Charles Waters Campground

This campgrounds is two miles from Hwy 93 on paved road. The campground is paved and so are the sites. There are 3-4 pull thru sites. Some of the sites have a slight slope. My guess would be about 40% of the sites would accommodate a large class A. The sites are well spaced. There were only about 10 campers when we were there. This is FCFS campground. There are hiking trails a short distance from the campground The best part for us was the stream that ran next to our site. It lulled us to sleep.

Nice NF campground with potable water hydrants and clean, well stocked vault toilets. Many sites can accommodate larger rigs, but only a couple are really great for solar. It is a little tight in a couple of the turns, but the sites are mostly spacious and somewhat private. We had speeds on Verizon allowing for streaming. The camp hosts are so friendly and helpful! There are also plenty of hiking options right from the campground. We stayed late June in a 30’ TT.

No hookups but water available. Roads and turns were fine for our 32ft trailer plus truck. Beautiful river in park and a nice long road to the top of a mountain to see expansive views, wildlife and water. Sites are spaced far apart and cell service was adequate for virtual meetings on ATT and Verizon. Had to use booster a few times for better service.

Beautiful campground, clean and heavily treed with internal paved roads and sites. Quite a few pull-throughs, but there are several turns in the campground that can be tight for longer rigs or bigger rigs, and once you're in, you're committed. Given that, we are 55 feet when hooked up, and we had to adjust to make a turn slowly. I only gave this a three-star rating due to that.

First loop is close to a national forest access road with a lot of traffic. Signs everywhere state no shooting, but when we were there, we heard several shots.

This is a well maintained campground at the base of the Bitterroot mountains. The road to and within the campground is paved. The parking pads are also paved and ours was level. Bathrooms and water spigots (not threaded) are well distributed through the campground. The sites are mostly wooded, so expect substantially lower efficiency from rooftop solar. A number of sites are pull-throughs and will accommodate any size RV, but others are sized for vans or small class C. There is even a small site specifically for bicyclists (there is a paved bicycle trail that follows the main highway of the Bitterroot Valley). I found the sites to mostly be well separated from one another. My one complaint would be that about half the sites had the table/fire ring located on the street side of a backed in trailer. But the fire ring/table areas were large, so there was space to set up whatever you want. In late August the campground was full on Saturday night, but otherwise there were always a few spots available.

What I enjoyed were the extensive trails accessible from the campground. Many are shared equestrian trails, but usage was relatively light.

We spent just one night at Charles Waters but there’s enough to do here to fill a few days. Group camp is reservable, the rest is all first come/first served. We arrived on a Sunday around lunchtime and had a choice of sites, but the campground was full by evening. When you turn onto Bass Creek Road be prepared for 2 miles of narrow poorly maintained road. The first mile or so is more patch than paving, but it gets a little better closer to the campground. The area is very popular with the horse crowd and while there are no horses allowed in the campground itself there are two equestrian parking areas nearby.

Sites are a combination of back-in and some large pull-throughs which could accommodate any size rig. The campground roads however have some tight turns, particularly the upper loop so scout before committing.

We were in site #12 which had private access to a small creek than runs along that side of the campground. But was also close to the horse trailer parking and the biting horse flies drove us indoors. The sites are paved, well-spaced and most have enough vegetation between sites for some privacy. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring. There are vault toilets/garbage cans around the campground and a container for aluminum can recycling. Friendly and helpful camp host. There is water (not threaded), but no dump station.

We had 2 bars of Verizon 4G.

My one-night stay turned into three as camp was very clean, easy to access and the weather prevented me from moving on to my next destination out of caution. So glad I stayed here. The camp host was super friendly and once he saw I was solar dependent in the middle of a snowstorm he let me know that I was welcome to take the ADA site with an electric hook up for the night - just an extra $5 a night. Be sure to check first before setting up in the ADA site as a courtesy.
From Highway 93 the signage only refers to "Bass Creek" which is the name for the general area. Its just a quick 5 minute drive off the highway and another 5 into the town of Stevensville, or 30 to Missoula.
The camp is very nice, all roads and pads are paved. A few sites looked pretty unlevel but overall not too bad. Lots of elbow room between you and the neighbors at just about every site. Lots of large pull thru sites and double wide back ins that could fit just about anything. some sites had two sets of tables and fire rings, one on the paved pad and one further back in the gravel. a few sites backed up to the creek but the water was so high when i was there you really couldn't get close enough to do anything. several pit toilets, water taps and trash cans scattered around camp. all very clean and well stocked. water was crystal clear.
there is a trailhead just up the road from camp and another across the road from camp - ample parking for cars and horse trailers. i got out for a short hike along one of the trails before the weather turned and the area is really nice to explore. i do hope to return when the weather is better to continue the hike! there is a short, easy nature trail across the road as well.
the day-use area is just as nice as the camp - i actually thought it was another branch of the campground at first. about half a dozen sites with separate parking areas, tables and fire rings. pit toilet and water in the day use too.
the area is popular with locals and there was a steady stream of traffic all day but the noise wasn't terrible. the forest service was doing some training exercises while I was there too so there was a large group of FS folks climbing trees and what not.