Battle Ridge Campground

This is a great natural campground. By that I mean a dirt road coming in, dirt and not too level campsites ( except for a few level ones on the right side), no electricity or water. Hopefully water will return soon. We had no problem leveling our 26’ camper with blocks. Lots of trees and wild flowers. ❤️ That campsites don’t sit right on top of each other and there are only 12! First come, first served. We had no problem though coming in on a Weds.

A very friendly and helpful camp host stopped by and we chatted for quite awhile. In fact, while I was there all the campers were really friendly. I enjoyed watching the children have fun and petting the dogs that were being walked. My husband and I had a relaxing time at Battle Ridge which is a beautiful 30 min drive from Bozeman.

Vault toilets were clean which is a big plus! There is one open at each end of campgrounds. The camp host invited us for coffee and a bonfire. It was nice meeting his family and getting to know them. We will camp here again.

This campground is so beautiful! It was peaceful and quiet despite being kind of near the road. The sites were all well kept, and all the spots on the right side of the road were big enough for our 30ft tt and truck and were mostly level. In spot 11 we did end up having to use some leveling blocks but the rest of the spots seemed level. Each spot has a picnic table and nice fire ring. The camp host was so nice and does a great job maintaining the sites. We saw a few deer and a bunch of cows.
There are some vault toilets, I didn’t use them so I’m not sure what condition they are in but I did see quite a few other campers using them so they cant be that bad.
As of our stay in late August 2019 there was still no available water.
From here it was about a 20/25 minute drive down to Bozeman
The only thing that wasn’t perfect about this place was right at the turn in onto the dirt road there were a few potholes but we got across them fine.
We had not ATT service on our cell phones but our Verizon hotspot read 1 bar 4G LTE and was able to stream shows and allow us to use our phones normally so that was good enough for us!

Some of the other reviews on here mention the dispersed camping area across the road but I would absolutely not try to tow anything up there, I wouldn’t have even considered driving our 4wd truck up there by itself. We did however walk our dogs up there and the views were beautiful!

There are several pretty level sites for RV’s on the right side of campground road. Some on the other side of campground would work for a camper, just need some blocks for the front to level. Several good tent sites. Kept clean. Would stay here again. Hope they get water back in place someday. Prior person reviewing must of been a grumpy old man or something. Kids in a campground is a given.

There were about 15 kids running through everyone’s campsites the entire time. Some people tent camping apparently thought they were self appointed campground host and just stood out on the street the hole time staring and questioning everyone coming in but couldn’t figure out how to keep their kids in line. The actual campground host was writing down people’s license plate numbers in a little book after they left and asked us all sorts of questions. It seemed the people were staying at this place out of necessity rather than to camp. Trailers were falling apart and looked like meth labs. One guy dressed in full riot gear with a face mask and walked aimlessly through the woods talking to himself for hours... no joke. 2 stars cause was free. 30 mins to anything and all the best hikes are south of Bozeman where there are much better free campsites not full of weirdos. Oh yea... Super unlevel spots.. very short so not good for our 25 ft trailer and super buggy.

The previous poster (tbair) hit on pretty much all the key points. The free campground to the right (not dispersed) was never full while we were there, but probably at 80% capacity.
We found the prettiest views to be from the dispersed site, on top of the small hill. I absolutely wouldn’t try and go there without a high clearance 4x4 vehicle (the mud was really bad) but walking up there takes 5 minutes and is worth it.
No cell service, toilets were pretty clean and stocked, bummed there was no water but better that than contaminated water! (Which is why they shut it off).

This location marker is actually two different areas that are very close to each other. The one is a forest service campground with picnic tables fire rings and outhouses but no water. There used to be water but the cistern got contaminated and they shut it off. As of 2018 ignore any info to the contrary there is no water. Everything else about the campground is fine. The sites are varied some are long enough for a trailer some are not. It is busy so luck of the draw. The campground has a host new this year but there is no fee.

There is also a dispersed camping area just past the campground. There is a loop to the left right past the campground. The first right is very muddy with water filled ruts. I would not touch it without lifted 4x4 and winch and desire to get muddy. The second left is better, still 8-10 inch ruts but a couple of marginal sites before you hit the muddy part of the loop. Two better sites are further up the river rock road, one just at the fence where it says locked gate ahead and one just past that on the left, though that also looks like it could get muddy.

Was able to post this from the site on verizon with booster and antenna but was not able to make any phone calls so pretty marginal signal.

We arrived right as another RV was leaving and were pretty lucky. It was pretty busy the entire time we were there since there was a disc golf tournament nearby. Our site wasn't very level but it worked just fine with leveling blocks. There was a picnic table and fire ring also. No service which is always a bummer, but it was only 25 minutes to Bozeman. We dumped our tanks at town pump and met an awesome stranger that allowed us to fill up our water at his house. The water spigot was turned off at the campsite but we were able to fill up our 7 gallon jug at bohart ranch. We enjoyed our time at battle ridge and would return.

We camped in the dispersed area to the left of the campground. We had a 180 degree view of the Gallatin Range and further views north. We gave 5 stars for access to the campground but our spot was not easy to get to...the road has been deeply trenched for erosion control. We had to use our leveling blocks in the trenches to avoid dragging. Other dispersed sites are not quite as difficult. Campground sites are not very deep, only 1 or 2 would have accommodated us. There is no water here, although there are spickets, that have been turned off. Camp is only about 20 min from Bozeman.