Lost Horse 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 15:28 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lost Horse Cabin is located 35 miles west of Helena, Montana, on public land managed by the Helena Ranger District of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. The cabin was acquired by the Forest Service in 2017 and is a rustic retreat for guests seeking relaxation and recreation in west-central Montana. The cabin is typically accessible by car; however, heavy amounts of snow in winter can close the last 2 miles of the road to vehicles. Access to the cabin once the snow sets in is via a 2-mile stretch of road passable by snowmobile, snowshoe, skis or dog sled. Guests must be prepared to pack in their own supplies. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, hunting, photography, and exploration are all great recreational activities in this area. There is an extensive road system not far from the cabin area (to the south and east) where many people use trucks or ride off-highway vehicles in the summer and fall to see the general area and old mining relics. As the crow flies, the cabin is just four miles east of the Continental Divide. The area to the west and north is sparsely roaded and offers an off-trail, remote experience.
Facilities
The cabin is furnished with 2 sets of bunk beds, with mattresses, and four cots that can accommodate up to 8 people. A wood stove is provided for heat and there is also a Monarch cookstove in the cabin. Other amenities include lanterns, a table and chairs, cleaning supplies, a propane cooking stove, dishes, utensils, and some cookware. An outhouse with vault toilet is nearby. An axe and snow shovel are provided. Firewood may be available, but it is not guaranteed. The cabin is not wired for electricity, and water is not available so guests should bring a sufficient amount of water for drinking, cooking, and washing. Fuel and mantels are not provided for the propane stove or lantern, so guests should bring a couple of small propane cylinders, as well as backup lighting. Items to bring include water, sleeping bags, linens, towels, dish soap, matches, first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags. Guests are expected to pack out all trash and food and clean the cabin before leaving. This is a remote location and no commerical stores or services are near the cabin.
Natural Features
The cabin sits along a small intermittent creek at an elevation of 5,200 feet in the Divide Mountains. The region boasts a coniferous forest with mixed fir and pine trees. The Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest offers many streams and fishing opportunities. Native wildlife includes black and grizzly bears, mule-deer and white-tailed deer, elk, and mountain lions. The area also hosts many upland bird species.
Nearby Attractions
This is a remote cabin and most attractions in this area are based around outdoor activities.
What the agency tells you
There is no electricity, water, or indoor plumbing at this facility.
Access to the cabin in winter months (snow season) is by skiing, snow shoeing, dog sledding, or snowmobiling 2 miles to the site. Do Not leave unattended vehicles parked on the main roads or the Anderson access road to the cabin.
Entry to the access road gate and to the cabin is by combination lock; the reservation confirmation letter will list the combination code.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Do not leave food or trash outside the cabin during your stay, and all garabage and food must be packed out upon departure.
The cabin is a no-smoking facility.
Customers need to bring small propane cyclinders for the small cook stove.
Please clean the cabin upon departure and make sure the cabin and access road gate are locked.
There is room for up to three full sized pick-ups at the cabin site. If your party has more vehicles, leave them parked in the parking area to the right of the green gate/access road.
Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to hantavirus when visiting remote cabins; click here (https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/hps/transmission.html) to learn more.
Learn more about the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, including the motorized travel regulations.
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.
Check out is at 11 a.m. and check in is at 2 p.m.
The National Forest surrounding the cabin is open to the non-motorized traveling public. The only motorized use allowed for the 0.3 miles past the green gate is by the current renter.
The straight line on the topographic map taking off at a 45 degree angle from the right (east) of the cabin does not exist on the ground. The access road to the cabin is due south of the cabin. See photo section for a picture of the access gate.
There are parcels of private land in the general vicinity. Please be mindful of private property, it is your responsibility to know when you are on public or private lands. Maps can be found at https://fwp.mt.gov/gis/maps/huntPlanner/
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and some cookware. An outhouse with vault toilet is nearby. An axe and snow shovel are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “The cabin is not wired for electricity, and water is not available so guests should bring a sufficient amount of water for drinking, cooking, and washing.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Cross Country Skiing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
- Snowmobile
- Snowshoeing
Full this Saturdayread 15:28 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:28 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 15:28 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 Lost Horse Cabin | Lost Horse Cabin | cabin nonelectric | 1,423 ft | $60 |
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
Granite Butte LookoutHelena National Forest · 7.2 mi
Nevada Creek CabinHelena National Forest · 7.3 mi
Quigley Group UseHelena National Forest · 15 mi
Cummings CabinHelena National Forest · 15 mi
Aspen Grove Group Use Area (Helena-Lewis and Clark NF, MT)Helena National Forest · 16 miMoose Creek CampgroundHelena National Forest · 18 miFrom Helena: take I-15 north for 5 miles and take exit 200 for Lincoln Road West/Montana Highway 279 and turn left onto Lincoln Road West/Montana Highway 279. Stay on Lincoln Road West/Montana Highway 279 for 13 miles. As you pass through Canyon Creek, take a slight left off the main road, onto Little Prickley Pear Road (gravel road). In one-half mile, turn right to stay on Little Prickley Pear Road, continue 7.5 miles. Then, turn left onto Lost Horse Creek Road (gravel road) and continue 1.3 miles. Turn right at the ‘Y’ in the road, onto Anderson Road and continue straight for 1.4 miles (through the unlocked grey gate) to the green gate on the right side of road. The cabin entrance code unlocks the green gate. Close and lock the gate behind you and proceed through the gate 0.3 miles to the cabin. NOTE: During the winter season, customers will likely not be able to drive all the way to the cabin. The main road is plowed to the 'Y' described above. The rest of the way (1.7 miles) is accesible by foot, ski, snowshoe, dog sled or snowmobile. The area is open to snowmobiles 12/2 to 5/15. Do not leave unattended vehicles parked on the main roads. Do Not leave unattended vehicles parked on the main roads or the Anderson access road to the cabin.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Marysville, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 13°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 · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Lost Horse 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 Lost Horse Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Lost Horse Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Lost Horse 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. Lost Horse Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Lost Horse 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 Lost Horse 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 Lost Horse Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Lost Horse Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Lost Horse 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. Lost Horse Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Lost Horse 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 Lost Horse 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 Lost Horse Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Lost Horse Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Lost Horse 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. Lost Horse Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Lost Horse 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 Lost Horse Cabin (Helena National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com