Hilltop Campground (MT)
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
Hilltop Campground is located on top of the hill mid-way between Cliff and Wade Lakes. It's about a 3/4 mile steep, winding drive from the Cliff Lake road. There are 18 sites which are all shaded and quiet, away from the crowds at the lakes. Keep reading
Recreation
There are fishing, swimming and small craft boating opportunities at Cliif Lake, about 1,25 miles, and Wade Lake, about 1.75 miles away. There is a hiking trail from the campground to Wade Lake campground and it also accesses other routes on the trail system.
Facilities
There are picnic tables and fire rings in each campsite. There are four rustic outhouses and three fresh water hydrants spread throughout the campground.
Natural Features
The campground is located on top of a rolling hill in an old growth Douglas Fir forest.
Nearby Attractions
The Madison River, a world famous trout stream, is about seven miles from the campground. The west entrance to Yellowstone National Park is less than 40 miles.
What the agency tells you
There is a food storage order in effect. When unattended, all food and attractants must be stored in a bear proof manner in accordance with regulations.
Campsites must be attended the first night and may not be left unattended for more than a 24 hour period throughout the stay.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…four rustic outhouses and three fresh water hydrants spread throughout the campground. Natural Features…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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 Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
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.
| Standard | standard nonelectric | $15 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Cliff Point (MT)Beaverhead National Forest · 0.5 mi
Wade Lake (MT)Beaverhead National Forest · 0.6 miWade Lake Campground and Picnic AreasBeaverhead National Forest · 0.6 mi
Madison River (MT)Beaverhead National Forest · 5.4 mi
West Fork Madison CampgroundBeaverhead National Forest · 5.8 mi
Riverview CampgroundBeaverhead National Forest · 5.9 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Island Park, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 4°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
Hilltop Campground (MT) is in Montana’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Ryan Zinke (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →