Lewis & Clark County Fairgrounds

Agree with other reviews that say it's fine for an overnight stop. The campground is rather overgrown and the trains on the tracks nearby are noisy. There was a van around that appeared to be camping wherever they pleased, as they were always parked by some trees but moved a few feet every day. The boulders on the edge of the road made it tricky to maneuver our 39' FW but we were able to fit. We needed a place in Helena for a few nights and this fit the bill, but we wouldn't consider it a destination.

Very friendly staff in office.

Tmobile 5G (N71) on my hotspot, 100+ down 50+ up.

30 amp power, no water at site. Water fill near the office before heading to spot. No sewer or dump. Dump on Custer (road the fair is on) before you hit I15 at the Town Pump gas station, Lowes side by the car wash. It is free.

Tight back in. They have boulders where you need to have the truck swing, 4 door F150 short bed with 30 foot trailer and I couldn't get in to the interior spots. The edge spots were fine as you can use the access road. 25 footer would still be tight but doable to get in.

Sites are gravel with "natural grasses" on the sides. Vault toilet in camp. There is a flush toilet and shower near office, but it is locked, and need staff to open it for you.

Many huge grass areas, a large park, and several horse related arenas/buildings. Early in the morning there were at least 20 deer in the park.

If you are a light sleeper this won't work for you. Trains all night long. They have to cross many streets when they are near, so at least 15+ audible horn blows per. Every singe time I was up overnight I heard a train.

Fair grounds offers dry or electric only sites. Electricity costs $5 additional. Level gravel sites. Showers and nice bathrooms are far away from campsites. If the showers are locked then you can go to the office and have the showers opened. After hours there is a phone number on the office door for the maintenance man who can open the showers.
There are fresh water spigots near the office. Also there is free WiFi in the fairgrounds.

When we arrived at this campground I was shocked at how unkept it was. I expected much better after reading the other reviews. The campground had a lot of empty spots so I walked around trying to find one that wasn’t covered in foot high weeds.

The one near the bathrooms seemed to have less weeds/tumbleweeds than the others. As I was walking back to our RV, someone else pulled into that spot. So, we went to our 2nd choice spot after I spent a few minutes trying to trample some weeds down. I also had to warn my spouse not to step in the dog poop that was left from previous campers. We settled down to get some much needed rest.

Then came the trains...omg the trains! There were easily 5 or 6 that came through during all hours of the night. Each time they would blow their horns incessantly. I counted 13 whistles from one alone. Knowing we would get little to no sleep even while wearing earplugs, we packed up the next morning, paid for the night at the office, and left for a much quieter campsite south of where we were. It wouldn't take a lot to get this campground back in shape. A weed eater would’ve gone a long way, not to mention having someone do general maintenance to the grounds such as raking the sites and adding gravel where needed, weed eating, emptying the trash, etc. This campground is obviously not a priority. The only plus was that it had good cell coverage. Other than that, it was our worst place to date and we will not stay here again.

This was a basic campground with well-spaced sites, within an open area a good distance from the arena and any buildings. Reservations have to be made by phone at 406-457-8516 (the contact number on the web site). Take the first road to the left after entering through the gate from W Custer Avenue, and that road leads around the edge of the property to the campground.

The campground consisted of rough grass with good gravel roads. Sites were gravel and fine grit, which stuck to my shoes after rain. The sites were fairly level, with electrical hookups and large garbage cans. There were water faucets in the parking lot in front of the arena (on the west side). The was plenty of space there to park an RV to fill with water on your way in.

Verizon 4G was excellent, with 5 bars, -89 dB, 51 Mbps down and 30 up. The only problem was the trains, each of which blasted its horn repeatedly for 5 minutes or more, day and night. I looked up the signals on line, and found that they were starting forward and backing up, in addition to sounding multiple 4-blast crossing signals, so they were probably assembling or breaking trains. It was aggravating enough for me to not want to camp here again.