Castle Butte Lookout
5Heads up5 fires, nearest 9 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Castle Butte Lookout is a unique cabin perched on a rocky point, 6,659 feet above sea level. It offers breathtaking, 360-degree views of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, the Seven Devils Mountains, the Great Burn area and the deep canyons of the North Fork Clearwater River's upper drainages. A cabin was first constructed on this site in 1916 and was replaced in 1928 with a log cabin featuring a cupola. The current lookout was built in 1950. Access to the lookout is via the Lolo Motorway, a primitive, single-lane road constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930s. Keep reading
It is not recommended for large RVs, vehicles with low ground clearance or trailers. Guests should be prepared to walk about 100 feet up steep, rocky terrain to reach the lookout. Castle Butte Lookout is equipped with a few creature comforts, but guests will need to bring some gear and supplies to help make their stay enjoyable. The panoramic view guarantees a memorable stay.
Recreation
Hikers can follow the paths of the Nez Perce and Lewis and Clark on the historic Lolo Trail. The Lolo Motorway is popular with off-road vehicle enthusiasts. Click here for an Idaho OHV safety message. Huckleberries are abundant in the summer, offering good berry picking opportunities.
Facilities
Castle Butte Lookout can accommodate four people and comes equipped with two twin beds with foam mattresses, two cots, a table with two chairs, mop & bucket, a propane cook stove, propane lights, propane heater and propane. A pit toilet is located in a separate building outside. Click here for additional cabin details. The cabin does not have electricity or water. Guests should bring their own water supply as there is no close water source. Guests must provide their own emergency lighting, garbage bags, bedding, matches, toilet paper, cookware and cooking utensils. The cabin should be cleaned before departure.
Natural Features
The lookout is surrounded by a rocky landscape that quickly gives way to dense forests of lodgepole and ponderosa pines. This unique facility offers an ideal vantage point to watch sunrises and sunsets, and gaze at the stars. Wildlife enthusiasts may spot eagles, bears, moose, elk, deer and mountain goats. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (208) 942-0313.
Nearby Attractions
The Lolo Motorway stretches for 100 miles through scenic mountain landscapes. Summer visitors can see meadows and hillsides blanketed in colorful wildflowers. Travelers should be prepared for rough, sometimes treacherous conditions. No services are located along this road, so travelers should have plenty of gas, food and water for the drive.
What the agency tells you
Guests need a lock combination to access the lookout cabin; combination will be on confirmation email
Cell phone coverage is not available and the nearest payphone is 45 miles away in Powell, Idaho. Plan on bringing a map for navigation to the site.
Access road is very rough, high clearance 4x4 vehicles advised
Everything else this campground posts · 9
No water is available at the lookout
We discourage bringing children to the lookout because of the inherent danger of such a facility
No garbage service is offered; please pack out your garbage
Candles are not permitted in the lookout
No livestock allowed
Domestic pets are allowed; please be sure to clean up after them
Most lookouts have occasional visits from Forest Service employees or members of the public; these people may be using the pit toilet or looking at the views from the peak or cabin walkway
Click here for more information about Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests
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
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…lights, propane heater and propane. A pit toilet is located in a separate building outside. Click…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…have electricity or water. Guests should bring their own water supply as there is no close water source. Guests…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Meadow
- Hiking
- Historic site
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 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 CASTLE BUTTE LOOKOUT | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 2,306 ft | $45 |
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
Liz Creek CabinClearwater National Forest · 4.6 mi
Liz Butte CabinClearwater National Forest · 5.4 mi
Wilderness GatewayClearwater National Forest · 7.7 miWeitas Creek CampgroundClearwater National Forest · 17 mi
Scurvy Mountain LookoutClearwater National Forest · 18 miNoe Creek CampgroundClearwater National Forest · 19 miFrom Missoula, MT: Take US Highway 12 West for about approximately 78 miles (milepaost 139.7) to Forest Service Road #107 . All roads from this point are gravel or dirt and a vehicle with high clearance is suggested. Turn right onto Forest Service Road #107 (Saddle Camp and Gravey Creek), and go approx. 8 miles. Turn left at the first left in the intersection onto Forest Service Road #500 (Lolo Motorway), To confirm on correct road there will be interpretive signs on the right in roughly 75 feet. Continue west approximately 9.5 miles. This stretch of the road is windy and narrow. Turn left onto Forest Service Road #561 (Castle Butte Rd). It will be signed. This stretch of the road is very rough, rocky and bumpy, high clearance is advised. Travel south about 1.5 miles to the Castle Butte Lookout. Estimated driving time from Missoula is 3 hours.
From Kooskia, ID: Take US Highway 12 East for approximately 17 miles and turn left onto Forest Service Road 101 (Smith Creek Rd). All roads from this point are gravel or dirt and a vehicle with high clearance is suggested. Travel approximately 21 miles, then take a slight right onto Forest Service Road 500 (Lolo Motorway) at the Mex Mountain junction. Travel approximately 33 miles, turn right onto Forest Service Road 561. Turn right onto Forest Service Road #561 (Castle Butte Rd) and travel south about 1.5 miles to the Castle Butte Lookout. Estimated driving time from Kooskia is 5 hours. From Kamiah, ID: Take US Highway 12 East for about 1 mile and turn left at the end of the bridge over the Clearwater River onto Woodland Road. Drive about 1 mile and turn right onto Glenwood Road (Forest Service Road 100). Drive for about 23 miles to Road 103 at the Musselshell junction. All roads from this point are gravel or dirt and a vehcile with high clearance is suggested. Turn right onto Forest Service Road 103 (Gravey Creek Road) and travel 11 miles to Beaver Dam Saddle. Turn right onto Forest Service Road 104, travel for 1 mile. Take a left onto Road 500 (Lolo Motorway) travel approximately 20 miles to Forest Service Road 561 (Castle Butte Road). Turn right onto Forest Service Road #561 (Castle Butte Rd) and travel south about 1.5 miles to the Castle Butte Lookout. Estimated driving time from Kamiah is 4 hours.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pierce, ID
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
Castle Butte Lookout is in Idaho’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Russ Fulcher (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →