Maxey 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 28 of the next 30 nights read 16:40 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Maxey Cabin offers a quaint mountain retreat that is ideally located in one of Gallatin National Forest's most popular recreation areas. Guests can expect a few creature comforts at the cabin, but they will need to bring some of their own supplies and gear. The cabin is accessible by car in the summer. During the spring (from March 31st through May 16th) the road to the cabin is closed to motorized vehicle traffic every year. Guest should be prepared to hike or bike 12 miles to the cabin during this period. Keep reading
During winter months the access road is infrequently plowed, so guests should be prepared with a four wheel drive, high clearance vehicle or to ski up to 12 miles to the cabin. The final mile on the Maxey Cabin Road are not plowed during the winter and guests should come prepared to ski or snowshoe the final distance to the cabin. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities.
Recreation
Hikers and equestrians have access to the Hyalite Peak trailhead that leads into an area of the Gallatin Range known for its waterfalls. Two accessible trails in Hyalite Canyon lead to the waterfalls. Bicyclists can use Hyalite Canyon Road. Hyalite Canyon is a popular destination for backcountry skiers and ice climbers. Hyalite Reservoir is a mile away, offering opportunities for non-motorized boating and trout fishing. Elk hunting is excellent in Hyalite Canyon in the fall.
Facilities
The main cabin has bunk beds with mattresses to sleep up to four people. There is also a wood stove for heat, a table and chairs, a propane lantern, broom and dust pan. A smaller cabin is unheated and is only available in the summer. It provides bunk beds with mattresses to sleep up to two people. The two cabins together can accommodate up to 15 people. A vault toilet and campfire ring are located outside. The cabin does not have water or electricity. Guests need to supply their own drinking water, as well as cooking gear, lanterns or flashlights, bedding, matches, toilet paper, dish soap, towels and other necessities. The cabin will need to be cleaned and all trash removed prior to leaving.
Natural Features
The cabin is nestled in Hyalite Canyon, an area with beautiful wildflower meadows during the summer and thick blankets of pristine snow in winter. Evergreen forest and the steep ridges of the Gallatin Mountains surround the cabin. Hyalite Reservoir is nearby. This area is important habitat for grizzly bears, elk, mule deer, mountain lions, bighorn sheep, wolves and mountain goats.
What the agency tells you
The cabin remains locked, a combination lock code will be contained in the reservation confirmation letter/email
Directions and Access: Access to Maxey Cabin affected by seasonal road closures. (See below and refer to the Motor Vehicle Use Map) May 16th - December 1st: From Bozeman, MT: Drive south on S. 19th Ave. for about 7 miles. Turn left onto Hyalite Canyon Road FS 62. Drive 11.1 miles on the Hyalite Canyon Road to the Maxey Cabin access road which is on the left (east) side of Hyalite Road 62. You have driven too far if you come to the entrance of Hood Creek Campground or Chisholm Campground. Travel about a tenth of a mile on the Maxey Cabin access road to the gate. The cabin combination will unlock the gate. Please close the gate behind you. Pass through the gate and travel for about 1/2 mile to the cabin. December 2nd - March 31st: Winter Route: Park at the Maxey Cabin access road just off Hyalite Canyon Road FS 62. Ski, snowshoe or hike the final 2/3 mile to the cabin. There is NO motorized access beyond the gate on the Maxey Access Road on these dates. April 1st - May 16th: SPRING ROAD CLOSURE INFORMATION: Hyalite Canyon Road, FS 62, closes to all motorized vehicles the evening of March 31 through May 16. Cabin renters must be prepared to walk, ski, or bike approximately 9 miles to the cabin when the road is closed. (Please Refer to the Gallatin Range and Northern Madison Motor Vehicle Use Map: Custer-Gallatin MVUM ) Snowmobiles are not allowed at this cabin or anywhere in Hyalite Canyon past Moser Road FS 6210. Hyalite Canyon Road (FS 62) is intermittently plowed during the winter: 4-wheel drive, snow tires, tire chains, as well as other winter driving equipment is highly recommended when winter weather conditions are expected at mountain elevations. Gallatin County plows Hyalite Canyon Road, with 60% of costs reimbursed to the county, mostly by the Friends of Hyalite with an additional contribution by the Forest Service. Without this partnership, and the resources the partners provide, winter access up Hyalite would be dramatically different. In this unique partnership, the county has agreed to plow Hyalite with the understanding that their primary responsibility is to first take care of county roads for their residents and businesses. This means Hyalite Canyon Road is plowed only after higher-priority county roads are addressed, resulting in irregular and often delayed maintenance. Hyalite visitors should NOT assume that the road will get plowed immediately after every storm. Plowing sometimes does not occur for several days or longer. Renters should be aware that winter weather conditions may at times not allow vehicle access past the lower hyalite gate located 2 miles south of the junction of Hyalite Canyon Road and S 19th Ave. and should be prepared for the possibility of needing to hike or ski this distance. Check out the Friends of Hyalite Facebook page every Friday for winter road condition reports. Friends of Hyalite - Facebook Refunds will not be issued for weather related issues, including weather related accessibility issues. It is your responsibility to think ahead and plan appropriately.
Water is not available in the cabin; water obtained from nearby natural water sources should be treated prior to use
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Please be aware; this facility is not cleaned between every user visit. Visitors are advised to clean high-touch surfaces upon arrival and prior to departure. Cleaning supplies will not be provided, so it is recommended that guests bring their own. - Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to hantavirus when visiting remote cabins; click here to learn more
No garbage service; please bring garbage bags and pack out all trash and personal belongings. Do not leave food, oil, tea, coffee, or canned items in the cabin.
Bears frequent the area; guests must carefully follow the food storage order for Custer Gallatin National Forest (Click here for more information)
Provided firewood is for indoor use only for indoor heating and cooking. Cabin users will bring or gather firewood for outdoor use. Burning of Wood Pallets is prohibited. Campfires must be contained within the fire ring adjacent to the facility; no other campfires are authorized. 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.
Candles are not permitted inside the cabin
Firing a gun or use of any other weapon in or within 150 yards of a developed recreation site, across or on a road or body of water, or in any circumstance whereby any person may be injured or property damaged; violators will be prosecuted. Target Shooting is prohibited in the Hyalite Canyon Drainage
Pets not recommended; solid pet wastes must be removed within 100 yards of cabin
Click here for more information about Custer Gallatin National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…can accommodate up to 15 people. A vault toilet and campfire ring are located outside. The cabin…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Reservoir, Meadow
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:40 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:40 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 16:40 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.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA MAXEY CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 1,128 ft | 2,635 ft | $65 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
Chisholm CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 0.3 mi
Hood Creek CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 0.9 mi
Window Rock CabinGallatin National Forest · 1.2 mi
Fox Creek Cabin (MT)Gallatin National Forest · 4.5 mi
Mystic Lake CabinMystic Lake Reservoir Water Reserve Withdrawal · 4.6 mi
Langohr CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 4.9 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for South Glastonbury, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 9°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
Maxey Cabin is in Montana’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Ryan Zinke (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 moneyRyan K. ZinkeU.S. Representative · Montana’s 1st 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 Maxey Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Maxey Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Maxey 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. Maxey Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Maxey 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 Maxey Cabin (Gallatin 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 Maxey Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Maxey Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Maxey 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. Maxey Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Maxey 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 Maxey Cabin (Gallatin 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 Maxey Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Maxey Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Maxey 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. Maxey Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Maxey 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 Maxey Cabin (Gallatin National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com