Magruder Rangers House
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- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 2 of the next 3 nights read 16:34 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Magruder Rangers House is one of seven buildings still used by Forest Service trail crews and wilderness rangers. The rental cabin is available from early June to mid-October. It provides visitors with access to two designated wilderness areas, plenty of opportunities for sightseeing and exploration and a comfortably equipped place to stay. The Ranger Station is open to the general public and the main entrance/exit road runs by the rental cabin. There are several trails which leave from the Ranger Station area so you can choose your destination and come back to relax in a cozy cabin. Keep reading
Recreation
Hunting, fishing and hiking are popular activities enjoyed by visitors to the area. The adjacent Scenic and Wild Selway River and a variety of nearby mountain streams are well known for trout fishing. Anglers might see bullhead, rainbow, steelhead and cutthroat trout, as well as mountain whitefish. There are a variety of trails that traverse the area. They are open to hiking and horseback riding. Bicycles and motorized travel are not allowed within wilderness boundaries but are allowed on roads.
Facilities
The Magruder Ranger House is a historical cabin and along with six other buildings which were at one time part of the Deep Creek Ranger Station and later the Magruder Ranger Station. The two-story, five-room log cabin has two bedrooms, a living area, a kitchen and an indoor bathroom. It has beds with mattresses, as well as futons, to sleep up to 10 people. A wood stove for heat is available in the basement of the cabin and firewood is provided. The kitchen is equipped with a table and chairs, propane refrigerator, stove and propane lights. Cooking and eating utensils are available, as well as various cleaning equipment. During the summer, hot and cold running water is available for the kitchen and bathroom, which has a flush toilet and a shower. The water system is turned off for fall and winter. Water is turned on from June through September 30. An outdoor vault toilet is provided. Guests will need to bring their own bedding, towels, food, matches, garbage bags and toilet paper, among other necessities. It is required that guests replenish the cut kindling supply and clean the cabin prior to leaving. The cabin is accessible by four-wheel drive and high-clearance vehicles. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety. Please be aware the access is through a forested area where trees may fall across roads and trails anytime and there is no cell phone coverage. Livestock are not permitted at the Magruder Cabin compound.
Natural Features
The house is located on the Selway River, between the 1.2-million-acre Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and the 2.3-million-acre Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness areas, at an elevation of about 4,000 feet. It was once the residence of the district ranger and his family. Most of the area is covered by coniferous forests, with open meadows near the river. Because of its size, the wilderness provides a secluded habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. Populations of mountain lions and grey wolves live in the area, as well as coyote, fox, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk, moose, deer and black bears (learn about outdoor safety ). Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (406) 821-3269.
Nearby Attractions
The adjacent Magruder Road provides drivers with a unique experience in the back country of Idaho. The road was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and remains much the same now as it did then. The "Deep Creek Ranger Station" as it was once known, now called the Magruder Ranger Station is a step back in time. Explore the Selway River Road to Indian Creek where you will find interpretive information and the remains of the Indian Creek Hatching Channel. Meander down to the end of the road to explore the beautiful Paradise Campground and White Cap Creek. The Selway River put in is the start of adventures for lucky whitewater permit holders from May 15 through July 31. Those lucky enough to draw the permits are anxiously awaiting their adventure.
What the agency tells you
The cabin is winterized annually on October 1; water is shut off at that point; visitors will need to bring their own drinking water and water for dishes and cleaning and utilize the pit toliet outside.
This facility is located in a remote area; before making a reservation, become aware of bear, water and weather safety. The rustic cabin is located in the forest where rodents may find access into the building. Guests should be aware of the risk of exposure to Hantavirus while staying in the cabin. Please visit https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/prevention/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/hps/transmission.html for more information.
The cabin remains locked; a week before your scheduled arrival, contact the West Fork Ranger District at 406-821-3269 during office hours (Mon-Fri 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.) to obtain a key code. Lock is a combination lock, to release the lock enter the code, squeeze in the lock and release.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
All garbage and food must be packed out.
Learn more about the Bitterroot 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.
The rental cabin is one building on the historic Magruder Ranger Station compound. The access road, trails and Ranger Station areas are all open to the public while cabin is rented.
The Administration building on the Ranger Station site will be occupied daily throughout the summer of 2026 while staff are assisting with projects at the Ranger Station and within the corridor, expect more traffic at the Ranger Station and near the rental cabin this summer.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…the kitchen and bathroom, which has a flush toilet and a shower. The water system is turned off for… / …June through September 30. An outdoor vault toilet is provided. Guests will need to bring their own…”
- Showers
- Seasonal Showers
- SHOWERS (SEASONAL) on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Meadow
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
- Wilderness access
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Night sky · 12th darkest of 523 in ID
- Bortle 1
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- None
Full this Saturdayread 16:34 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on the one midweek night after it that the agency has released as well. read 16:34 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.
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 · 15
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 16:34 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
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.
| AREA MAGRUDER RANGERS HOUSE | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 50 ft | 130 ft | 139 ft | $100 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Deep Creek CampgroundBitterroot National Forest · 0.9 miMagruder Crossing CampgroundBitterroot National Forest · 3.1 mi
Indian Creek CampgroundBitterroot National Forest · 6.4 mi
Horse Heaven CabinBitterroot National Forest · 11 mi
Paradise CampgroundBitterroot National Forest · 11 mi
Fales Flat CampgroundBitterroot National Forest · 14 miFrom Darby, Montana, travel south on Highway 93 for 4 miles to West Fork Road/Highway 473. Continue on this road for approximately 14 miles to the Nez Perce Road/Magruder Corridor Road #468 and go another 34 miles on the one-lane gravel, and partially paved road. Just before Deep Creek meets up with the Selway River, turn south at a stone bridge that crosses the creek and continue .5 mile to the rental cabin. High- clearance vehicles are advised on the road from the Montana from June through September. Snow may fall in the high country and along Nez Perce Pass in the fall and roads are not plowed. Maps may be purchased by stoping at the West Fork Ranger District.
From Elk City, Idaho to Magruder along road #468 to Magruder is generally not passable by vehicles until mid to late July, but call the West Fork Ranger District at (406)821-3269 to inquire if the road is open and ask about the current road conditions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Conner, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 57°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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
Magruder Rangers House is in Idaho’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Russ Fulcher (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 moneyRuss FulcherU.S. Representative · Idaho’s 1st district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJames E. RischU.S. Senator · Idaho
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMike CrapoU.S. Senator · Idaho
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 Magruder Rangers House, Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho
Dear Russ Fulcher, I’m a constituent in Idaho’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Magruder Rangers House, Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Magruder Rangers House 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Magruder Rangers House keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Magruder Rangers House. 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 Magruder Rangers House (Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho) 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 Magruder Rangers House, Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho
Dear James E. Risch, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Magruder Rangers House, Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Magruder Rangers House 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Magruder Rangers House keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Magruder Rangers House. 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 Magruder Rangers House (Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho) 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 Magruder Rangers House, Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho
Dear Mike Crapo, I’m a constituent in Idaho. I tried to camp at Magruder Rangers House, Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Magruder Rangers House 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Magruder Rangers House keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Magruder Rangers House. 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 Magruder Rangers House (Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…fall across roads and trails anytime and there is no cell phone coverage. Livestock are not permitted at the Magruder Cabin compound.…”