North Pole Road Dispersed Camping

We came in from the north, would have been easier from the south. The road is gravel and maintained but lots of washboard so take it slow. There aren't a ton of identifiable spots but only 1 other camper when we pulled in on Sunday. Nice clean location and quick drive to Custer. We work full time and it was nice and quiet the entire 3 days, pulling out this afternoon. No cell service but our Starlink was perfect. We felt safe and would come back again. Very little traffic. Our spot was a challenge for leveling but we got it done. There are other more level spots.

The drive in on the forest road is very scenic and in very good condition. There was a bit of traffic on N Pole Rd because people live on it and UPS even delivers up there, but overall it was a great spot to camp with great views. We saw tons of bison sign and deer sign and even saw a few deer running.

Note that this is in a fire protection zone, so NO fires. There's no signage about it and we learned the hard way by a visit from the sheriff telling us to douse the campfire.

Spent 4 days camped here after leaving beautiful Montana. We drove about 3-4 miles back on North Pole Road to try and get the site we camped at in 2020. It was occupied and the other option had been closed to camping. So after about 30 minutes of exploring and some feet beating time we stumble on an open site about 1/2 mile off of North Pole Road. You couldn’t see the access road to this site from NPR and we only stumbled across it because we pulled off NPR to have some lunch and regroup to move on down the highway. Decided to take a short hike and found an old road at the back of the parking area. Bingo. Perfect spot to spend 4 days. NO ONE around! Saw several deer, heard coyotes and one Bigfoot! Awesome location!

We pulled in on a Wednesday and all the lower spots were already filled. However, these hills go on forever, so we continued upward until we found on the left-hand side, an open meadow with a rarely-used grass/dirt road further up. This area has plenty of trees for shade, and plenty of sun for solar. We did wake up the first morning surrounded by cows which was a new experience. Since then though, they haven't been around much.
No one else came up to this spot so we stayed nearly a week and enjoyed our time here.

The only few spots I saw were taken. I went down the road another 2 miles and found a gate open on a logging road. There were recent logging and numerous slash piles up through this area. I found enough room to park next to the road at N 43.79882 W 103.73452. This road does loop back around to another well used road but beyond this spot it's a little rough and not many options to turn around. I had maybe 2 side by sides go by the 24 hours I was there. It's a scenic little spot and at night I discovered if you look NE you can see Crazy Horse lit up about 6 miles away.

We parked here for couple days intending to stay a week.
Pros: great views, a forest to hike through, open and all together quite lovely, wonderful spot!

Cons: internet was bad through Verizon and T-Mobile. We would get signal and then it would go away. Not feasible for someone working remotely.

Summary: spot was great, wifi wasn’t. Also the road is tight and can’t imagine what we’d do if someone else needed the road as well. Definitely maneuverable but not ideal. Would stay again if didn’t need the Wi-Fi.