Best Tent Camping: Montana

Jan Nesset is an award-winning writer and editor who returned recently to his home state of Montana, a move he considers a reward after two decades of chasing career and adventure across the West. Jan has held most steady at the helm of both national and regional outdoors magazines, and he has worked as a wilderness ranger, traveled the Sahara by camel, biked across the Andes (twice), climbed to summits around the globe, won a survival-based reality television show, paddled several of Amazonia's rivers, and led a National Geographic-sponsored adventure across America--all this and more at a pace that has disintegrated several tents. Christina Nesset actually sets the pace, accepting a shredded tent as the cost of a well-lived life. Chris is an accomplished outdoors enthusiast with an impressive travel resume. She is also the director of a Montana conservation organization and takes her love--borderline obsession--of backpacking and tent camping into her job. A Virginia native, Chris had a long-held childhood dream of moving to Montana where she and a friendly dog would pursue an active lifestyle from a cabin in the woods. While the cabin may more resemble a comfortable mountain home and the dog has yet to leave the pound, she is truly living the dream. The Nessets live on the outskirts of Bozeman with their two children, Silva and Aleksia, and together the die-hard tent campers enjoy the mountains, rivers, and prairies of The Last Best Place via foot, paddle, rope, and bicycle.

• Montana Campground Locator MapMap LegendAcknowledgmentsPrefaceBest CampgroundsIntroductionNORTHWEST MONTANA1. Bad Medicine Campground2. Big Arm Unit-Flathead Lake State Park Campground3. Big Creek Campground4. Big Therriault Lake Campground5. Cut Bank Campground6. Fish Creek Campground7. Holland Lake Campground8. Kintla Lake Campground9. Lake Alva Campground10. Pete Creek Campground11. Peters Creek Campground12. Sprague Creek Campground13. Thompson Falls State Park CampgroundNORTH CENTRAL MONTANA14. Cave Mountain Campground15. Home Gulch Campground16. Kading Campground17. Logging Creek Campground18. Many Pines Campground19. Park Lake Campground20. Thain Creek Campground21. Wood Lake CampgroundEASTERN MONTANA22. Beaver Creek County Park Campgrounds23. Camp Creek Campground24. Crystal Lake Campground25. Makoshika State Park Campground26. Sage Creek CampgroundSOUTH CENTRAL MONTANA27. Battle Ridge Campground28. Beaver Creek Campground29. Falls Creek Campground30. Greenough Lake Campground31. Halfmoon Campground32. Hood Creek Campground33. Potosi Campground34. Sheridan Campground35. Spire Rock Campground36. Swan Creek Campground37. Tom Miner Campground38. Wade and Cliff Lakes Area Campgrounds39. West Fork Madison Dispersed SitesSOUTHWEST MONTANA40. Bannack State Park Campground41. Charles Waters Campground42. Dalles Campground43. Grasshopper Campground44. Lost Creek State Park Campground45. Martin Creek Campground46. May Creek Campground47. Miner Lake Campground48. Reservoir Lake Campground49. Twin Lakes Campground50. Three Frogs CampgroundAppendix A: Camping-Equipment ChecklistAppendix B: Sources of InformationIndexAbout the Authors