Lake Shel-Oole Campground

The Great Outdoors

Shelby spent several years building the five-mile-long Roadrunner Trail, complete with benches to relax on and pet stations with waste bag dispensers and receptacles. As you stroll along the trail, you will be treated to incredible views of the nearby Rockies and the Sweetgrass prairies. No matter what time of year you choose to hike the trails around here, be sure you are ready for sudden changes in the weather.Despite being a small town, Shelby has been home to a golf course since the dawn of the 20th century. Over the past 100 years or so, the course has been flooded out by the Marias River several times. Today it is rated as one of the top golf courses in the state.The campsites at Lake Shel-oole Campground are within a 90-minute drive of the East Glacier Park Village and one of the eastern entrances to Glacier National Park. Glacier National Park was home to Native Americans and became a national park in 1910. Next door over the border in Canada, the beauty of this park becomes Waterton Lakes National Park. Be sure you take the time to drive your campervan rental up into Logan Pass, where you might see bighorn sheep, mountain goats, and every once in a while, a grizzly bear or two. You can go RV camping at one of the several RV campgrounds in and around the park.

Exploring the City

The nearest town to Lake Shel-oole Campground is Shelby, a small town with a big heart. The town is home to the Montana Veteran's Memorial. This memorial was created by six veterans. They started by installing a 110-foot-tall flagpole and then hung a 30-foot x 50-foot American flag. The flag flies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, as a salute to every Montana veteran who has ever served or is currently serving. A few years later, six more flags representing the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine, Coast Guard, and POW-MIA were added.While you may have pulled your rental RV into many different roadside stops across the country, you've never seen one quite like the Carousel Rest Area. Sure, it still has restrooms and vending machines like any other rest area, but this where the similarities end. In 2018, Allen Herschel spent $85,000 of his own money to buy and restore a 1936 carousel and installed it in the rest area. From here, he added more attractions until he created the most spectacular and amazing rest area in the country. Travelers who rent an RV near Shelby, MT, can still use the restroom and buy things from the vending machines, but they can also take a ride on the 1936 carousel.Inside the city limits is the Marias Museum of History and Art. The museum features a display of the 1923 fight between Jack Dempsey and Tommy Gibbons. The town brought this championship boxing match to town in the hopes it would bring more people to town. Unfortunately, it didn't work, and the town lost millions. Along with this display, there are many others, including military, Native American, musical instruments, and toys. Park your rental motorhome outside and spend a few hours wandering around the museum enjoying a trip back in the town's history.