U.S. Forest Service · Lewis & Clark National Forest · MT

Kings Hill Cabin

Reservable, and full this SaturdayThe one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and the record lists no site held back for a walk-up. read 16:37 UTC

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; a database flag says not open read 16:37 UTC
Sites
1All of them booked ahead
7,390 ftElevation
2,644 ftWater · Sheep Creek
48.7 miNW of Harlowton, MT
68%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 65th darkest of 501 in MT

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices

In the agency’s own words

Kings Hill Cabin, perched on Kings Hill Pass, presents the opportunity to stay in a historic log cabin built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The hideaway is very quiet, with minimal highway noise. Open year-round, the cabin provides access to a mix of summer and winter recreation activities: Summer recreation opportunities include hiking, OHV'ing, birding, sight seeing. Winter activities include snowmobiling, snowshoeing, downhill sking at Showdown Ski Area which is just across US HWY 89 and Silver Crest Cross Country Groomed groomed trail system, located approximatley 2 mile north of the cabin off US HWY 89 Access to cabin is on an easy-to-drive paved road. However, visitors should expect to hike 100 yards from a parking area to the cabin in winter months. Keep reading

Recreation

Small and big game hunting are popular in the area. Hiking and OHV trails are nearby and wildlife watching is a pleasing activity. In winter, snowshoes are available for loan at the Belt Creek Ranger Station, and cross country skiing is a popular activity. The cabin is across the highway from the Showdown Ski Area and approximately 2 miles from the SIlver Crest Groomed Cross Country ski trail system with 8 miles of groomed cross country ski trails.. The cabin is also a main take off point to access approximately 260 miles of groomed snowmbile trails.

Facilities

The two-room, rustic historic cabin accommodates up to six guests and provides electricity. Amenities include lights, a refrigerator, microwave and a stove. A wood stove and firewood are provided. The firewood supplied is limited and only for use in the wood stove for cabin heating. DO NOT USE THE SUPPLIED FIREWOOD FOR OUTSIDE FIRES. The bedroom is furnished with three bunk beds. The kitchen has a dining table and chairs, pots, pans, dishes and utensils. A vault toilet is located outside for year-round use. No running water is available. Guests will need to bring plenty of water for drinking, cooking and cleaning purposes, cleaning supplies, food, bedding, towels, toilet paper, warm clothing, matches, garbage bags, flashlight and all other basic camping items you desire. Guests must clean the cabin/toilet completely, pack out all food and trash upon departure. Wood box should be filled before departure. Click here for more cabin details.

Natural Features

The cabin sits just 100 yards off the highway in a deep woods setting of lodgepole pine,at an elevation of 7,600 feet. Showdown Ski Area is to the west. Sheep Creek flows to the south and Belt Creek flows to the north of the Cabin location.

Nearby Attractions

Groceries and fuel can be found in White Sulphur Springs, a 28.5-mile drive from the cabin. A small grocery store is located in Neihart, MT, approximately 12 miles north of the cabin. Showdown Ski Area, Kings Hill Winter Recreation Parking lot, Highway 89 Scenic Byway

What the agency tells you

Rule

Entry to the cabin and wood shed is by combination lock. The access code will appear on your confirmation email and or letter.

Rule

The cabin sleeps six people, however, one (1) camper, RV, or slide-in truck camper is allowed at the site (accommodating another four people). The whole facility can only provide enough room and service for 10 people total. Exceeding this limit is grounds for eviction without refund.

Rule

In winter, guests must be prepared to snowmobile, or ski approximately 100 yards to the cabin. No wheeled vehilce access is allowed between December 1 and May 15 on the groomed snowmobile trail which access the cabin.

Everything else this campground posts · 4
Rule

The cabin has electricity but no modern bathroom facilities, water or plumbing

Rule

Pets are not allowed in the cabin at any time, but can be kept outside in a kennel or on a six-foot or less leash. Users are responsible for removing all pet food and droppings from rental site prior to departure. Check out time 11:00 AM.

Rule

For more information, contact the White Sulphur Springs Ranger District at (406) 547-3361 or the Belt Creek Ranger District at (406) 236-5511

Rule

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.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Tents and rigs

Sites
1 · 1 cabin
Hookups
1 electric
Paved pads
All
Accessible sites
None listed
Shade
Every site
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Vault Toilets
“…pots, pans, dishes and utensils. A vault toilet is located outside for year-round use. No running…”
Drinking water
None, bring your own
“…is located outside for year-round use. No running water is available. Guests will need to bring plenty of…”
Firewood
Mentioned
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026
Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Creek
Birding
Cross Country Skiing
Downhill Skiing
Fishing
Hiking
Horseback riding
Hunting
Mountain biking
Scenic drives
Skiing
Snowboarding
Snowmobile Trails
Snowshoeing
Wildlife viewing
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

Full this Saturdayread 16:37 UTC

How full the weekend is nationally.

OpenBooked

The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:37 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t

Booking window6 months outBookable now through April 16, 2027. Today at 10 AM ET, availability opens through April 17, 2027.recreation.gov
Max stay16 nightsthe facility record
Sites, a night, from$75From the rate schedule matched to 1 of its 1 sites. U.S. Forest Service publishes no campground-level rate we can read.derived by CAMPANAC
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov ↗

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 12

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
Sites, a night, from$75
Derived by CAMPANAC from the rate schedule matched to 1 of its 1 sites. U.S. Forest Service publishes no campground-level rate for this campground that we can read, only per-site rate templates its own record matches to each site’s own type.
Group area, a night$75
Rates for the season the campground is in now, Jan 1, 2026 to Dec 31, 2026.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 16:37 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

1 sites · the site map

All 1 sites

1 of 1 sites located
Cabin or shelter1
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
SleepsUp to

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 KINGS HILL CABIN001cabin electric2,556 ft$75

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
Coordinate46.84139, -110.69417
The phone406-236-5511 OR 406-547-3361
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Getting there

From Great Falls, travel aproximately 23 miles east on Highway 87/89 and turn right (south) at the rest area/weigh station just past Belt, onto U.S. Highway 89 toward Monarch and Neihart. Drive approximately 50 miles to Kings Hill Pass. The cabin is on the left side of the highway just before the pass (within 300 feet of the pass).

The total distance form Great Falls is about 75 miles. During the summer season, visitors can drive directly to the cabin. During the winter season, there is parking on the wide spot along the highway, which is plowed.

From White Sulphur Springs, go about 3 miles east on Highway 12 and turn left (north) onto Highway 89. The cabin is just past Kings Hill Pass on the right. Total distance from White Sulphur Springs is 28.5 miles.

The weather

the next four days

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight35°Partly Cloudy
Saturday54°Mostly Sunny
Saturday Night32°Partly Cloudy1% rain
Sunday49°Mostly Sunny

NWS forecast for Neihart, MT

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send

What threatens this place

Roadless
Middle Fork Judith9,714 acres · 7 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
North Fork Smith8,444 acres · 8 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Middle Fork Judith Wsa81,131 acres · 8 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Oct 5, 2026

Who answers for this land

Troy Downing, official portrait

Kings Hill 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Who can change it · 3
Write to somebody who can change it

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.

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.

To Troy Downing

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 Kings Hill Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana

Dear Troy Downing,

I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Kings Hill Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t.

All 1 sites at Kings Hill 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. Kings Hill Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Kings Hill 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 Kings Hill Cabin (Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com
To Steve Daines

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 Kings Hill Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana

Dear Steve Daines,

I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Kings Hill Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t.

All 1 sites at Kings Hill 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. Kings Hill Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Kings Hill 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 Kings Hill Cabin (Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com
To Tim Sheehy

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 Kings Hill Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana

Dear Tim Sheehy,

I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Kings Hill Cabin, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t.

All 1 sites at Kings Hill 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. Kings Hill Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Kings Hill 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 Kings Hill Cabin (Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
The figures in these drafts: Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress (CRS Report RS20643) · Updated December 4, 2025 · “The ship’s final procurement cost was $13,316.5 million (i.e., about $13.3 billion) in then-year dollars.”
The figures in these drafts: Salary Table 2026-GS, Incorporating the 1% General Schedule Increase, Effective January 2026 (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) · Effective January 2026 · “Grade 5, Step 1: $34,799 (annual rate, before locality pay).”
The figures in these drafts: Update to Civilian Position Full Fringe Benefit Cost Factor, Federal Pay Raise Assumptions, and Inflation Factors used in OMB Circular No. A-76 (OMB Memorandum M-08-13) · March 11, 2008 · “the civilian position full fringe benefit cost factor needs to be adjusted downward, from 36.45 percent to 36.25 percent”

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: recreation.gov is offering sites on 30 of the next 30 nights, which isn’t something a closed campground does. The U.S. Forest Service’s own database, though, flags it not open with no reason or date; the flag is named under How we know all this.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Neihart, MT, 5.4 mi SSE. Straight line.