Chinamen's Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 3837 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Review campsite details -- RV's larger than 20 feet long maybe be to large for many of the campsites. This Campground is located at the very northern end of Canyon Ferry Reservoir, 30 miles east of Helena, Montana, along Montana Highway 284 and offers year-round access to a wide range of recreational opportunities. The Canyon Ferry area has a rich mining history. In the 1850’s the gold rush hit the Canyon Ferry area attracting miners from all over the United States in the hopes of striking it rich. 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 ice skaters.
Facilities
This Campground has 38 campsites many of the campsites are too small for RVs larger than 20 feet long. The campground has gravel roads with campsites containing a picnic table and a fire ring. During the summer months services include vault toilets, potable water, trash, and a campground host.
Natural Features
This Campground sits at the north end of Canyon Ferry Reservoir between the Big Belt and Elkhorn’s mountain ranges.
Nearby Attractions
Canyon Ferry Reservoir is located halfway between Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park along with the capital city of Helena, Montana. For up to date events visit, www.helenamt.com. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (406) 475-3920.
What the agency tells you
Rv's Longer than 20 ft. may be difficult to accommodate.
No show reservations are subject to cancellation after the third night.
Campsites must be occupied each night.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Personal property used to reserve campsites, including RVs and tents will be removed in accordance with 43 CFR Part 423.23.
All campsites are to be considered single unit sites unless marked as a double site. Single campsites are limited to one camping / sleeping unit per campsite. An exception will be made for parents with young children; Parents may have one additional tent for children under the age of 18.
Pets must be physically constrained by a leash under 6' in length or a structure. Do not leave pets left unattended. It is your responsibility to clean up after your own pet.
Quiet hours are from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Be considerate of other campers. Activities and noise should be kept to a level that does not disturb other campers. Generators are not allowed during quiet hours. The use of loud, profane, or abusive language or music is prohibited.
Check in time is 5pm. Check out time is 4pm.
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/
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 38
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 47 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…the summer months services include vault toilets, potable water, trash, and a campground host.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…months services include vault toilets, potable water, trash, and a campground host. Natural Features…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir
- Boating
- Night sky · 486th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 37 of the 38 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 4
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
38 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 37 mapped sitesAll 38 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 38 of the 38 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| 001 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 89 ft | 402 ft | 1,557 ft | |
| 002 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 49 ft | 199 ft | 1,690 ft | |
| 003 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 40 ft | 151 ft | 1,718 ft | |
| 004 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 32 ft | 113 ft | 1,739 ft | |
| 005 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 32 ft | 81 ft | 1,763 ft | |
| 006 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 48 ft | 112 ft | 1,912 ft | |
| 007 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 30 ft | 118 ft | 1,871 ft | |
| 008 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 30 ft | 138 ft | 1,851 ft | |
| 009 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 40 ft | 85 ft | 1,840 ft | |
| 010 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | yes | 36 ft | 120 ft | 1,820 ft |
| 011 | type not stated | 32 ft | 373 ft | 1,678 ft | ||
| 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 35 ft | 418 ft | 1,659 ft | |
| 013 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 32 ft | 419 ft | 1,624 ft | |
| 014 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 31 ft | 452 ft | 1,641 ft | |
| 015 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 32 ft | 450 ft | 1,605 ft | |
| 016 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 31 ft | 482 ft | 1,625 ft | |
| 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 37 ft | 487 ft | 1,584 ft | |
| 018 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 32 ft | 512 ft | 1,604 ft | |
| 019 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 50 ft | 583 ft | 1,540 ft | |
| 020 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 50 ft | 584 ft | 1,588 ft | |
| 021 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 72 ft | 653 ft | 1,550 ft | |
| 022 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | yes | 82 ft | 713 ft | 1,480 ft |
| 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 64 ft | 817 ft | 1,537 ft | |
| 024 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 64 ft | 880 ft | 1,520 ft | |
| 025 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 70 ft | 911 ft | 1,454 ft | |
| 026 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 65 ft | 991 ft | 1,508 ft | |
| 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 64 ft | 979 ft | 1,515 ft | |
| 028 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 64 ft | 1,020 ft | 1,452 ft | |
| 029 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 52 ft | 887 ft | 1,527 ft | |
| 030 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 52 ft | 939 ft | 1,483 ft | |
| 031 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 59 ft | 849 ft | 1,530 ft | |
| 032 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 70 ft | 819 ft | 1,514 ft | |
| 033 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 22 ft | 806 ft | 1,494 ft | |
| 034 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 22 ft | 795 ft | 1,500 ft | |
| 035 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 47 ft | 847 ft | 1,463 ft | |
| 036 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 54 ft | 838 ft | 1,444 ft | |
| 037 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 54 ft | 867 ft | 1,421 ft | |
| 038 | standard nonelectric | 23 ft | 60 ft | 927 ft | 1,361 ft |
25 of 38 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Court Sheriff Campground0.2 mi
Cave Point Group Use Area0.5 mi
Jo Bonner Campground1.2 mi
Riverside Campground1.4 mi
Hellgate Campground4.0 miSpokane BayButte Field Office · 4.6 miHeading north along MT highway 12/287, drive north to Spokane Creek Rd and turn right Yellow flashing light. Follow Spokane Creek Rd for 4.6 mi and turn right onto Co Rd 430/Canyon Ferry Rd and continue on to Chinamen's Campground. The campground will be on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
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.
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
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
Chinamen's Campground 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 →