Madison Arm Resort

It was a stunning campground! We set our tent up to over look the water and we could hear the water hitting the shore. It was very peaceful. The owners were very helpful and friendly. They have all kinds of rentals for the water and a nice convenient store. The campsite is far off the main road and quite some distance from the Yellowstone. However if visiting Yellowstone, this is a beautiful place to stay.

Quaint place. Best value for sure. Old bathrooms but it didn't bother me because it was a historical building and great customer service. Would definitely go back!

Beautiful place!! The lake is so serene in the mornings that we barely wanted to leave the place. A couple of blips in the stay however: The power box was set up on the wrong side of the trailer, so we had to feed the power cord under the trailer to reach it. Luckily we had a cord long enough.
The second problem we had was the roads into the park. They are ungraded gravel forset service roads that are very rough. Our GPS took us on the road that is south of the town of W. Yellowstone and it was HORRIBLE! 6 miles that felt like 20, it took us more than an hour to travel it with the trailer. The road that is north of W. Yellowstone is rough, but not nearly as bad. Aside from the tough drive in and out, the place was great.

***READ OTHER WATER ISSUE REPORTS!!!! *** DO NOT NOT NOT drink this water!!!! We are boondocking just outside Madison Arm, still in the National Forest, and we stopped in to see if we could fill our 60 gallon water bladder. And if so, how much would it cost. The owner said we could fill our 60 gallons for free, and ran out about 28 gallons into it and told us we'd have to pay $60. Because we only got 28 gallons she charged us $45. She specifically said we could fill it for free. When we got home, we noticed the water was bad, tea colored and dumped it on the ground. We will be filing a grievance with the National Forest, as this was a classic robbery. And we couldn't even use the water we paid $45 for. ABSOLUTE CROOKS!!!!!!!!! The state park down the road charges $10 for the whole year. We should have driven the extra couple miles and gone there, but we pulled in and asked, and she said it was free and to go ahead.

The ironic part is we worked for the National Forest up in Montana last year. We know that these fees are regulated for the concessionaires and this is not supposed to happen. You can NOT tell someone they can go ahead and fill their water bladder for free and then change your mind and demand money. $45 for 28 gallons that I had to dump on the ground is NOT ok!

Great place to be close to Yellowstone! Park employees were helpful and kind. Full hook-ups available. There is a 5.5 gravel road to get to the park but there are no potholes and it is a wide road. There are washboard spots on the road. Our site was spacious and we never heard our neighbors.

Paid $51 for an overflow site with no hookups. We were a little desperate trying to find an available RV spot near West Yellowstone in late July without a reservation so when they told us we could park in their overflow parking, we were happy to have a place to go.

They warned us that the forest road to get to the campground was a "bit bumpy" but that was a bit of an understatement. The roads were the worst washboard rutted road we have ever driven with a camper trailer. We had to slow down to about 5mph to drive the 5 miles in. Which meant we spent nearly an hour driving to the campground and back out again the next day. Obviously the road conditions depend on recent weather and the area had just had rain. Both road options on either side of the campground were pretty bad.

The overflow parking was a nice, level grass field. We were told that a bear had just passed through the area a few minutes before we parked so we didn't spend much time outside. $51 for a simple overflow spot is very pricey especially since we were the only RV parked there.

The drive in wasn't very pretty because of the recent fires, but once we got to the campground there were beautiful, tall green trees and the lake was nice.

If I could leave less than zero stars I would have!! We had booked a reservation here during end of May and due to unforeseen global pandemic - covid-19 we had to cancel our trip. When I went to cancel the trip I was informed by Steven the owner that they decided they wouldn’t be refunding any deposits or refunds as they would go “bankrupt.” I advised him I would be filing a complaint with better business bureau and he called me “selfish and he wasn’t going to deal with my petty threats.” This is not anyway to conduct business!! We definitely will never stay here and we’ll be sure to tell our fellow Rvers to stay away!

We didn’t have any reservations and had three trucks and trailers with 11 people. We were going to Boondock and found out you can’t within 50 miles of the park. I called on a chance and they had 3 spots! I’ll take them I said.
Then waiting on the road I read reviews and thought oh a god what did I just do!
Thank god I never go off any positives ir negatives I read. We had a great time, views of the lake from every site, quiet after 10 and there’s no BS’ing about that.
My only negative would be parking can be tough for sure! Now I’ll book my next trip there and take my new favorite spot in advance.
Thanks so much to Zena & Crew you were life savers.

This is not a spot everyone will care for. It is way off the beaten path, down a dirt, dusty road---BUT, I found the place friendly, good dry camp site and close to Yellowstone where other places were booked solid. I have a small van camper and took the road slowly; would not advise a big fancy rig trying to get there. Still another quickly place to add to my adventures at 80 years old.

HUGE CONS:
- DO NOT come in from Hwy 191. The 6-mile dirt road was almost impassable for our F250 4x4 w 23' trailer in tow. It wrecked everything in our trailer and caused a wheel bearing on our trailer to fail.
- DO NOT come in late or after dark.
- DO make reservations weeks in advance, and ask for the largest site you can get.
- DO come in from Hwy 20. Still a dirt road, but much more passable.
- No pull throughs, and very small, hard to navigate sites
- Busy campsite with many large groups and noise from campers
- Hook-ups are in awkward places for some sites, leaving little room to set-up camp

I would have given 3 stars if the hosts had warned us about the washboard road in any of the 5+ conversations we had before arrival. The road in caused us to lose 2 days of our trip, because we had to have our trailer worked on after the road in wrecked it.

PROS:
- The site is BEAUTIFUL! It's on Hebgen Lake in the Gallatin National Forest. The lake is pristine, and there are many choices for water sports.
- Good location, close to the quaint town of West Yellowstone, and very near the park's west entrance
- Clean restrooms, showers, and laundry
- Dish-washing sink on-site helps with camp cleanup
- Convenience store on-site, but very limited options. Bags of ice limited to one per day, per site.
- Remote and beautiful scenery to explore
- Good spot for tent camping

It's a great campsite if you're planning to stay a week or more. We will probably try a different campsite next time we're in W. Yellowstone simply because there are other sites where we wouldn't have to brave the terrible roads in and out of this campsite.