Diamond Butte Lookout
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 17 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 25 of the next 30 nights read 16:48 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Diamond Butte Lookout is perched atop a 30-foot masonry tower on Diamond Butte at an altitude of 4,245 feet in the Custer National Forest approximately 40 miles from Ashland, Montana. The lookout was moved from its original location of Yeager Butte in 1958 and was an active fire lookout until 2001. Guests can enjoy panoramic views of the surrounding mountains. This vantage point offers the chance to enjoy sunrises, sunsets and star gazing on clear nights. The lookout is accessible by car, but it is a 200-foot walk up a steep hill to the lookout from the parking area. Guests should be prepared to bring most of their own supplies and gear. Keep reading
Recreation
You can enjoy hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking near the lookout. Opportunities are available to enjoy off-road vehicle riding and hunting.
Facilities
The lookout can accommodate 4 people and is furnished with a table, chairs and1 twin bed with mattress, a double futon with mattress and a cot. Propane appliances include a cook stove with an oven, lights and a heater. A few cooking and eating utensils are provided, along with a broom, mop and bucket. Parking and an outhouse with a pit toilet are located at the gate 200 feet below the lookout. A wagon is stored in the lookout's basement to help haul gear. Water and electricity are not available. Guests must bring their own water for drinking, cooking and washing. Items such as bedding, lanterns or flashlights, matches, extra toilet paper, first aid supplies, trash bags, dish soap, towels and an ice chest are not available. Guests are expected to pack out their trash and clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
The lookout offers expansive views of the nearby hills and the distant Bighorn Mountains, which are about 100 miles away. Vegetation is sparse, but sagebrush and lupin thrive on the surrounding landscape. Wildlife in the area includes fox, black bear, antelope and a variety of bird species ( bear safety ).
What the agency tells you
There is no water; guests must provide their own water for drinking, cooking and washing
Be bear aware: keep all food, trash and scented items stored inside the cabin
Guests must pack out all trash and clean cabin before departure
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Learn more about the Custer 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…bucket. Parking and an outhouse with a pit toilet are located at the gate 200 feet below the lookout.…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…are not available. Guests must bring their own water for drinking, cooking and washing. Items such as…”
Around the campground
- Biking
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:48 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
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.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:48 UTC · 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 DIAMOND BUTTE LOOKOUT | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 3,378 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
Whitetail CabinCuster National Forest · 27 miFrom Ashland, Montana: travel east on State Highway 212 for approximately 3 miles. Turn south onto Otter Creek Road hwy 484 and travel 20 miles. Just past the Fort Howes Work Center, turn east onto Taylor Creek Road and travel 12 miles to Sonnette Divide Road. Turn north onto the Sonnette Divide Road for 2 miles then turn east on the Diamond Butte Lookout Road. Travel 1 mile to the lookout.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Birney, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 10°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Diamond Butte Lookout 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 Diamond Butte Lookout, Custer National Forest, Montana
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Diamond Butte Lookout, Custer National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Diamond Butte Lookout 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. Diamond Butte Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Diamond Butte Lookout. 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 Diamond Butte Lookout (Custer 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 Diamond Butte Lookout, Custer National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Diamond Butte Lookout, Custer National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Diamond Butte Lookout 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. Diamond Butte Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Diamond Butte Lookout. 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 Diamond Butte Lookout (Custer 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 Diamond Butte Lookout, Custer National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Diamond Butte Lookout, Custer National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Diamond Butte Lookout 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. Diamond Butte Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Diamond Butte Lookout. 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 Diamond Butte Lookout (Custer National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com