St Mary KOA

[llholmes1948]

Here is an article on the St. Mary KOA in this week's Cut Bank Pioneer Press. Some of our Chatters will be working there this summer.

I initially posted this under lodging since they have cabins, but I guess it ought to be posted here as well:

http://www.goldentrianglenews.com/artic ... /news2.txt

[bstritesky]

I will be staying here in a few weeks. I am looking forward to it! It seems very close to the park. Anyone know how secure it is? Security-wise, would you recommend that we leave our tent set up, or should we take it down daily? Thanks!

[Tara]

We stayed here last month for two nights and a lot of the other MN chatters stay there every year. It seemed just as secure as any other park campground, I see no need to take your tent down every day. I still prefer Many Glacier but its a nice alternative.

[peleebird]

We have stayed there several times and never had anything taken. It is a nice campground, clean, friendly staff. Funny, I have wondered about the same question at times. If your tent disappeared that would be a massive inconvenience to replace. I did wonder about back country sites if you are leaving expensive backpacking air mats and sleeping bags unsupervised.

In all the years we camped we only had our stove stolen once in a national park car campground - a good record, I think. Oh, and we had our hubcaps stolen once at a motel en route! Now we leave the Porsche at home.

[lcrans]

Porsches have hubcaps??? Jeeezzz, what next??!!

[bstritesky]

Thanks for the helpful replies. How are the bear regulations around this KOA? Should we keep to the practice of cooking far away from our tent, storing everything with scents in our car, and changing clothes as much as possible? Thanks.

[Tara]

I didn't see anything posted but its certainly possible that bears could enter the campground so we took all the usual precautions.

[peleebird]

We did the national park frontcountry routine. Nothing food related, no toiletries left in the campsite when we weren't there and at night. We cooked though right next to our tent and didn't worry about clothes. We had a car so had a place to store our food etc. I would be concerned about leaving everything out at night. If nothing else, racoons make quite a mess of your things, if there are any racoons staying at the ST. mary KOA.

[Tara]

Sorry, I should have clarified...yes, just those normal front-country precautions. I don't worry about clothes and our stove attaches to the camper so we have to cook there. Just no food, etc. left in the camper. I would imagine that even if there are not raccoons the ground squirrels would have a heyday with any food left out!

[peleebird]

Canadian Porsches have daytime running lights, English/French instructional manuals,...........and hubcaps. Except for mine, because they got stolen.

[peleebird]

Our Porsche was at a motel with a llama in the garage. No kidding, first time we had seen a llama.

[lcrans]

Canadian Porsches have daytime running lights, English/French instructional manuals,...........and hubcaps. Except for mine, because they got stolen.

Hmmm... my last Porsche was a 356A, 1957.....didn't have hubcaps. Was supposed to, I guess, but didn't. Didn't care much at the time as I remember. It was too much fun listening to the 4-cylinder air-banger as I hit the s's....

[kiddoc]

We're looking in to options for next summer and I've been wondering about the KOA. 50 plus year old Mom is willing to tent camp in the park but the teenagers are less interested! I was wondering about the Kamping Kabins at the KOA. The location looks convenient and the attractions (hot tub, pool, etc) look fun for the kids. I was concerned that it looks pretty wide open and not much shade. Does it get hot? Any other thoughts would be welcome!

[tjholyoke]

Tent sites are all shaded except for group sites. The RV sites are very open...no trees at all. It can be hot, but generally isn't too bad. It IS very windy. The cabins can be a great option as long as you remember that you still need to bring gear as if you were tenting.The cabins have electricity but not water-still have to go to the public restrooms as if you were tenting. Don't count on the wi-fi. The system isn't reliably able to get you online. Owners will tell you it is your system, but don't believe it. Maybe you'll get lucky. Only Verizon cell phones work. Camp store is pretty good for standard convenience items. Great gift shop. Ice cream shop and coffee shop are good, and the pizza is decent. (Delivered right to your site) They offer dog sitting if needed. Kids should have fun with the pool and if things go right they should be opening up a new splash park that they worked on all summer this year. There are kayak rentals ($10/hour) and bike rentals (but can't remember the price). Any more questions, pm me. My family worked there part time last summer. Enjoy your vacation!

[manualman]

We stayed there last summer for our first two nights with our popup and then spent a week and Many Glacier CG. No comparison! If you like camping, stay in the park. If you don't like camping, might as well rent a cabin at Swiftcurrent Motor Lodge - in the park.

We only used the KOA as a place that could be reserved and to top off the camper battery before its long ordeal in the NP.