What a nice area to camp. This place is just inside Ranchester with only a small, brown sign to show the turn. Once you get to it, though, it's fantastic. The campground was deserted, we were the only ones there so the quiet was great. The river goes around three sides of the campground so it seems like your on an island. Campground was clean, though primitive, but we like that sort of camping. At only $9 a night, it was the best deal around for our 1 night. Would highly recommend to anyone looking to stay from one to three nights. Great place We camped here in a Tent.
This state historic site is a beautiful park-like setting next to the Tongue River and was the site of the Battle of Tongue River in 1865. The majority of the park is surrounded by old, large cottonwood trees; however there are several sites that are in the open. The park does not take reservations, so with the first come/first served you can pick the site that suits you best. Most of the sites are back-in and three sites are pull-thrus. We picked a pull thru that would easily accommodate two forty-footers plus toads. We had no problem using our TV/internet satellite dish here. This campground is dry camping only and we encountered tenter's, small vans, and motorhomes. This is a great location just a few minutes off the interstate for a one-night stay or a several-night stay in order to explore the mountains to the west. We camped here in a Motorhome.
The only good thing that can be said is that there is an ice cream shop 2 minutes from this campground. There was nobody there to greet us when we arrived, they had no record of my reservation once someone showed up and I never got the receipt I was promised. The bathrooms were clean however, they were bathrooms for 1 only. This campground is a parking lot in the middle of town that someone bought and divided up to park RV's. There is no space between RV's and a train goes by blowing it's whistle every hour or so. There is no where to walk your dog except down the residential streets where there are dogs barking and growling at you the whole way. We spent all our time in the trailer and prayed for the day to be over. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
We were very disappointed with this park. The website does not reflect the reality. The park is located on the main street of the small town of Ranchester and has parking lot ambiance. We were exhausted from travelling but were kept awake all night by a constant never ending stream of freight trains, whistles blowing, passing close by. On the plus side, the owner was charming and personable and very helpful. We would not recommend this park if you are looking for rest, and although there were many full timers there, we cannot imagine a long term stay would be any more restful. We would not camp here again. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.