Rising Sun Campground

The ranger was nice. However, and it is in the park newspaper, 21’ is measured between the front bumper of your Tow Vehicle, and the rear bumper of the 20’ trailer that we we’re pulling. Plenty of sites were open that had enough room for both, but including the Tow Vehicle, we are over length. We are politely asked to leave.

ENTERING ANYWHERE IN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, new for 2023, this park is running a pilot program to reduce the number of vehicles in the park between the hours of 6am - 3pm. Between 6am and 3pm, each vehicle must have a Park Pass + Vehicle Registration Pass. The Vehicle Registration Pass can be applied for, only the day before. There is a finite number and they all go within minutes of being made available.
EXEMPTIONS to the vehicle registration: Having an inside park campground pass, having tickets to a boat ride or some other event that provides parking for the event, all Native Americans are exempt, all inside park landowners are exempt, all park vendors are exempt.
WHAT WORKED BEST FOR ME: Entering the park after 3pm. No vehicle registration pass needed after 3 pm. There is still 5-6 hours daylight left during the summer months. Entering before 6am works too. Once you are in, you are in.

We originally planned to stay at Two Medicine. But, the mosquitos in early June were horrendous. So, we ventured northward. We found a spot at Saint Mary, but we didn't understand why anyone would choose to stay there, unless it was for walking access to the visitor center. The sites in Saint Mary were cramped, small, and only separated by low-level bushes. We skipped the spot at Saint Mary and went a few miles further up.

When we arrived at Rising Sun, the ranger happily informed us she had about 40 sites available. So, we had our pick.

The sites vary widely in terms of space, size, level, etc. But, we were very happy with our choice under a good number of trees. While we were there, we saw sun, fog, rain, and sleet balls. The sleet was soft and looked a bit like the little pellets used to stuff bean bags.

The rangers informed us that a family of bears frequented the area. They weren't wrong.

One night we were sitting around the fire and one of my kids got large eyes and pointed. We all turned and saw a mom and 3 cubs about to enter our site. We clapped our hands to let them know we were there and they backed away. They weren't aggressive. We watched them pass around the perimeter of our site through the center of the campground (as some nervous tent campers ran inside their tents). Our kids thought it was exciting.

The campground was also nice and quiet, which is what I enjoy. At night, it was beautifully dark. Some of the best sleep I've had anywhere.

We arrived on a weekday in June 2017 and got the last available site. There's a link on the Glacier Park website that helpfully provides the historical average of the times of day that the campground has filled on any given date. The ranger flagged us down as we drove in and pointed the way to the last remaining site while congratulating us on our good fortune. The campground is fair, conveniently located to the Rising Sun Motor Inn and the attached gift shop and restaurant. Rangers made a point to come around every day and cite campers who were not following the various rules regarding stowing food and toiletries. For good reason -- we saw a bear everyday from the campground.

If St. Marys is full and you want to camp on the east side, this may be your best bet. This campground doesn't fill as early as the other big ones. We arrived at 7am to be safe and there were a few sites open already, and many more cleared out in the next few hours.

If you have a big rig you will not find a spot here. The sign coming in says 25' overall length is the limit, but our truck and trailer are 41' total and we were able to find a few sites that worked just fine. If you have a 25' trailer you may not be able to fit, but I would recommend a drive through to decide for yourself.

Most of the sites are very shaded, so solar is not readily available. We were able to find one that had good solar, everything else is very spotty.

There is a dump station that is free to use, with potable water. There are also bathrooms.

The site are a little close together like most NP campgrounds, I found people to be a little noisier here than Two Medicine or Many Glacier, a lot of screaming kids and people staying up a little too late. The hosts do come around and make sure everyone is quiet by 10:30. We had one bad night where some idiots were burning plastic in their fire.

Overall pretty decent if you can fit in a site, scout it out first!

I could not get any cell signal with a low end booster, but there is Verizon LTE as you get onto the road, so if you have a good booster you may be able to pick it up.