Goose Bay Dispersed Camping

There are vault toilets, each site has a rock or metal fire ring. The sites are large and well spaced out.

I stayed here for 4 days in mid-October. I had my pick of spots if I wanted a shady and sunny place. I picked something sunnier for solar and it was cold in the mornings. I had solid signal to connect remotely to work, no need for a booster.

I did have a person with a generator show up on my last night but they were the only ones.

One of the best dispersed camping areas I've ever been to. It is federal dispersed so 14 day limit.

Vault toilet in area. Many good spots. All pretty level. Parking in grass. Rock fire rings. Park bench at many sites. Beach access and swimming allowed.

Here on a Wednesday and within an hour 3 more RVs came in. For the better slots I suspect it's pretty busy here on the weekends. Likely by Friday afternoon most are gone during prime seasons. It's a large space though and plenty of area to park and sleep or throw down a tent if you don't need or want a full blown camp site.

5g AT&T, 4 bar LTE Verizon. I'm streaming video calls here no problem.

Only negative. It is near water so be prepared for mosquitoes and flies. Holy lord the mosquitoes.

Road coming in is ridged pretty bad so drive slow and be prepared for vibration mode like you were hit by a red shell in Mario kart while using the old school rumble packs.

We arrived on a Monday around noon and there were a ton of sites. We picked one near some trees to get some shade. The lake is beautiful and clean! No HABs while we were there (early August) but we did keep a look out due to having our dog with us.
The only complaints I have about this spot - the mosquitoes were relentless and the washboard road is brutal. Definitely loosened some things in our 34ft airstream and in our truck lol. Take it very slow. Otherwise, any size rig will fit here! We won’t be leaving with our rig towards Helena. We are opting to avoid the winding roads and sharp narrow turn at the dam and instead will go back through Townsend and north from there.
ATT service was pretty good, T-Mobile was okay. Great Starlink visibility.
Filled up water at the Marina right beside dispersed camping for free and you can dump there for $10. I think they also sell propane!

Super solid spot on the lake/reservoir. Good cell service (+Starlink visibility). Unclear what previous reviews meant about 3 loops given there are maybe 15-20 spots total (if you double/triple up with others).

Rangers are frequent and will ticket for unoccupied or over staying here. Winds coming off the lake can be fierce yet calm days are fantastic. Don’t trust weather forecasts as it comes in from the opposite side of the water.

As a solo female, I felt primarily safe, with an eye on locals who can feel a bit territorial and will claim their space for days without occupation. I felt lucky to snag a spot and saw very little availability, even during the week.

We camped here in July 2021 in a 40’ Motorhome.

Caution: if you’re coming Helena in a longer rig/setup, there is a bridge with a 90 degree turn with rocks and barriers on both sides. The sign says not to continue down the road if you’re longer than 50 feet in total. If you pass the sign, there’s nowhere else to turn around and you’ll be forced to go over the bridge.

Other than that minor heart attack, we had no issues accessing this campsite. There was lots of wide open spaces and plenty of lakefront spots. It’s a great place to come with a group.

Plenty of cell service on Verizon and ATT for work.

The nearby marina/ RV park offers water fill and dump for a fee (I think it was $10 for both). Very easy access.

The nearby town of Townsend was cute and has a few amenities- a small grocery store, a bakery, a coffee shop (with wifi), gas stations, etc.

We loved our time at the lake with friends and would definitely camp here again.

Free Camping at Goose Bay Dispersed Camping Area in Montana is administered by the US Bureau of Reclamation. In this video, I show you some of the best campsites for free camping at the Goose Bay Dispersed Camping Area located on Canyon Ferry Lake near Helena, MT. We found plenty of big rig friendly dispersed campsites here, all with water views. Verizon cellular service clocked in at 34.2 Mbps download speed and 6.77 Mbps upload speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 54.3 Mbps download speed and 6.45 Mbps upload speed. T-Mobile cellular service clocked in at 103 Mbps download speed and 4.71 Mbps upload speed.

This spot was PERFECT. Everything you need: waterfront view, fire ring, picnic table, vault toilet & amazing cell service. The sunsets were beautiful, the water was clean and it was so peaceful during the week. Weekends get PACKED. There are 3 loops to this dispersed camping. I recommend loop 3. It was the least packed during the week and has access to 2 clean vault toilets. There’s great spots towards the end that have easy water access for a kayak or SUP. I used my SUP in that little bay and it was perfect. Only 45 minutes to Helena and surrounded by beauty! And it’s free! You can stay up to 14 days.