Birch Creek Cabin
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:26 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Birch Creek Cabin is a historic log cabin with electricity. It provides access to a variety of hiking, ohv, and for cross-country skiing and snowshoe trails (depending on the season). A vaulted toilet lies 100' west of the cabin. Guests can typically access the cabin by vehicle, depending on conditions. The roads leading to the cabin are gravel - but suitable for passenger cars (depending on the season and snow levels). The final quarter-mile may be covered with impassible snow during the winter, requiring skis, snowshoes or snowmobile to complete the route. There is a reliable parking area just off of the Birch Creek Road near the Thief Creek Bridge. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
An extensive network of hiking trails exists on the surrounding peaks and valleys. Some lead to alpine lakes, which offer quality mountain fishing. Grayling, cutthroat trout, brook trout and rainbow trout can all be found in the mountain waters. There are two popular cross-country skiing and snowshoeing trails adjacent to the cabin. The Birch Creek Loop and the May Lake Ski Trail both traverse through the area. Old mining roads are plentiful in the area, providing excellent opportunities for exploration on foot, bike, ohv or horseback.
Facilities
The two-room log cabin is equipped with bunkbeds and mattress pads that will sleep up to four people. A separate kitchen has a table and chairs, an electric cook stove, pots and pans and basic eating and cooking utensils. A wood stove is available inside the cabin for heat. Firewood is provided, but not guaranteed . Please be conservative with wood, this will help us maintain the supply for heating purposes. An axe is provide but do not split wood inside the cabin or on the porch. Finally, if the wood supply is low please call the Dillon Ranger District at (406) 683-3900 and leave a message if calling outside of regular business hours. An outhouse with a vault toilet is available outside the cabin. Drinking water is unavailable at this time, sorry for any inconvenience. Guests will need to bring their own bedding, including blankets and pillows, as well as matches, food, toilet paper, garbage bags and other necessities. Wood may be available, but the supply cannot be guaranteed. Those staying at the cabin during the winter months will need to bring their own water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes. Guests are asked to clean the cabin and carry out all trash upon departure. There is no cell phone reception at the cabin. Limited cell phone coverage may be obtained near the Forest Boundary to the east (carrier dependent).
Natural Features
The cabin sits below a historic Civilian Conservation Corps work camp at the confluence of Birch Creek and Thief Creek. It is situated on the eastern slopes of the Pioneer Mountains in southwestern Montana, and was used as a forest ranger station as early as 1908. A forested picnic area is nearby. An abundance of wildlife live in the area, including elk, moose, deer, pine marten, wolverine, northern goshawk, wolf, black bear and (rarely) grizzly bear.
Nearby Attractions
Farlin Mining Community, Torrey Mountain, Tweedy Mountain, Thief Creek Road (passable in summer and fall), Aspen Picnic Area, Dinner Station Campground, Bond Lake Trailhead, Deerhead Lake Trailhead, Minneopa Trailhead. From Willow Creek Road - Gorge Lake Trailhead, Torrey Lake Trailhead, Rainbow Lake Trailheads
What the agency tells you
This facility is located in a remote and wild area; before making a reservation, become aware of bear, water and weather safety (including avalanche danger)
Until further notice there will be no water available at this cabin. Renters will need to bring their own, sorry for any inconvenience.
All garbage and food must be packed out
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to hantavirus when visiting remote cabins; click here to learn more
Learn more about the Beaverhead-Deerlodge 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…trails (depending on the season). A vaulted toilet lies 100' west of the cabin. Guests can typically…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…during the winter months will need to bring their own water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes. Guests…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Spotty
Full this Saturdayread 15:26 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:26 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:26 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 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. 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.
| AREA BIRCH CREEK CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 107 ft | 2,186 ft | $65 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Dinner Station Campground and Picnic AreaBeaverhead National Forest · 2.5 mi
Price Creek Campground (MT)Beaverhead National Forest · 12 mi
Grasshopper Campground (MT)Beaverhead National Forest · 13 mi
Mono Creek CampgroundBeaverhead National Forest · 14 miCanyon Creek CampgroundBeaverhead National Forest · 15 mi
Little Joe CampgroundBeaverhead National Forest · 15 miFrom Dillon, travel north on I-15 for 12 miles to exit 74 at Apex. Turn west and continue about 8 miles on Birch Creek Road. Cross the bridge and take the first right onto Thief Creek Road. The cabin is about 1/4-mile to the west at Thief Creek. Depending on snow conditions, guests may need to park at the Birch Creek Road turnoff and ski or snowmobile to the cabin. Maps may be purchased at the Dillon Ranger District or online http://www.fs.usda.gov/bdnf (mobile maps are available).
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Glen, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 7°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 · a letter you can send
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
Birch Creek Cabin 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyRyan K. ZinkeU.S. Representative · Montana’s 1st district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationSteve DainesU.S. Senator · Montana
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTim SheehyU.S. Senator · Montana
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Birch Creek Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Birch Creek Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Birch Creek Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Birch Creek Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Birch Creek Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Birch Creek Cabin (Beaverhead National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Birch Creek Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Birch Creek Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Birch Creek Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Birch Creek Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Birch Creek Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Birch Creek Cabin (Beaverhead National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Birch Creek Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Birch Creek Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Birch Creek Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Birch Creek Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Birch Creek Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Birch Creek Cabin (Beaverhead National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…There is no cell phone reception at the cabin. Limited cell phone coverage may be obtained near the Forest Boundary to the east (carrier…”