Bloody Dick Cabin
1Heads up1 fire 31 mi away
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 16:46 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bloody Dick Cabin, named after the English Trapper Richard "Bloody" Leigh, is a small wood frame cabin. Nestled in the evergreens near Reservoir Lake in Southwestern Montana's Bitterroot Mountains - the cabin is available for rental year-round. Popularity peaks during the summer and fall seasons with hikers, ohv enthusiasts, and big game hunters. During spring and winter, the nearby lake freezes promoting ice fishing while several area winter trails offer cross-country skiing and snowmobiling. Keep reading
During the snow free season- the cabin is accessible by passenger vehicle, however some portions are gravel, dirt and rock, making it rough and slow going. Snow conditions limit mobility in the area. Depending on the snow levels, renters may need to travel up to 23 miles by snowmobile or skis to reach the cabin. Renters are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. There is no cell phone coverage in the area.
Recreation
Fishing is available in Bloody Dick Creek, as well as on nearby Reservoir Lake - where non-motorized boats are welcome. Anglers might catch a variety of trout, including Rainbow or Brown. Montana fishing licenses are required. All boats must be inspected and registered - to reduce the spread of aquatic nussiances. Hiking and mountain biking are popular at nearby trailheads. Trails include to the Nez Perce National Historic Trail, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. Snowmobiling, cross country skiing and snowshoeing are popular in the area throughout the winter. Obtaining the South Beaverhead National Forest Map will aid in navigating the forest's roads and trails. Maps are available electronically (for mobile devices) or in paper form via a computer at http://www.fs.usda.gov/bdnf. Maps are also available at the Dillon District Office located at 420 Barrett Street Dillon, MT 59725 (406) 683-3958. Office hours are Monday - Friday 7:30 - 4:30.
Facilities
The small one-room cabin sleeps four and has two bunkbeds with mattresses. A table and chairs, small wood burning stove and a propane cook stove are provided, as well as cooking and eating utensils, shovel, bucket and cleaning equipment. 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. The cabin has no electricity. Water is available for drinking during June through the end of September. A small sink and faucet provide water inisde the cabin. Please refreain from plugging up the sink drain with food scraps as there's no disposal and the drain will easily clog if not treated with respect. An outhouse with a vault toilet is provided. The cabin has s small oven stovetop. Renters must remember to light all three of the pilots, two on the stovetop and one at the rear bottom of the oven. FAILURE TO LIGHT THE REAR BOTTOM OVEN PILOT - has resulted in renters leaking propane into the cabin. Renters will need to bring their own bedding, matches or lighters, toilet paper and garbage bags, among other necessities. Garbage and cleaning services are not provided. Guests should replenish the supply of split wood and kindling, and clean the cabin prior to leaving.
Natural Features
The cabin is located beneath the Continental Divide in a Lodgepole Pine Forest. Access from Highway 278 places the cabin around 25 miles south of Jackson, Montana. Access from Highway 324 is a similar distance northwest of Grant, MT. It is situated next to Bloody Dick Creek at an elevation of about 7,100 feet. The creek is fed by cold water springs in the area. A variety of shorebirds can be seen near the winding creek and plenty of wildlife make their home in the area as well. Bears, both Black and Grizzly, are present in the area - proper Food Storage is a REQUIRED. Reservoir Lake is about a mile north of the cabin. The 11-acre lake is equipped with a primitive boat ramp. A small campground sits on the edge of the lake.
What the agency tells you
Before making a reservation, become aware of bear, water and weather safety (including avalanche danger)
Drinking water is available at the cabin from June through September
The front gate and the cabin remains locked; Combination is provided with confirmation letter
Everything else this campground posts · 6
All garbage and food must be packed out
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.
Proper food storage is manditory! Coolers and attractants are not to be left outside unattended.
A Hang Pole is available to the west of the cabin for storing game securely.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…treated with respect. An outhouse with a vault toilet is provided. The cabin has s small oven stovetop.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…hours. The cabin has no electricity. Water is available for drinking during June through the end of…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- None
Full this Saturdayread 16:46 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:46 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 · 13
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 16:46 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 BLOODY DICK CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 449 ft | 2,485 ft | $55 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Reservoir Lake Campground and Picnic AreaBeaverhead National Forest · 0.5 miSouth Van Houten CampgroundBeaverhead National Forest · 8.9 mi
Horse Prairie Cabin9.2 mi
Agency Creek CampgroundSalmon Field Office · 13 mi
Miner Lake CampgroundBeaverhead National Forest · 16 mi
Shoup Bridge CampgroundSalmon Field Office · 21 miFrom Dillon, travel south on I-15 for about 19 miles and exit at Clark Canyon Reservoir (Hwy 324). Travel 17 miles west on Highway 324 through Grant, MT. Proceed west and turn north onto Bloody Dick Road/Forest Road 181. Continue about 18 miles following road signs. The Bloody Dick Guard Station is 1/2-mile off FS Road 181. You will have to unlock the double gate and proceed another 1/16 of a mile to the cabin. The combination to the gate is the same as the cabin combination you will recieve in the confirmation letter. Depending on snow conditions, the route may require visitors to ski or snowmobile for 23 miles, from Jackson. Maps may be purchased online at http://www.fs.usda.gov/bdnf or at the Dillon Ranger District - 420 Barrett Street, Dillon, MT 59725 (406) 683 3900. District hours are 7:30-16:30 mst - Monday through Friday.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Jackson, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 8°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
Bloody Dick 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 Bloody Dick Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Bloody Dick Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Bloody Dick 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. Bloody Dick Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Bloody Dick 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 Bloody Dick 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 Bloody Dick Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Bloody Dick Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Bloody Dick 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. Bloody Dick Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Bloody Dick 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 Bloody Dick 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 Bloody Dick Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Bloody Dick Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Bloody Dick 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. Bloody Dick Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Bloody Dick 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 Bloody Dick 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
“…bring several of their own amenities. There is no cell phone coverage in the area. Recreation Fishing is available in Bloody Dick…”