Black Mountain 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 29 of the next 30 nights read 16:45 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Black Mountain Backcountry Cabin was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps and sits on what was once pasture land. The cabin was renovated in 1992, though its original character was maintained. The surrounding pasture was cleared as well to provide the scenic views that guests enjoy today. The Black Mountain Ski Trail is used to hike or ski to the cabin, depending on the season. The 1.4-mile trail starts at an elevation of 1,250 feet, and the cabin sits at an elevation of 2,450 feet. Guests should be prepared to transport all their gear and supplies on foot. Keep reading
Recreation
The Black Mountain Ski Trail used to access the cabin is a popular backcountry ski trail. It continues 0.4 miles beyond the cabin to the summit of Black Mountain, which offers views of Carter Dome, Carter Notch and Wildcat Ridge. A groomed trail system operated by Jackson Ski Touring Foundation is within a mile of the cabin. A trail pass is required.
Facilities
Black Mountain Cabin is very rustic with minimal amenities. There are 8 wooden bunks, 2 small tables, benches and a wood stove. An outhouse with a vault toilet is located a short distance away. There is a broom provided as guests are requested to tidy up the cabin before leaving. Water and electricity are not available. Any water taken from the natural sources should be treated or boiled, but it is recommended that guests bring their own water. Bedding and sleeping pads are not provided. Recommended items include matches, food, cooking utensils, trash bags, toilet paper, a camp stove, first aid kit, flashlight or lantern, extra batteries, firewood and/or a cutting tool for dead and down wood. The amount of available firewood in the area cannot be guaranteed. The cabin is not insulated, so winter guests should be prepared for temperatures inside to be almost the same as the outside, even when the wood stove is in use ( more details on the cabin ).
Natural Features
This cabin is located on the west side of Black Mountain and offers views of the 4,400-foot Wildcat Ridge and 6,288-foot Mount Washington - the tallest peak in the northeastern United States. The cabin is surrounded by maple and spruce trees. There are 237 species of birds living in White Mountain National Forest. Other inhabitants of the forest include moose and black bears ( bear safety information ).
What the agency tells you
Please be aware that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service is not cleaning this rental cabin between user visits. To protect health and safety for all cabin visitors, we recommend you clean all "high touch surfaces" when you arrive and before you leave. Cleaning supplies are not provided; you are expected to bring your own.
Drinking water is not available at the cabin
Please carry out all trash and excess food
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Please close and lock all doors and windows when leaving
The trails and parking cross private land; please stay on the trail and respect private landowners' rights
Click here for more information about White Mountain National Forest
Don't move firewood: To limit the spread of invasive tree-killing pests, firewood from outside the area is not permitted. Some states have quarantines and may confiscate your firewood. Please help protect our forests from invasive species by obtaining your firewood at or near your camping destination and burning it on-site. Visit dontmovefirewood.org for more information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and a wood stove. An outhouse with a vault toilet is located a short distance away. There is a broom…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…but it is recommended that guests bring their own water. Bedding and sleeping pads are not provided.…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Fall color · reported 4 days ago, 8.9 km away
- Minimal color
Full this Saturdayread 16:45 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:45 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 16:45 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
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.
| BLACK MOUNTAIN CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 3,399 ft | $40 |
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
Doublehead CabinWhite Mountain National Forest · 2.9 mi
Basin CampgroundWhite Mountain National Forest · 8.9 mi
Cold RiverWhite Mountain National Forest · 9.1 miWild River CampgroundWhite Mountain National Forest · 9.2 mi
Dolly CoppWhite Mountain National Forest · 9.6 mi
Barnes Field CampgroundWhite Mountain National Forest · 10 miThere are two trails used to reach the cabin; the Black Mountain Ski Trail and East Pasture Loop XC Ski Trail:
Recommended: Black Mountain Ski Trail is located off Carter Notch Road in Jackson: From Route 16, turn into Jackson Village. Follow the loop through town until you reach 16B/Carter Notch Road. Follow Carter Notch Road for 3.9 miles until you reach Melloon Rd. Turn right onto Melloon Road and follow for about 1/3 mile. Parking is available for 4 - 6 vehicles. You will see the trail sign at the beginning of a private drive; the trailhead is on your right about 100 feet up the drive. Please stay on the trail and respect private landowners' rights. This trail reaches Black Mountain Cabin in 1.4 miles via a moderate grade.
East Pasture Loop XC Trail is maintained as a groomed XC ski trail in the winter by Jackson Ski Touring Foundation (pass required) accessed at the top of Black Mountain Road in Jackson. From Route 16, turn into Jackson Village (Route 16A). Follow the loop through town until you reach Route 16B/Black Mountain Road. Turn onto Black Mountain Road and follow for about 2 miles. Just past Black Mountain Ski Area, Black Mountain Road veers to the left and Dundee Road continues straight ahead. Veer left on Black Mountain Road for another 0.5 miles to the East Pasture Trailhead. Parking is available for about 10 vehicles. The trail begins on private land so please be respectful.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for North Conway, NH
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 6°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Black Mountain Cabin is in New Hampshire’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Maggie Goodlander (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. 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 moneyMaggie GoodlanderU.S. Representative · New Hampshire’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJeanne ShaheenU.S. Senator · New Hampshire
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMargaret Wood HassanU.S. Senator · New Hampshire
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 Black Mountain Cabin, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire
Dear Maggie Goodlander, I’m a constituent in New Hampshire’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Black Mountain Cabin, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Black Mountain 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Black Mountain Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Black Mountain 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 Black Mountain Cabin (White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire) 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 Black Mountain Cabin, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire
Dear Jeanne Shaheen, I’m a constituent in New Hampshire. I tried to camp at Black Mountain Cabin, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Black Mountain 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Black Mountain Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Black Mountain 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 Black Mountain Cabin (White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire) 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 Black Mountain Cabin, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire
Dear Margaret Wood Hassan, I’m a constituent in New Hampshire. I tried to camp at Black Mountain Cabin, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Black Mountain 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Black Mountain Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Black Mountain 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 Black Mountain Cabin (White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire) via campanac.com