Crystal Lake Cabin
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 35 mi
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 16:31 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
Crystal Lake Cabin provides sweeping views of Crystal Lake in the heart of the Big Snowy Mountains of Central Montana. Located about 20 miles south of Lewistown, the cabin adjoins Crystal Lake Campground, providing conveniences like a picnic area and boat ramp for non-motorized boats. Recreation opportunities abound, including floating, fishing, canoeing and hiking. Access from December 1 through June 15 is by snowshoe, snowmobile, cross country skiing or hiking for 6 miles. Keep reading
Recreation
The Ice Caves Trail leads hikers to the ridgetop of the Big Snowy Mountains, where it intersects with the Crystal Cascades Trail Bypass. The Lake Loop Trail trailhead, located at the north end of the Crystal Lake Campground, takes hikers to Grand View Trail Junction and additional ridgetop views. Both the Ice Caves Trail and Grand View Trail may be impacted by winter snow as late as the first part of July. The lake freezes over and ice fishing is possible if the ice is thin enough for fish to survive. In summer months, the lake is stocked with rainbow trout. Kayaking and canoeing is popular.
Facilities
The one-room rustic cabin, accommodates up to six guests. Beds with mattresses, a cooking stove and a wood stove for heat is included. The firewood supplied is limited and only for use in the wood stove and guests are asked to restock the wood box in the cabin prior to departure. DO NOT USE THE SUPPLIED FIREWOOD FOR OUTSIDE FIRES . A vault toilet is located outside for year-round use. The cabin is furnished with pots, pans, dishes and utensils. Propane lights are provided but no electricity is available. Guests should plan to bring plenty of water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes. Other items to bring: cleaning supplies, bedding, food, cooler, toilet paper, matches, flashlight, garbage bags and other personal necessities. Guest must clean the cabin/toilet completely, pack out all food and trash upon departure. NO PETS ALLOWED INSIDE CABIN. ( Click here for more cabin details. )
Natural Features
The cabin sits near the shores of Crystal Lake. The beautiful lake spans 45 acres at an elevation of 5,700 feet. With a maximum depth of 15 feet, the lake seeps fresh water through a porous limestone bottom. The lake generally freezes in the winter. The Big Snowy Mountains, lush with mixed conifers, rise up from the lake, providing spectacular views. The highest peaks in the mountain range reach 8,600 feet.
Nearby Attractions
Crystal Lake, Ice Caves
What the agency tells you
You need a combination code for the cabin and the gate. Please ensure that your confirmation letter contains the combination code.
The gate at the Forest Boundary is locked annually from December 1 through June 2, and access during the locked period is by snowshoe, snowmobile, cross country ski or a hike
There is no water, electricity or dump station at the cabin
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Cell phone service is minimal
No campers or other types of camping units are allowed at the cabin site; parking is limited to one vehicle; excess vehicles may be parked at either the Ice Caves Trailhead or Grand View Picnic Area
The site is a Pack In/Pack Out facility; guests must bring garbage bags and remove all trash
Visitors must clean the cabin and police the site before departure, check out time 11:00 AM
Pets are not allowed in the cabin at any time, but can be kept outside in a kennel or on a six-foot or less leash. Users are responsible for removing all pet food and droppings from rental site prior to departure.
For more information please call the Judith Ranger District in Stanford, Montana at (406) 566-2292
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
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…SUPPLIED FIREWOOD FOR OUTSIDE FIRES . A vault toilet is located outside for year-round use. The cabin is…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…is available. Guests should plan to bring plenty of water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes. Other…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Canoeing
- Cross Country Skiing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:31 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:31 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 16:31 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 CRYSTAL LAKE CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 1,539 ft | 387 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Crystal Lake Group CampsiteLewis & Clark National Forest · 0.3 miTimber Creek Dispersed CampgroundLewis & Clark National Forest · 4.8 miJellison Place CampgroundLewis & Clark National Forest · 27 mi
Judith Guard StationLewis & Clark National Forest · 37 miHay Canyon CampgroundLewis & Clark National Forest · 37 miDaisy Dean Camp Campground42 miFrom Lewistown, drive west on Montana Highway 200/US 87 for about 8 miles. Turn left (south) on Crystal Lake Road. Continue south, following the well-signed directions to the lake for 20 miles. At the "T" junction, turn left and continue on to Crystal Lake. The last 6 miles is paved and mostly a single lane.
On December 1, the paved section is gated, and access beyond the gate is by snowmobile, skis, snowshoes or hiking only.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Judith Gap, MT
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
Crystal Lake Cabin 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 →
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 moneyTroy DowningU.S. Representative · Montana’s 2nd 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 Crystal Lake Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Crystal Lake Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Crystal Lake 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. Crystal Lake Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crystal Lake 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 Crystal Lake Cabin (Lewis & Clark 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 Crystal Lake Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Crystal Lake Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Crystal Lake 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. Crystal Lake Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crystal Lake 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 Crystal Lake Cabin (Lewis & Clark 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 Crystal Lake Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Crystal Lake Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Crystal Lake 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. Crystal Lake Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crystal Lake 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 Crystal Lake Cabin (Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com