Glacier National Park camping and RV campgrounds.

All 13 Glacier campgrounds, compared.

The short version: pick Apgar or St. Mary if you have a big rig or want the longest season, since both take 40 feet at their largest sites and run past summer in primitive status. Apgar, Fish Creek, and St. Mary are the only campgrounds with showers for registered campers. Avalanche and Sprague Creek fit only smaller vehicles. For the North Fork's Bowman Lake and Kintla Lake, leave the RV behind and plan to arrive early, because they're first-come, first-served. Every figure below comes from the NPS camping pages and the NPS campground records, checked September 10, 2026. Openings marked "about" are our reading of NPS's approximate wording, such as "typically mid-May". Avalanche's June 27 opening is its first booked night on Recreation.gov this year, though NPS still says mid-July is typical. Closing dates are NPS's scheduled closures, and they match Recreation.gov. The RV column shows the longest vehicle the biggest sites take, and fees are per night.

How to book.

Six open campgrounds take reservations on Recreation.gov: Apgar, Avalanche, Fish Creek, Many Glacier, St. Mary, and Sprague Creek. Sites open on a rolling basis six months before the date you want, and some are held back until four days ahead. St. Mary's two group sites open a year ahead, and Apgar's five group sites need a reservation too. NPS says to book before you arrive, because cell service is unreliable across the park.

Rising Sun books the same day. NPS's campground record says Rising Sun needs a Recreation.gov reservation with a 0-day window, so you can only book it on the day of your stay, and the NPS reservation campgrounds page lists it there. The NPS camping information page still groups it with the first-come, first-served campgrounds. Go by Recreation.gov: check it the morning you want a site, before you lose signal.

First-come, first-served. Bowman Lake, Cut Bank, Kintla Lake, and Quartz Creek don't take reservations. Find an empty site, fill out a fee envelope from the information board, and put it in the fee tube. NPS says credit cards are accepted at all of them, and Cut Bank requires Scan & Pay in the Recreation.gov app. Checkout is noon, and you re-register by 11 am to stay another night. The NPS first-come, first-served page has the steps.

Closed in 2026. Two Medicine Campground is closed all year for construction. Two Medicine Road has been closed at the Running Eagle Falls Trailhead since September 8, 2026, and in mid- to late September the closure moves out to Highway 49 (NPS project page). Logging Creek is closed for the season, and NPS gives no reason. At St. Mary, NPS expects partial campground closures from fall 2026 to spring 2027 while it replaces the water system, and all of St. Mary Campground closes for construction from January 1 to June 30, 2027. Near Kintla Lake, work to plug an old oil well affects trail and camping access from late July to early October, but the Kintla Lake campground stays open.

Glacier doesn't require vehicle reservations in 2026; Glacier reservations has the details.

RVs: where your rig fits.

No campground in Glacier has utility hookups, and NPS prohibits connecting to water, sewer, or electrical outlets. Size limits vary a lot. Apgar's largest 25 sites take 40 feet, and St. Mary's largest 3 take 40 feet, with 22 more at 35. Fish Creek's largest 18 take 35 feet, with 62 more at 27, and Many Glacier's largest 13 take 35. Avalanche's largest 50 take 26 feet, and Rising Sun tops out at 21. Sprague Creek allows no towed units and nothing over 21 feet. Bowman Lake and Kintla Lake allow no RVs or truck-and-trailer combinations, because their dirt access roads are long, narrow, and winding, and NPS bars vehicles over 21 feet and trailers from North Fork roads.

Once you're parked, the Going-to-the-Sun Road has its own limit: vehicles or combinations longer than 21 feet or wider than 8 feet can't drive between Avalanche Campground and Sun Point, per the NPS fees page. An older NPS road page puts the east end at Rising Sun, so from St. Mary Campground plan on the stricter version. NPS adds that vehicles over 10 feet tall may have trouble driving west from Logan Pass because of rock overhangs. Our Going-to-the-Sun Road page covers the road.

Showers are for registered campers at Apgar, Fish Creek, and St. Mary, and fee showers are at the Rising Sun and Swiftcurrent Motor Inns. Generators can run only 8 to 10 am, noon to 2 pm, or 5 to 7 pm, and never in Fish Creek's C Loop, Many Glacier sites 48 to 59, 71, and 88 to 102, Rising Sun sites 49 to 84, St. Mary's A Loop, or anywhere at Sprague Creek or Cut Bank. In primitive status, there's no potable water or dump station, the comfort stations close, and you boil lake water or melted snow for at least a minute or filter it. Cut Bank is primitive all season with no water, Quartz Creek has none either, and Kintla Lake has a hand pump.

Two Medicine and Logging Creek are closed and not listed.

Camp rules that change your trip.

Each site holds up to 8 people and 2 vehicles, where space allows, and 2 tents. Group sites for 9 to 24 people are at Apgar, Many Glacier, and St. Mary. Checkout is noon, quiet hours run 10 pm to 6 am, and the campground speed limit is 10 mph.

Between July 1 and Labor Day you can camp 14 days in the park, in one stretch or added up. Between Labor Day and June 30 the limit is 30 days.

Food, cookware, trash, and anything scented, toiletries included, goes in a hard-sided vehicle or a food storage locker, day and night, and never in a tent. Stay 25 yards from all animals and 100 yards from bears and wolves. Firewood you bring must be labeled and certified as heat-treated. Pets stay on a leash no longer than six feet, and fireworks are prohibited.

Hiker/biker sites at Apgar, Fish Creek, Sprague Creek, Avalanche, Rising Sun, St. Mary, and Many Glacier cost $8 per person through Scan & Pay, and each site is shared by up to 8 people. Motorcyclists use regular sites.

Backcountry camping. A wilderness camping permit costs $10 plus $7 per person per night (see the NPS wilderness permit page).

Camping and the crowd calendar.

Glacier's camping season fits inside its busy months. May averages 27% of July's visits, and Fish Creek, Bowman Lake, Kintla Lake, Cut Bank, and Sprague Creek open that month. June runs 72%, with Many Glacier and Rising Sun opening early in the month, Avalanche on June 27 this year, and Quartz Creek late in the month. July is the peak, and August runs 91%. September is 73% of July, and the closings start: Fish Creek on September 3, Rising Sun on September 4, Cut Bank on September 19, and Avalanche on September 20. October falls to 18%, with Sprague Creek closing October 1, Many Glacier October 19, and Quartz Creek October 22. The NPS winter page says Apgar's Loop B is the only front-country camping in winter, first-come, first-served, with a vault toilet and no running water. Our pick is the second week of September: visits are down from August, and every campground open this year except Fish Creek and Rising Sun is still running.

Month-by-month tradeoffs are on the best time to visit Glacier page.

Outside the park.

NPS's Nearby Camping page points to campgrounds outside the park: Blackfeet Nation campgrounds within a few miles of some east-side entrances (on tribal land, run by the Blackfeet Nation, not NPS), Flathead and Helena-Lewis and Clark national forest campgrounds, and Montana state parks. NPS also notes that private campgrounds next to the park sell showers. We don't track any of those.

Common questions.

Where is the best place to tent camp in Glacier National Park?

NPS doesn't rank campgrounds for tents, but a few keep RVs out by rule. Bowman Lake and Kintla Lake in the North Fork allow no RVs or truck-and-trailer combinations, and Sprague Creek allows no towed units. All three are small: Kintla Lake has 13 sites, Sprague Creek 25, and Bowman Lake 48. Bowman Lake and Kintla Lake are first-come, first-served, and Sprague Creek takes reservations.

How much does it cost to camp in Glacier National Park?

NPS says camping fees run $15 to $30 a night in summer, with no refunds, so no front-country campground is free in summer. Hiker/biker sites are $8 per person. Many campgrounds drop to a lower rate in primitive status in spring or fall, and a wilderness permit costs $10 plus $7 per person per night. The park entrance fee is separate.

Is there camping with electricity in Glacier National Park?

No. NPS says utility hookups aren't provided at any Glacier campground, and connecting to water, sewer, or electrical outlets is prohibited. Generators are allowed only 8 to 10 am, noon to 2 pm, or 5 to 7 pm, and not at all in some campground areas.

How far in advance can you reserve a campsite in Glacier?

Reservation campgrounds open on a rolling basis six months before your date on Recreation.gov, and some sites are held until four days ahead. Group sites at St. Mary open a year ahead. Rising Sun can only be booked on the day of your stay, and Bowman Lake, Cut Bank, Kintla Lake, and Quartz Creek take no reservations.

Where these facts come from

The campground count and the eight reservation campgrounds come from the NPS Glacier camping page; booking ahead and cell service from the NPS reservation campgrounds page; the first-come, first-served steps, Cut Bank's Scan & Pay, and re-registration from the NPS first-come, first-served page. Fees, hookups, vehicle lengths, stay limits, capacity, group and hiker/biker sites, checkout, quiet hours, generators, showers, primitive status, food storage, wildlife distances, firewood, pets, and fireworks come from the NPS camping information page. Seasons, closures (Two Medicine, Logging Creek, and St. Mary in 2027), Rising Sun's same-day window, the six-month and four-day windows, RV and road rules for Bowman Lake, Kintla Lake, and Sprague Creek, water at Cut Bank, Kintla Lake, and Quartz Creek, and campground coordinates come from the NPS API campground records. Avalanche's 2026 opening is its first booked night in Recreation.gov availability, checked September 11, 2026. Two Medicine Road, the St. Mary partial closures, and the Kintla Lake oil well project come from the NPS project page; the North Fork vehicle rule from the NPS North Fork page; the Going-to-the-Sun Road size limit from the NPS fees page, and the Rising Sun version and height note from the NPS Going-to-the-Sun Road information page; winter camping from the NPS winter page; wilderness permit fees from the NPS wilderness permit page. Visit shares are five-year monthly means (2021 to 2025) of recreation visits from NPS Visitor Use Statistics, as a percentage of July. Crowd numbers are five-year monthly means (2021 to 2025) of recreation visits from the NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package on NPS IRMA Stats. Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.