Indian Flats 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 15:21 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Indian Flats Cabin is nestled in a hollow of old-growth trees in the shadow of Hogback Mountain, offering a remote lodging experience in the Big Belt Mountains in west-central Montana. The present Indian Flats Guard Station started its days as the Conway Station on Rock Creek in the Jim Ball Basin. The cabin was constructed in 1944 and replaced the original Conway Station. Rangers used this cabin when fulfilling duties in the area. In 1969, the cabin was relocated to its present location below Indian Flats. During the summer and fall months, the cabin is typically accessible by car. During the winter months, poor road conditions and heavy amounts of snow can be present. Access to the cabin during snow conditions is via an 8-mile stretch of road passable by snowmobiling, snowshoeing or skiing. Guests should be prepared to pack in many of their own supplies. Keep reading
Recreation
Plenty of opportunities are available for hiking, mountain biking and wildlife viewing near Indian Flats Cabin. A hike through nearby Refrigerator Canyon passes through a 10-foot wide, 200-foot high canyon that was carved through limestone rock by a small mountain stream. The canyon is appropriately named, as breezes blowing over the stream and through the canyon's rock walls cause evaporative cooling, creating temperatures 20 degrees cooler than surrounding areas. An active fire lookout sits at the top of Hogback Mountain near the cabin. The Lookout is accessible by passenger vehicle and is manned by Forest Service personnel from mid-June through September. A short walk from the lookout offers spectacular panoramic views into Beaver Creek Canyon and surrounding landscapes.
Facilities
The single-room cabin is furnished with 2 sets of bunk beds with mattresses and accommodates up to 4 people. A wood stove provides heat for the cabin and a propane stove is available for cooking. The kitchen is equipped with a table and chairs, propane lantern, cleaning supplies, dishes, utensils and cookware. An axe and snow shovel are provided. Firewood may be available, but it is not guaranteed. An outhouse with vault toilet is located nearby. There is no electricity or water at this facility. Guests must bring a sufficient amount of water for drinking, cooking and washing, as well as 1 or 2 small propane cylinders to use for the lantern or stove. Guests need to bring their own sleeping bags, flashlights, linens, towels, dish soap, matches, first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags. All trash and food must be packed out, and guests are expected to clean the cabin before leaving. No firewood provided from June 1st - August 31 Natural Features Indian Flats Cabin is backed by mixed conifer forest, and a small stream flows in front of it. Hogback Mountain is located within a mile of the cabin at an elevation of 7,813 feet. 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. Elk, deer, squirrels and a variety of birds are commonly seen. The more elusive badger, wolverine, mountain lion and lynx find habitat in nearby areas as well.
Nearby Attractions
The Gates of the Mountains Wilderness and the Missouri River are a short drive from the cabin, offering chances to explore.
What the agency tells you
There is no electricity, water or indoor plumbing at this facility
Access to the cabin in winter is by skiing or snowmobiling 8 miles to the site. The site is higher elevation, and most years cannot be accessed by vehicle prior to June 1.
Entry to the cabin is by combination lock, provided in reservation email.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Please contact the Helena 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
Do not leave food or trash outside the cabin
All garbage and food must be packed out
The cabin is a no-smoking facility
Customers need to bring small propane cylinders for the lantern and the small cook stove.
Please clean cabin upon departure
Make sure cabin is locked upon departure
Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to hantavirus when visiting remote cabins; click here to learn more
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…it is not guaranteed. An outhouse with vault toilet is located nearby. There is no electricity or water…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Guests must bring a sufficient amount of water for drinking, cooking and washing, as well as 1 or 2 small propane cylinders to use for the lantern or stove.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fire Lookouts/Cabins Overnight
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 15:21 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:21 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 15:21 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 INDIAN FLATS CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 2.7 mi | $30–$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
Bar Gulch CabinHelena National Forest · 9.0 mi
Devil's Elbow CampgroundButte Field Office · 10 mi
White Sandy CampgroundButte Field Office · 11 mi
Court Sheriff Campground11 mi
Chinamen's Campground12 miIndian Flats Cabin is located 40 miles northeast of Helena. Take Highway 280 east from Helena. Several miles after crossing the Missouri River, you will come to the small community of York. Turn left at the York Bar and proceed 5 miles to the smaller community of Nelson, where you should turn right. Stay on the main road up Beaver Creek, through a series of switchbacks up Burnt Gulch, past Pikes Gulch Campground to the junction of Hogback Lookout and Indian Flats Roads. Take the left hand fork for about 0.5 miles, and the cabin will be on the right.
Access to the Indian Flats Cabin is dependent on the time of year and weather conditions. Usually during the summer and fall months, passenger cars can drive directly to the cabin. During the winter months, the cabin can only be accessed by snowmobiling or cross-country skiing approximately 8 miles.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for York, 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
Indian Flats 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 Indian Flats Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Indian Flats Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Indian Flats 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Indian Flats Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Indian Flats 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 Indian Flats 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 Indian Flats Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Indian Flats Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Indian Flats 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Indian Flats Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Indian Flats 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 Indian Flats 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 Indian Flats Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Indian Flats Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Indian Flats 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Indian Flats Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Indian Flats 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 Indian Flats Cabin (Helena National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com