North Fork Road Dispersed Camping

This place was not our favorite. We were here in mid July 2023 and it was extremely crowded. You can find a spot but it is like being in a rv park with people squeezing in together. We expected that since it was peak season. The worst thing about it was the people who clearly are living there (sounds like it may be resolved). We saw what looked like two groups. One RV and two graffiti covered trailers with trash around them. As others noted, these two groups would leave their dogs tied up all day outside and they would bark for hours without stopping. There was a lot of generator noise but nothing out of the ordinary, sort of expected here. One of the long term groups did start blasting music and running their generator at 3 a.m. but were otherwise fine the rest of the week.

The place is just a flat field, nothing glamourous but it is free and a great location for Glacier/Columbia Falls (vs us paying ~600-900 for a week in town).

Following up on the review from a week or so ago, about the orange-tagged campers.
They were still here when we got here Wednesday (07/26), but we saw one leave later Wednesday night. The other left sometime this morning.
Neither camper bothered us, though it helped there were so many campers here - we would have felt uncomfortable if it was just us and them.
The camper that left this morning did leave a tent and a large pile of trash behind, but there are no orange-tagged trailers here anymore, if that review was keeping anyone away.

It's not the most scenic spot, but it couldn't be much more convenient. And Starlink works great here even though the majority of the rigs here are using it. Some boondocking spots are for the beauty and peace and quiet, to hang out and enjoy. This isn't that. But for a place to sleep and cook in between day trips to Glacier - perfect.

Beautiful views with plenty of room for many rigs to spread out. The field is very easy to access right of of North Fork Rd.
However, there are currently two very old run-down campers in the back of the field with families living in them. Their generators run day and night. Their dogs run free all day and bark, causing other dogs to bark and howl. It looks like law enforcement has put orange stickers on the rigs, but… they’re still here!

We stayed here for 5 days over July 4th week. Easy access on road. Around 15 rigs camped here consistently each day. We are a 38 ft Motorhome towing a car. Found a spot in field as perimeter spots were taken.

PROS
-Solar worked well here.
-Flat level spots
-Starlink worked okay here.
-20 minutes from West Glacier Entrance
-short drive or walk to Glacier Rim for water access.
-Quiet, most everyone followed camping etiquette.
-Tuesday evening a Ranger drove through the area checking everyone out.
-16 day stay limit
-felt safe. Only one camp setup that seemed to be a broke down older trailer with graffiti sprayed tents surrounding it…did see 1 to 2 cars visit throughout the week. Ranger didn’t seem bothered by it.

OTHER
-it’s a field, not spectacular views.
-minimal cell coverage unless you have Starlink. We tested with ATT and Verizon.
-Some road noise from passing cars.

Would stay here again when visiting Glacier NP!

The view is nothing to die for, it’s an open field. However, it was super quiet and the road to get in was very easy. The whole place is pretty flat and you can set up wherever you want. Most people are situated around the loop and in that field. If you go to the left when you enter there’s a big open almost hidden spot that could fit 2-3 rigs easily. We were the only ones in this spot the entire time and it was perfect.
Felt safe, no sketchy folks. We left our rig every day starting at like 5am and had zero problems. Our dog was able to roam freely (within our area of course) with no problems. There are tons of ground squirrels that chatter all day and you can watch run and play. No other signs of animals here.
1-2 bars of Tmobile
Really good starlink

Verizon speeds of 20-30Mbps download and 18 Mbps upload. Couldn't get an AT&T speed test to run. Verizon via a roof mounted Pepwave antenna, ATT via smartphone.

We stayed here for 6 nights after striking out at McGinnis Creek up the road. You can see the only good spot at McGinnis Creek from this one. It's a large open field right off of the access road. It's just about the closest boondocking spot outside of West Glacier. Good solar and Starlink given lack of trees.

It was fairly crowded during our stay. Unfortunately, there was at least one squatter and there was another onen who let their aggressive dog run around unleashed all day throughout the entire field. The dog barked at my wife and everything else for hours. Lots of inconsiderate campers here in general including folks running contractor-style generators. 4 star spot without the jerks.

Given the crowding, I wouldn't stay here again. I'd drive farther up the road to one of the more remote boondocking areas but we had time constraints.

There's a moderate amount of road noise - perhaps 7-8 vehicles per hour.

Lots of people, some long termers, all respectful and plenty of space to share. Location is crazy awesome. Something like 10-15 minutes to Columbia Falls and pretty much same to Glacier NP entrance (not main entrance so still 35-45 mins to main area GNP but still) NF right there and loaded with hikes and cool spots. River access within walking distance from site (I jogged with my dog to water every day and back). Loved it here.