Big Springs Warming Hut
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Big Springs Warming Hut is located 22 miles south of West Yellowstone, Montana in beautiful Island Park, Idaho at an approximate elevation of 6,300 feet. Visitors love Island Park for its world-class fishing and outstanding scenery and wildlife viewing opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
Big Springs is the headwaters of Henry's Fork and is one of the largest springs in the country. Henry's Fork is considered one of the best fisheries in the nation. Fly-fishermen cast for rainbow and brook trout. Tubing, canoeing, kayaking and rafting are also popular on the river. The Big Springs National Recreation Water Trail can be accessed from the campground and ends 4.5 miles away at Macks Inn. It offers a lazy three-hour float or canoe trip through beautiful scenery. Wildlife, including moose, bald eagles and Sandhill cranes, are often seen along the trail. The charming and historic John Sack Cabin is nearby, noted for its unique location, construction and furnishings. Hiking, biking, horseback riding and ATVing are popular activities. Many miles of trails crisscross Island Park, including the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail and the Nez Perce Trail are in the area.
Facilities
The warming hut can accommodate up to 200 people. It is fully enclosed and has a concrete floor. Several picnic tables are inside, along with a wood-burning stove for cool weather. Electrical outlets and overhead lighting are provided inside the building. Outside there are picnic tables, grills and a campfire circle. A very large parking area is on-site, with 20-amp electric hookups on the edge. Please note that there is no water on-site, but it is available at Big Springs Campground 2.5 miles away. Firewood can be purchased there also. A vault toilet is located next to the warming hut.
Natural Features
Island Park is composed of two areas of extinct volcanic activity. The Henry's Fork Caldera sits inside the larger Island Park Caldera. The area is known for its dense forests of lodgepole pine, broad grassy meadows bursting with summer wildflowers and a wide variety of wildlife, including black and grizzly bears, moose, elk, deer, bald eagles, Sandhill cranes and much, much more. The warming hut is surrounded by a forest of lodgepole pines. Grasses and summer wildflowers dot the landscape.
Nearby Attractions
Island Park Reservoir and Henry's Lake are nearby, both offer boating, water skiing, fishing, kayaking and canoeing. Numerous additional small lakes and streams are scattered throughout Island Park. Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks are within a short drive, offering additional hiking and fishing, as well as outstanding scenery. Macks Inn is 4.5 miles west. This full-service facility offers boat rentals, rafting, shuttle service, gas, groceries, showers and laundry facilities.
What the agency tells you
Wildlife Caution
Idaho OHV Safety Message
Please bring your own drinking water
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Click here for more information on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Help prevent the spread of tree-killing pests in our national forests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Longest rig
- 500 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Firewood can be purchased there also. A vault toilet is located next to the warming hut. Natural…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…hookups on the edge. Please note that there is no water on-site, but it is available at Big Springs…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Meadow
- Night sky · 372nd darkest of 523 in ID
- 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 · 12
What you actually pay
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 · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BIG SPRINGS WARMING HUT | GS1 | group standard electric | 500 ft | 15 amp | 2,267 ft | $75 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Flatrock CampgroundTarghee National Forest · 2.2 mi
Flat Rock (Idaho)Targhee National Forest · 2.2 mi
Big Springs CampgroundTarghee National Forest · 2.4 mi
Big Springs Grp. Area - Island ParkTarghee National Forest · 2.4 mi
Upper Coffee PotTarghee National Forest · 3.3 mi
McCrea BridgeTarghee National Forest · 5.2 miFrom West Yellowstone, Montana, travel 22 miles south on Highway 20 to Mack's Inn. Turn east on Big Springs Loop Road and travel 2 miles to the warming hut access road. Turn south into the warming hut parking area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Island Park, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 22°F, day 50°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 1°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
Big Springs Warming Hut is in Idaho’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Mike Simpson (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →