Alta Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 14All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Alta Campground is located in a scenic forest in the heart of Montana's Bitterroot National Forest. The West Fork of the Bitterroot River flows nearby, giving visitors access to some of the best fishing the area has to offer, as well as other water-related recreation. Keep reading
Recreation
Fly fishing and wading in the Bitterroot River, which runs alongside the campground, are popular activities. A variety of trails and unimproved roads are great for exploring by bike or off-road vehicle. Hiking trails to various mountain peaks, including to Lookout, Razorback and Thunder Mountains, as well as Beaver and Deer Creek Points, are nearby. The Alta Pine interpretive trail is located 1/2 mile to the north. Painted Rocks Lake is located about five miles north of the campground. Visitors enjoy swimming, kayaking, boating and fishing. Anglers will find mountain whitefish and a variety of trout.
Facilities
The campground offers 14 campsites, three of which are accessible, for tent and RV camping. Each site can accommodate up to 10 people and two vehicles. Utility hookups are not available. Parking spurs are gravel. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A campground host is available on-site and trash collection bins are placed throughout the facility. One bear-proof container is provided at the campground for those traveling on bicycle or ATV to properly store food and other attractants.
Natural Features
The campground is located along the West Fork of the Bitterroot River, a popular fishing river in the area. Large, yellow-barked ponderosa pine trees tower above many of the campsites, which along with fir, aspen and lodgepole pine, provide pleasant shade. The campground is situated at an elevation of about 4,580 feet. A variety of wildlife can be seen in the area, including bald eagles, piliated woodpecker, mule and white-tailed deer, moose, elk, bighorn sheep and numerous songbirds.
Nearby Attractions
The Alta Ranger Station, located on Hughes Creek FS Road #5693, was the first Forest Service Ranger Station in the United States, built in 1899. It remains a popular tourist location and is just 5 minutes from the campground. Hughes Creek, once a vibrant placer gold mining site, is an historic area which accounted for 88 percent of all the placer gold recovered in Ravalli County from 1904-1948. Horse Creek natural hot springs can be found about 18 miles south from the campground, via gravel road with high-clearance vehicle recommended. The nearest town is Conner, which provides some services and is approximately 27 miles to the north. Darby is about 32 miles away and offers full services.
Charges & Cancellations
A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. Late cancellations are subject to additional fees. For full details see NRRS Reservation Policy.
What the agency tells you
Call (406) 821-3269 for information on road conditions or fire restrictions
Click here for more information on the Bitterroot National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Bears frequent the area - A Food Storage Order is in effect on all National Forest System lands within the Montana portion of the Bitterroot National Forest from March 1 - December 1 annually. For more information visit https://nfs.fs2c.usda.gov/sites/nfs/files/r01/bitterroot/publication/alerts/BRF_FSO_Handout_final.pdf
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 14
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Accessible sites
- 4
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A campground host…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A campground host is available…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Lake, River, Creek
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 15th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 1
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation.” · this campground’s own terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
14 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 7 mapped sitesAll 14 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 7 of the 14 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 14 of the 14 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 02 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | yes | 256 ft | 391 ft | 216 ft | $15 |
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 03 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | $15 | |||
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 04 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $15 | ||||
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 05 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $15 | ||||
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 06 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 152 ft | 192 ft | 418 ft | $15 | |
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 07 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 152 ft | 141 ft | 322 ft | $15 | |
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 08 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | $15 | ||||
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 09 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 140 ft | 167 ft | 170 ft | $15 | |
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 10 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 140 ft | 100 ft | 267 ft | $15 | |
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 11 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | $15 | ||||
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 12 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | yes | 356 ft | 183 ft | 555 ft | $15 |
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 13 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | yes | $15 | |||
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 14 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $15 | ||||
| AREA ALTA CAMPGROUND | 15 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 204 ft | 288 ft | 207 ft | $15 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Slate Creek CampgroundBitterroot National Forest · 5.2 mi
RomboBitterroot National Forest · 9.8 mi
Fales Flat CampgroundBitterroot National Forest · 11 miHorse Creek Hot Spring & CampgroundSalmon National Forest · 11 mi
Sam Billings Memorial CampgroundBitterroot National Forest · 14 mi
Twogood CabinBitterroot National Forest · 16 miFrom Darby, travel south on Highway 93 for about four miles. Turn right onto Road # 473 and continue southwest, past Painted Rocks Lake, for about 30 miles to the campground on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sula, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 27°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 12°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Alta Campground is in Montana’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Ryan Zinke (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →