Bureau of Reclamation · MT

Cave Point Group Use Area

Day use, not campingThe agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.

This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →

Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
3,810 ftElevation
66 ftWater · Canyon Ferry Lake
6.2 miE of Helena Valley Southeast, MT
n/aTree cover · water-masked cell
Bortle 3Night sky · 487th darkest of 501 in MT

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices

In the agency’s own words

Cave Point Group Use Shelter is located at the very north end of Canyon Ferry Reservoir, 30 miles east of Helena, Montana, along Highway 284. Cave Point offers year-round access to a wide range of recreational opportunities. The Canyon Ferry area has a rich mining history. Cave Point is named for one of the first settlements in the area, Cavetown. Visitors to the shelter can envision the original horse drawn ferry crossing that transported miners across the mighty Missouri River to work the mining camps. Keep reading

Recreation

Canyon Ferry Reservoir offers a wide range of year-round recreational opportunities. Water related activities include everything from swimming and fishing to sailing and motor-boating. Canoeists and kayakers explore the many quiet backwater bays. Jet skiers, windsurfers and water skiers skim the summer waves, while winter draws ice fishermen, ice boaters and skaters.

Facilities

Cave Point Group Use Shelter is a small 30' X 36' shelter with six picnic tables and an accessible vault toilet and can accommodate up to 50 people. Access is shared with a road through Kim's Marina.

Natural Features

Cave Point Group Use Shelter sits at the north end of Canyon Ferry Reservoir between the Big Belt and Elkhorn Mountain ranges. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (406) 475-3920.

What the agency tells you

Rule

Cave Point Group Use Area is a day use only shelter and closes at 10:00 p.m.

Rule

No overnight camping or use is allowed.

Rule

There is no electrical service at this shelter.

Everything else this campground posts · 1
Rule

While at Canyon Ferry Reservoir: CLEAN, DRAIN, DRY boats and any other recreational equipment that comes in contact with water. Never dump unwanted bait, worms, fish parts or other organisms into the water. For more information visit https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/ STOP THE SPREAD OF INVASIVE SPECIES. REMOVE plants, seeds, animals and mud from boots, gear, pets, and vehicle. CLEAN your gear before entering and leaving the recreation site. STAY on designated roads and trails and use local firewood. For more information visit https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Facilities

Toilets
Vault Toilets
VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
Stay limit
14 nights
recreation.gov facility rule maxStay

Around the campground

On the water
Reservoir, River
Boating
Fishing
Hunting
Swimming
Water sports
Wildlife viewing
Winter sports
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

Nothing here to sleep in

The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.

No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.

Booking windowOut of seasonOut of season, no booking. On November 1, 2026 at 10 AM ET, availability opens through May 1, 2027.recreation.govAdd to calendar (.ics)
Max stay14 nightsthe facility record
Sites, a night, from$35From the rate schedule matched to 1 of its 1 sites. Bureau of Reclamation publishes no campground-level rate we can read.derived by CAMPANAC
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itBureau of ReclamationBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
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’ll write once, when the season that starts Sat, May 1 2027 is open for booking.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 12

What you actually pay

The sign priceBureau of Reclamation
Sites, a night, from$35
Derived by CAMPANAC from the rate schedule matched to 1 of its 1 sites. Bureau of Reclamation publishes no campground-level rate for this campground that we can read, only per-site rate templates its own record matches to each site’s own type.
Group area, a night$35
These are next season’s rates, May 1, 2027 to Sep 12, 2027. The campground is between seasons now.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

1 records · the site map

All 1 records

1 of 1 records located
Day use1
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
CAVE POINT GROUP USE AREACave Pointday useyes62 ft$35

The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Coordinate46.64743, -111.70222
The phone406-475-3921
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Getting there

If heading north along MT highway 12/287 from Townsend, MT, turn right onto Spokane Creek Rd. Follow Spokane Creek Rd for 4.6 miles and turn right onto Co Rd 430/Canyon Ferry Rd and continue 16 miles to Kim's Marina. Turn right into Kim's Marina and continue straight to Cave Point. If heading east along Co Rd 430/Canyon Ferry Rd from Helena, MT, continue for 16 miles to Kim's Marina. Turn right into Kim's Marina and continue straight to Cave Point.

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight40°Partly Cloudy
Saturday69°Mostly Sunny
Saturday Night40°Partly Cloudy1% rain
Sunday63°Mostly Sunny

NWS forecast for York, MT

Typical weather

Typical October night 34°F, day 58°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 14°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

100°32°0°

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.

Measured at: HELENA RGNL AP, MT (USW00024144), 13 miles away and at about the same elevation

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

Roadless
Hellgate Gulch16,821 acres · 8 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Troy Downing, official portrait

Cave Point Group Use Area is in Montana’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Troy Downing (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Who can change it · 3
Ask whether this could be a place to sleep

The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.

Read the draft, or change the wording
To Troy Downing

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Cave Point Group Use Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them

Dear Troy Downing,

I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. Cave Point Group Use Area, Montana carries 1 record on the Bureau of Reclamation’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight.

I’m asking you to put one question to the Bureau of Reclamation in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Cave Point Group Use Area (Montana) via campanac.com
To Steve Daines

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Cave Point Group Use Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them

Dear Steve Daines,

I’m a constituent in Montana. Cave Point Group Use Area, Montana carries 1 record on the Bureau of Reclamation’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight.

I’m asking you to put one question to the Bureau of Reclamation in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Cave Point Group Use Area (Montana) via campanac.com
To Tim Sheehy

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Cave Point Group Use Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them

Dear Tim Sheehy,

I’m a constituent in Montana. Cave Point Group Use Area, Montana carries 1 record on the Bureau of Reclamation’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight.

I’m asking you to put one question to the Bureau of Reclamation in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Cave Point Group Use Area (Montana) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
The figures in these drafts: Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress (CRS Report RS20643) · Updated December 4, 2025 · “The ship’s final procurement cost was $13,316.5 million (i.e., about $13.3 billion) in then-year dollars.”
The figures in these drafts: Salary Table 2026-GS, Incorporating the 1% General Schedule Increase, Effective January 2026 (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) · Effective January 2026 · “Grade 5, Step 1: $34,799 (annual rate, before locality pay).”
The figures in these drafts: Update to Civilian Position Full Fringe Benefit Cost Factor, Federal Pay Raise Assumptions, and Inflation Factors used in OMB Circular No. A-76 (OMB Memorandum M-08-13) · March 11, 2008 · “the civilian position full fringe benefit cost factor needs to be adjusted downward, from 36.45 percent to 36.25 percent”

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: Bureau of Reclamation publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate: the number below is the only way to be sure.
Cell signal: the Bureau of Reclamation’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: York, MT, 5.1 mi SSE (a census designated place). Straight line.