Along the south side of 17th Avenue in Fargo, motorhomes and school buses nose into a line on the Friday evening before a Bison home game, waiting on the next morning's lots. The flat asphalt around the Fargodome is rows of rigs by Saturday, with awnings out, propane grills going and smoke drifting toward the dome's low roofline. Fall in Fargo runs on NDSU football, and a motorhome turns one game into a whole weekend for a family or a group of friends, with a kitchen, a heater and somewhere to sit down between the tailgate and the stands. By day the rig holds the group's ground in the lots, and at night it sleeps at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds campground in West Fargo.
Tailgating in the Fargodome lots and NDSU Lot NQ
The reserved tailgate lots, E, F and G, go to season holders, and NDSU lists every reserved spot for the 2026 season as sold out. Rigs without one head for Lot NQ, the non-reserved overflow, and that's what the Friday line on 17th Avenue is waiting for. Staff direct each vehicle into its spaces as the line moves, and someone has to stay with the rig the whole time.
Every Fargodome lot opens about five hours before kickoff, which is plenty of time to get the grill lit and the chairs out before the crowd starts walking over. The lots clear after the game, and the Fargodome's tailgating rules as of October 2026 don't allow vehicles, tents or trailers to stay parked between games. The tailgate spot is a gameday pad, and the night happens somewhere else.
The Red River Valley Fairgrounds campground in West Fargo
After the lots empty, the rig heads west on I-94 to the Red River Valley Fair's campground, off Exit 343 in West Fargo. It's the calm half of the weekend, with picnic tables at the sites, a shower and restroom house in the middle of the campground, and the city walking path down the west side for a slow morning lap before the drive home. All 69 sites are full hookup, with electric, water and sewer, which is what you want on a late-season night when a cold game has everyone lined up for a hot shower and the furnace running.
Home-game weekends put the same families after the same rigs and the same campground sites, so the two bookings compete with each other. Lock in the campground first and the motorhome second.
Lake Ashtabula and the Corps campgrounds near Valley City
West on I-94, the Sheyenne River backs up behind Baldhill Dam into Lake Ashtabula, a reservoir in prairie pothole country where migrating waterfowl come through every spring and fall. It suits the other kind of week, with the motorhome parked at one lakeside site for days, the boat in the water and the kids fishing off the shore. The Corps of Engineers runs seven recreation areas around the lake, about 12 miles northwest of Valley City, and every site has drinking water and restrooms.
Eggerts Landing is the one to aim a family week at. Of its 41 sites, 37 have electric service, and the dump station, boat ramp, fishing pier and a restaurant are all within walking distance. Mel Rieman and East and West Ashtabula Crossing are the other Corps campgrounds on the lake. All of them book through Recreation.gov, so reserve the site before the rig and check that it takes your motorhome's length.
Below the dam the Sheyenne keeps running south through Valley City toward Fort Ransom, along the river valley road. Turtle River State Park near Grand Forks and Lindenwood Park on the Red River in Fargo are smaller overnights of the same kind. All three suit two people in a compact rig better than a family in a motorhome, and the Fargo page for compact rigs covers them.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the badlands are out at the other end of the state on I-94, and the North Dakota RV page plans that run for a motorhome.