust that got on everything and felt weird with sandals.

That being said, the views were totally worth any minor inconveniences.

We loved our time here at Muchwater. As people have mentioned before the only real drawback is the trains on the other side of the river. During our 12 day stay her we averaged about 6-10 per day. A couple of times they rolled thru at 2am but all the positives outweigh getting woken up a few times.

Very easy access, two pit toilets in the camping area. Plenty of spots to pick from and not very busy during our stay. State route 135 currently has construction just outside the campground so there are often cars backed up for as long as 20minutes at a time. You get a little road noise but nothing that is too bad. I imagine when the construction is finished you won't even hear the road.

Couple items to mention if you are planning to stay for a while. It has been pretty difficult to find potable water in the area. The "free spring" just south of Paradise has been turned off as of August 2022 and locals say it is unlikely to be turned back on. Closest gas is down in St. Regis (about 15 minute drive). Closest Grocery is in Plains (about 20 minute drive).

No Verizon or Tmobile but had a nice spot on the river that gave us great Starlink service.

We have also done a video review for our Youtube Channel if you want to check it out.
https://youtu.be/ZmWOcAWBiHg