Gallatin County Fairgrounds

Like already noted, cram us all in like sardines. They claim there is a 10 day limit, but it looks as if some of the unoccupied RV's have been there a bit longer, several never showed signs of life during the entire 5 days (including one Sunday) that we were allowed to stay. There is quite a bit of parking lot traffic for a fairgrounds with no events ongoing. We would stay here again only due to the cheaper fees compared to area RV parks. There are definitely a few trains that pass by, all hours. The site itself is not a normally organized setup. The sewer and power are at the rear driver's side. The water is at the rear driver's side of our neighbor site, or way off the rear passenger side of our rig.

I spoke with the staff in the fairgrounds office. They said water fill was only available to campers. Apparently the policy (or staff) has changed since the previous report that you could get a fill for $5. Also note that the rest area on I-90 in Bozeman does not have any functioning outdoor faucets, so it's not a source of potable water either.

I didn't stay at the fairgrounds, but from the looks of things I concur with the previous mediocre reviews.

Let me be clear that if you need to do any business in Bozeman, a great city for food and coffee, this place is kinda of the only show in town that isn't way too expensive. However, your experience is wildly dependent upon the neighbors you get. Also note, trains run a lot at night and are very loud.

We are typically huge fans of fairgrounds as they have a wide open space with less of the cramped campgrounds at peak summer issues, built for large trailers and rigs to access, etc. However, Gallatin is a bit different. They have a great layout on paper but as other reviewers mentioned, they sardine you in on top of each other where Walmart-docking gives you a more peaceful nights rest.

We dry camp at fairgrounds to avoid established parking areas but they don't let you do that here. You dry camp for 20 a night but you're in the electrical only lot with a power box that they padlock. Full hookups are 37 a night and also sardined in together and more busy.

What this turns into though as we found out after one night on our own was a slew of neighbors in RVs and trailers in complete disrepair, who then had visitors driving right under our slide outs until past midnight. They would leave and then be replaced with another challenging neighbor, trash everywhere and late night arguments, throw in a few Harleys doing their best to wake everyone up and well, you get the picture.

It is clear Gallatin has other priorities with how well the grounds are kept and the events including the weekend farmers market are spectacular, they just don't invest in really controlling what they are clearly making you pay for. My suggestion is get in here for a weekend, keep your slides closed and hope you get a good set of neighbors. Then leave soon after.

Stayed in an electric only site. Of the 20 sites or so only a couple sites occupied during this time. Full-hook up sites more busy with being nearly full. For my purposes, ride some of the many bike trails in the area, the site was perfect and located close to areas wanting to visit. Back in sites, nearly level, facing north towards the mountains, with a nice grass strip and trees at the back of the site. Fairgrounds pretty quiet while there, staff in office helpful. Think there was internet maybe available but I didn't ask about it. The Town Pump off of Baxter has a good dump station. None available at fairgrounds. Think could find water to fill tank if needed.

Expensive, gravel lot with hookups that may require 30+ feet of sewer line and 50+ feet of water hose. No bathrooms or other amenities other than being in Bozeman. Easy to get to and navigate around. Never did see anyone in charge. Made reservations online, received an email stating site number, showed up and parked in site number and left after reservation. Never ‘checked in’ or was checked on during our stay in July 2018. Fireworks were nice on the 4th.

The sites all back up to a small grass area where the hookups are located. We needed 50ft of water hose and 30ft of sewer which barely made it. The sewer connections were easily 12” off the ground, which is about the same height as our rig connection, so no help from gravity when dumping. In a year of full-time travel this was the worst dumping experience we’ve had so far. It took forever to dump because we could only let a little out at a time and then had to walk it down the hose. This made an already crappy job, way more crappy (pun intended)

The only reason we stayed here was because we had some friends flying in, so we wanted hookups to be able to entertain, but I would not recommend staying here, unless you just want to be in town.

We had 4 bars Verizon LTE and 50 amp (only) FHUs.

If you stay here, bring all of your hoses, and you still might need more.