Bull River Guard Station
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 · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Bull River Guard Station was built in 1908 as the Ranger's house and office. This structure was a primary ranger station from 1908 to 1920, surviving the legendary 1910 fires that swept through the area. The cabin was home to Granville "Granny" Gordon (District Ranger), his wife and three daughters. Full vehicle access to the cabin depends on weather conditions. The road is normally plowed within 1 mile of the cabin during winter months. Keep reading
Recreation
The Bull River is 24.7 miles long from its headwaters to where it meets the Cabinet Gorge Reservoir. Fish species include westslope cutthroat trout, large scale sucker and mountain whitefish. Visit the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks website for fishing regulations and hunting seasons and permits . Hikers might be interested in two excellent day hiking options located near the guard station: the Pilick Ridge Trail #1036 and the Berray Mountain Trail #967. Both lead to lookouts with impressive views of the Cabinet Mountains. The Berray Mountain Lookout tower, built in the 1930's, is listed on the National Historic Lookout Register. For those interested in horseback riding, there is plenty of opportunity to explore the surrounding land. Stock animals are not allowed in the cabin area, but visitors may tie up across the road or 50 yards behind the station. As always, certified weed free hay is required on all Forest Service lands.
Facilities
The two-story cabin spans 700 square feet and is equipped with period furniture, including three full beds and two single beds with mattresses. The cabin can accommodate a maximum of 8 people and does require guests to bring a few of their own supplies to ensure a comfortable stay. In addition to the beds, the cabin features a sitting room with chairs and a kitchen/dining room with a hutch, table and chairs and electric range. The space is heated with a forced air electric furnace, and comes with some cleaning supplies. There is no indoor plumbing at the cabin; an outhouse with vault toilet is located nearby. A horse corral is located behind the cabin. Drinking water is also not available; guests must bring plenty of their own.
Natural Features
The Bull River Guard Station is located in the Cabinet Mountain Range near the East Fork of the Bull River in the Kootenai National Forest. The Cabinet Mountains were named by early French settlers who thought the mountains had a cabinet-like appearance when viewed from the valley floor. The cabin is located minutes from from the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness area which is home to a large range of wildlife from the high rocks of the mountain goat, mountain sheep, pika and golden eagle, to the lower slopes and brushy canyon bottoms of the beaver, woodrat, and beautiful Western Tanager. Fall foliage in this area is truly stunning with a wonderful assortment of Mountain Maple scarlets, Mountain Ash reds, Alder browns, and the Larch golden yellows.
What the agency tells you
For more information including the cabin lock combination, contact the Cabinet Ranger District at 406-827-3533 prior to arrival
Check-in 2:00 pm / Check-out is 11:00 am
There is no potable water provided: Guests must provide their own for drinking, cooking and washing
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Pets are allowed, but must stay off the furniture at all times
Horses are not allowed in the cabin area. Please use the corrals provided. Certified weed-free hay is required.
Quiet hours are from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
There is a 5 consecutive day stay limit. A break of 7 days is requested before making another reservation.
Be aware, this facility is not cleaned between user visits. It is up to individual renters to bring their own cleaning supplies and clean before and after site use.
The Kootenai National Forest is under a mandatory food and sanitation order; To learn more about this and other Kootenai National Forest alerts and conditions, Click Here.
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
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Drinking water is also not available; guests must bring plenty of their own.”
- Stay limit
- 15 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
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 Wed, Oct 21. 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 · 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 16:46 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
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 BULL RIVER GAURD STATION | 001 | cabin electric | 308 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
Bull River PavilionKaniksu National Forest · 5.9 miBull River Campground and Group SiteKaniksu National Forest · 6.2 miBig Eddy Campground7.3 miBad Medicine CampgroundKootenai National Forest · 8.4 mi
Dorr Skeels CampgroundKootenai National Forest · 11 miFrom US Highway 2 (to the north) or State Highway 200 (to the south), travel on State Highway 56 to the East Fork Bull River Road #407 at approximately the 8 mile marker. Take Road #407 for about 1.5 miles and turn right on Road #2701. The cabin is approximately .5 miles past the junction of #407 and #2701. Directional signs are present.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bull Lake, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 34°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 23°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
Bull River Guard Station 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 Bull River Guard Station, Kaniksu National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Bull River Guard Station, Kaniksu National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Bull River Guard Station 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. Bull River Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Bull River Guard Station. 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 Bull River Guard Station (Kaniksu 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 Bull River Guard Station, Kaniksu National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Bull River Guard Station, Kaniksu National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Bull River Guard Station 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. Bull River Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Bull River Guard Station. 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 Bull River Guard Station (Kaniksu 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 Bull River Guard Station, Kaniksu National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Bull River Guard Station, Kaniksu National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Bull River Guard Station 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. Bull River Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Bull River Guard Station. 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 Bull River Guard Station (Kaniksu National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com