Kenck Cabin
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Guests can stay at Kenck Cabin for a rustic getaway in the fresh mountain air. The cabin was built in 1924 by a traveling doctor who arrived in the area in 1904 and spent his entire career along the Rocky Mountain Front. In 2003 the property was donated to the Forest Service by the Kenck Family Trust, and it has since been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Keep reading
Recreation
Guests can relax by the stream, watch for birds and hike the surrounding area. Photographers will particularly enjoy the views of Patrol Lookout found by the gate to the cabin.
Facilities
Kenck is comprised of one room that sleeps six on a double bed, a futon that turns into a double bed and two cots. Heating and cooking is from two wood stoves, and firewood is provided. Cooking utensils and dishes are also provided. The cabin has a replica of an old monarch stove and classic wood dining chairs. No water is available. Renters should bring their own drinking water or be prepared to filter or boil stream water. A bucket and shovel is provided. An outhouse is available directly behind the cabin. Items to bring include trash bags, coolers, food, toilet paper, bedding, flashlights, small propane cylinders for the lanterns. ( Click here for more cabin details. )
Natural Features
Perched at an elevation of about 5,200 feet, the cabin sits near a series of flowing water, including Benchmark Creek, South Fork Sun River and Burned Creek. The surrounding area is a mixed conifer forest. The Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest boasts 1,600 miles of streams and a mix of small natural and man-made lakes. Native wildlife includes grizzly and black bears, white-tailed deer, bald eagles, lynx, bighorn sheep and grey wolves.
Nearby Attractions
The nearest town with conveniences is Augusta. The distance is about 30 miles, but due to rough, winding gravel roads, travel time can take an hour and a half to two hours.
What the agency tells you
Entry is by key. Please check your email for information on regarding key pickup and other important information. Contact the ranger district at (406) 466-5341 during normal office hours with questions.
No water, electricity or sewer available; cooking/heat by way of firewood provided/gathered by renter
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.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
No livestock or pets allowed
Bears frequent the area; keep all food unavailable to bears in approved containers or within the cabin.
Bring water, bedding, flashlight, lantern, food, cook stove and a cooler.
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack in-pack out' facility
In winter, access is limited to snowmobile, cross country skiing, or snowshoeing; trail is not groomed and snowmobiling is not allowed the last 1/2 mile from the trailhead to the cabin.
Changes in fire activity could necessitate emergency closure of this facility. In the event of an emergency closure, current renters will be asked to leave the cabin without advance notice.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “An outhouse is available directly behind the cabin.”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “No water is available.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
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.
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 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.
| KENCK CABIN | KENCK CABIN | cabin nonelectric | 104 ft | 3,209 ft | $50 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
South Fork CampgroundRocky Mountain Front Conservation Management Area · 0.4 mi
Benchmark CampgroundRocky Mountain Front Conservation Management Area · 1.5 miVan Deriet CampgroundRocky Mountain Front Conservation Management Area · 2.4 mi
Wood Lake CampgroundRocky Mountain Front Conservation Management Area · 7.1 miMortimer Gulch CampgroundRocky Mountain Front Conservation Management Area · 9.1 miDouble Falls CampgroundRocky Mountain Front Conservation Management Area · 11 miFrom Augusta, head west Laura Street, which becomes Benchmark Road. Travel 13 miles to a "Y" intersection and turn left continuing on Benchmark Road. Drive 15 miles to the end of the road at South Fork Trailhead. Take the main trail that runs in front of the outhouse. From the main trail, take the first trail to the right, just after the "Pack-In-Pack-Out" sign. A small sign marks this trail leading to Kenck Cabin. The cabin is about a half-mile down the trail.
Benchmark Road is not plowed in winter and can be snowed in as early as October. Snowmobiling is allowed on the road to the South Fork Trailhead if the road is no longer accessible to vehicles. However, snowmobiling is not allowed on trails beyond that point. Plan to hike, snowshoe or ski on main trail to cabin.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Augusta, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February 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
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
Kenck 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 →