Cummings Cabin
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 16:36 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located 8.5 miles east of Lincoln, Montana, Cummings Cabin is a historic structure, representative of the old mining cabins that dotted the countryside in the greater Lincoln area around 1910. The cabin has been determined eligible for inclusion to the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the cabin is a rustic getaway for guests seeking relaxation and recreation in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. The cabin has a hand pump for water, propane range, propane lights, a wood stove, silverware, dishes, cleaning supplies, outdoor fire ring, 2 full size beds and one twin bed. In the snow free months guests can drive directly to the cabin, but in the winter be prepared to snow shoe or ski up to a mile to get to the cabin. Keep reading
Recreation
Guests can access numerous trails within a half hour drive of the cabin. The Lincoln valley is bounded by the Continental Divide Trail to the east and visitors can access this trail in numerous places from Cummings Cabin. Guests can also explore the Scapegoat Wilderness and the Lewis and Clark Historic trail while visiting the area. OHV enthusiasts can ride directly from the cabin to access the Hogum Creek ATV trail which connects up to Crater Mtn. road and the Stemple Pass area. Wildlife, flowers, and spectacular views can be seen from many locations in the valley. The nearby Blackfoot River ranks as one of the most scenic rivers in this part of Montana and Cummings Cabin is located near its headwaters. Excellent fly fishing can be found within a short distance of the cabin. The cabin also offers winter recreation opportunities with cross-country skiing opportunities out the back door and nearby access to over 200 miles of groomed snowmobile trails.
Facilities
The cabin is furnished with two double beds and one twin bed, all with mattresses, and is able to accommodate up to five people. The kitchen is equipped with a propane range and oven, a variety of pots and pans, plates, bowls, cups, cutlery, a sink that drains into five-gallon buckets, and a table with chairs. A wood stove and a fireplace are available for use. An axe is available for splitting wood and firewood is usually available on the front porch as well as in the old garage; however, it is not guaranteed. Call the District to confirm the availability of wood at the cabin. A vault toilet is on-site near the cabin. The cabin does not have electricity or indoor plumbing. There are eight propane lights for renters use with spare mantles usually stocked in the cabinet. Water is available year-round from a hand pump, but may be difficult to draw during extreme cold temperatures. If water is collected from the nearby stream, it should be treated prior to use. Guests are advised to bring personal items, sleeping bags or blankets, linens, towels, dish soap, matches, first aid kit and garbage bags. All garbage must be packed out, and guests are expected to clean the cabin before leaving. Brooms, mops and basic cleaning supplies are available for renters use. Propane is provided for visitors. There is a shut off valve on the outer wall of the cabin on the North side. Always turn propane off to the cabin when not in use to avoid gas leaks. Always keep individual propane control knobs to the lights and the stove in the off position when not in use.
Natural Features
The cabin is tucked into a grassy clearing with old-growth conifer forest to one side. The area around the cabin offers a variety of landscapes, from river banks to subalpine terrain. Valley bottoms, dense forests, meadows and barren ridges are mixed with streams, rivers, and lakes. Wildlife in the area abounds, including the more common elk, mule and white-tailed deer, squirrel, black bear, and a variety of birds. The more elusive grizzly bear, badger, wolverine, mountain lion, and lynx find habitat here as well.
Nearby Attractions
The town of LIncoln is about 8.5 miles to the West. Guests can visit one of the many local restautrants or bars, tour the Blackfoot Sculpture Park, attend local festivals, and participate in many of organized events that take place in town throughout the year.
What the agency tells you
No electricity or indoor plumbing is available at this facility.
Entry to the cabin is by combination lock; please call the Lincoln Ranger District at (406) 362-7000 prior to your arrival to obtain the combination
Please contact the Lincoln Ranger District prior to arriving at the cabin to check on any restrictions or conditions, such as fire or road closures, weather or storms that may affect the quality of your visit
Everything else this campground posts · 9
A Food Storage Order is in effect throughout the Lincoln-Ranger District: all bear attractants must be stored in a bear-resistant manner, including all food and beverages, grease, garbage, any and all parts of harvested animals; coolers are not bear-resistant containers
Do not leave food or trash outside the cabin
All garbage and food must be packed out
The cabin is a no-smoking facility
Please clean cabin upon departure
Make sure cabin is locked upon departure
Learn more about the Helena National Forest.
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.
Always turn off propane supply to cabin prior to departure and before going to bed each night. Propane shutoff valve is located on the outer wall of the North side of the cabin.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 15 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…the availability of wood at the cabin. A vault toilet is on-site near the cabin. The cabin does not have…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Clark National Forest. The cabin has a hand pump for water, propane range, propane lights, a wood…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Cross Country Skiing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Skiing
- Snowmobile
- Winter sports
- Night sky · 256th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 16:36 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:36 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 16:36 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 CUMMINGS CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 15 ft | 10 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
Aspen Grove Group Use Area (Helena-Lewis and Clark NF, MT)Helena National Forest · 1.5 mi
Granite Butte LookoutHelena National Forest · 8.1 mi
Indian Meadows Guard StationHelena National Forest · 8.9 miCopper Creek CampgroundHelena National Forest · 9.0 mi
Nevada Creek CabinHelena National Forest · 14 mi
Lost Horse CabinHelena National Forest · 15 miThe cabin is located 8.5 miles east of Lincoln, Montana and can be reached via Hogum Creek Road, which is approximately 6 miles east of Lincoln on Highway 200. Follow Hogum Creek Road to the junction of Black Diamond Road and Lower Hogum Creek Road. Lower Hogum Creek Road will take you to the cabin driveway. The driveway is on the left and is signed with a wooden sign and blue ski blazers.
During the winter months, snow plowing occurs infrequently on the Lower Hogum Creek Road. Be prepared to hike, ski, or snowmobile up to one mile to reach Cummings Cabin in the winter. A parking area is plowed in at the jct with Black Diamond road, visitors traveling beyond this point to the cabin in the winter should be prepared for snow drifts and adverse conditions. There is usually a large sled stored at the cabin in the winter months to assisst with moving renter's supplies.
Please respect the private lands that border the west side of the cabin site and do not block the Lower Hogum Creek Road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lincoln, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 12°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
Cummings 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 Cummings Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Cummings Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Cummings 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. Cummings Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cummings 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 Cummings Cabin (Helena 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 Cummings Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Cummings Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Cummings 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. Cummings Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cummings 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 Cummings Cabin (Helena 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 Cummings Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Cummings Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Cummings 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. Cummings Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cummings 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 Cummings Cabin (Helena National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com