Basin Montana Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 29All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Basin Campground is located 7 miles west of Red Lodge, Montana, along Forest Road 2071, which is paved all the way to the campground. The area is a popular location for hiking, backpacking and fishing. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing is a popular activity along the West Fork of Rock Creek and at nearby Wild Bill Lake. The small lake is open to kayaking and canoeing, and an accessible fishing dock is located on the shore. The Basin Lakes Trailhead is just across the road. Silver Run Plateau, West Fork and Timberline Lakes Trails offer access to the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. Mountain bikers enjoy the Ingles Creek Trail and a variety of loop trails at Silver Run. Biking is also allowed on the Basin Lakes Trail.
Facilities
The campground offers several single-family sites, three of which are accessible. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Back-in spurs are medium length.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the banks of the West Fork of Rock Creek. The campground and the area surrounding the campground were burned by the Cascade Fire in 2008, leaving an open landscape abounding with wildflowers. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (928) 537-8888.
Nearby Attractions
The charming town of Red Lodge, Montana offers a variety of dining and lodging options, galleries, shops and summer events. The Home of Champions Rodeo is held on Fourth of July weekend, Beartooth Bike Rally and Iron Horse Rodeo in mid-July, Mountain Man Rendezvous in late July and the Festival of Nations in early August. The Beartooth Highway was deemed "the most beautiful drive in America" by the late Charles Kuralt. It snakes across the rugged Beartooth Mountains from Red Lodge to Cooke City, Montana, and is the highest elevation highway in the Northern Rockies. Along the way, visitors are treated to sweeping views and plentiful outdoor recreation opportunities.
Charges & Cancellations
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This cancellation processing fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
What the agency tells you
Standard Single Family sites: Recreation Use Fee allows ONE camping unit ONLY.
Extra Vehicles: Cannot be paid for in advance - upon arrival coordinate with the host for payment and where to park.
Late Arrivals: campers are not considered a "no-show" until 24 hours after arrival date check in time. Our policy is that your site will not be released before that.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
FIRST COME FIRST SERVE sites must be booked in person. DO NOT call to determine availability, as they are only available on-site.
Bears frequent the area; please obey all food storage rules and regulations. Check with your host for details.
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. Firewood bundles can be purchased from the camground host.
Click here for more information on the Custer National Forest
Opening and closing dates are weather permitting, please call 928-537-8888 for more information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 29
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 6
- 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. Back-in spurs are…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grill. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Back-in spurs are medium length.…”
- Store
- Nearby
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 323rd darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 2
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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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.
“Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee.” · 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
30 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 29 mapped sitesAll 30 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 29 of the 30 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 01 Host | host pad | 30 ft | 452 ft | $20 | ||
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 02 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 126 ft | 379 ft | $20 |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 03 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 31 ft | 255 ft | $20 |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 04 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | yes | 31 ft | 280 ft | $20 |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 05 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 45 ft | 205 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 06 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 45 ft | 246 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 07 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 53 ft | 212 ft | $20 |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 08 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 40 ft | 250 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 09 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 40 ft | 210 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 10 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 33 ft | 265 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 11 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 33 ft | 295 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 12 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 27 ft | 320 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 13 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 27 ft | 345 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 14 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 41 ft | 381 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 15 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 41 ft | 421 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 16 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 50 ft | 412 ft | $20 |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 17 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 58 ft | 430 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 18 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 62 ft | 492 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 19 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 61 ft | 484 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 20 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 61 ft | 529 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 21 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 49 ft | 471 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 22 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 49 ft | 507 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 23 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 29 ft | 455 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 24 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 29 ft | 484 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 25 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 34 ft | 427 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 26 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 34 ft | 459 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 27 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 55 ft | 396 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 28 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 55 ft | 445 ft | $20 |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 29 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 41 ft | 433 ft | $20 | |
| AREA BASIN MONTANA CAMPGROUND | 30 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 41 ft | 473 ft | $20 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 30 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
CascadeCuster National Forest · 3.0 miPalisades CampgroundCuster National Forest · 4.1 mi
SheridanCuster National Forest · 5.9 miRattin CampgroundCuster National Forest · 6.1 mi
ParksideCuster National Forest · 7.0 miParkside Campground and Group CampsitesCuster National Forest · 7.1 miFrom US Hwy 212 (Beartooth Scenic Byway), travel to the south end of Red Lodge, MT. Turn west on West Fork Rock Creek Road (Forest Road 2071), and proceed approximately 7 miles to the campground entrance 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 Red Lodge, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 17°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
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Basin Montana Campground is in Montana’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Troy Downing (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →