Bighorn Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 19 mi
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading
- A night
- FreeNo camping fee
- Season
- May 9Opens May 9. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
May 2023: Reconstruction work is planned for the Bighorn Campground this summer (2023). Once work begins, the campground will be closed. Upgrades will include vault toilets, new campsites, fire rings, and picnic tables. Reconstruction work is funded by the Great American Outdoors Act. Located in the Rock Creek drainage, this campground is situated right on Rock Creek in an old growth Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir forest. This area is known for its blue ribbon trout stream and rugged canyon environment. The campground is open year-round, weather dependent. There are no amenities from October through April. Trailers, motorhomes and tow vehicles are not recommended due to the narrow and rough road.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…will be closed. Upgrades will include vault toilets, new campsites, fire rings, and picnic tables.…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and it costs nothing at all. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 5
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Morgan-Case HomesteadLolo National Forest · 1.8 mi
Hogback HomesteadLolo National Forest · 2.7 mi
Stony CabinDeerlodge National Forest · 3.4 miStony Creek CampgroundDeerlodge National Forest · 3.5 miSiria CampgroundLolo National Forest · 3.9 miBitterroot Flat CampgroundLolo National Forest · 8.1 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Philipsburg, MT
Typical weather
Typical May night 34°F, day 67°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 34°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
Bighorn 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 →