Meadow Peak Lookout (MT)
1Heads up1 fire 7.2 mi away
- 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 · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Meadow Peak Lookout sits atop its namesake mountain at an elevation of 6,710 feet in the Kootenai National Forest. The lookout has been used as an observation point for spotting forest fires for over 90 years. On July 13, 1948 J.K. Pomajevic wrote, "hiked up to Meadow Peak on Trail 46, about a 6 mile walk from road to lookout. At this point there is a cabin with a cupola on top. It is connected to Bend Ranger Station by telephone". This phone line would have been approximately 14 miles long. Keep reading
The first lookout was a cupola cabin built in 1928, the second lookout was built in 1936 it was a 15' L-4 style lookout and the the current lookout was built in 1957 as a 10' L-4 style for $6299. Leonard Sheffield was the contractor and had 3 Forest Service employees to help with the build. The lookout was last staffed in the 1990's and was placed on the National Historic Lookout Register in 2000. The lookout is typically open from mid-June through late September. High clearance 4 wheel drive vehicles with off-road tires are required. Access to this lookout is along mountain roads with sections of loose sharp rocks and small boulders. This mountain hideaway offers some amenities, but guests should plan to pack in most of their own supplies. Cell service is available at the lookout.
Recreation
Hikers can find places to explore around the lookout, and the surrounding Libby Area offers more than 400 miles of summer use trails. The lookout offers an ideal vantage point for star gazing on clear nights.
Facilities
Lookouts are rustic in every sense of the word. They are remotely located and lack the conveniences of civilization such as running water, electricity or telephones. Lookouts are usually one room cabins built on top of towers, 40-60 feet from the ground. They are reached by climbing several steep stairs under the single room. They have windows on all four sides, providing a panoramic 360-degree view. These structures are usually very box-like and simply furnished, as the fire spotter used them for work rather than living quarters. Most likely they contain a center table for the alidade (a round instrument on a pedestal that aids in plotting the fire’s exact location on a map), wooden beds, and table and chair placed on an old linoleum floor. Some lookouts include a propane or wood stove. Lookouts are often surrounded by a catwalk, a deck-like addition built around the cabin affording extraordinary, unobstructed views. Meadow Peak lookout stands 10 feet tall and has a 225 square foot cabin, which is encircled by a catwalk. It sleeps four and comes furnished with two twin beds, both with mattresses. Other amenities include a two-burner propane cooktop (bring your own propane), table and chairs, fire extinguisher, cleaning supplies and some cooking utensils. An outhouse with vault toilet is located near the tower. A campfire ring is located outside, but firewood is not provided. Water and electricity are not available. Guests must bring enough for drinking, cooking and washing. Items such as cookware, bedding, lanterns or flashlights, matches, extra toilet paper, first aid supplies, trash bags, dish soap, towels and an ice chest are not available. Guests are expected to pack out their trash and clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
The lookout is located in the Purcell Range of the Rocky Mountains and offers panoramic views of densely forested peaks, Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, Lower Thompson and McGregor Lakes. Kootenai National Forest supports populations of deer, elk, moose, grizzly and black bears, wolves and mountain lions (bear safety). A variety of smaller mammals and birds can also be found.
What the agency tells you
The lookout is secured with a combination lock; please call the Ranger District at (406) 293-7773 prior to arrival to confirm the combination
Check-in is 2:00 pm/Check-out is 11:00 am
Road 511 is a gravel forest road that is STEEP, NARROW with SHARP ROCKS and LOOSE MATERIAL. A HIGH CLEARANCE 4-WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLE EQUIPPED WITH AGGRESSIVE OFF-ROAD TIRES IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Refunds will not be given for inadequate vehicle choice.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
There is no water; guests must provide their own for drinking, cooking and washing
Access depends on weather conditions
Please pack out all trash and food and clean cabin before departure
There is a 5 consecutive day stay limit. A break of 7 days is requested before making another reservation.
Be aware, this facility is not cleaned between user visits. It is up to individual renters to bring their own cleaning supplies and clean before and after site use
Learn more about the Kootenai 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 24 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…some cooking utensils. An outhouse with vault toilet is located near the tower. A campfire ring is…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 15 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Meadow
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 207th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 2
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Yes
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
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.
| Meadow Peak Lookout | Meadow Peak Lookout | lookout | 24 ft | 5,213 ft | $45 |
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
McGregor Lake CampgroundKootenai National Forest · 5.2 mi
Bend Guard StationLolo National Forest · 13 miPleasant Valley CampgroundKootenai National Forest · 14 miSylvan Lake CampgroundKootenai National Forest · 18 miFishtrap Lake CampgroundLolo National Forest · 18 miAshley Lake North CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 19 miFrom Libby follow Highway 2 East for approximately 40 miles. Near mile post 80, take a left onto Meadow Peak Lookout Road 511. Follow road 511 for approximately 8.7 miles to the lookout. Road 511 is a gravel forest road that is STEEP, NARROW with SHARP ROCKS and LOOSE MATERIAL. A HIGH CLEARANCE 4-WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLE EQUIPPED WITH AGGRESSIVE OFF-ROAD TIRES IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Road 511 is a gravel forest road that is STEEP, NARROW with SHARP ROCKS and LOOSE MATERIAL. A HIGH CLEARANCE 4-WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLE EQUIPPED WITH AGGRESSIVE OFF-ROAD TIRES IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Refunds will not be given for inadequate vehicle choice.
Be aware this mountain road will take approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour of travel to reach the lookout
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Happys Inn, MT
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Meadow Peak Lookout (MT) 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…should plan to pack in most of their own supplies. Cell service is available at the lookout. Recreation Hikers can find places to explore…”