Mill Creek 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 16:32 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 20 notices
In the agency’s own words
Mill Creek Cabin was built in 1927 as a temporary lodging for traveling Forest Service personnel. The cabin can be accessed by vehicle year-round, though a four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety. This cabin offers rustic accommodations with limited amenities, so guests need to bring most of their own supplies and gear for a comfortable stay. Keep reading
Recreation
Hikers and equestrians can access trailheads that lead into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. Anglers can fish for Yellowstone cutthroat trout in Mill Creek. Huckleberry-picking is a popular pastime when in season. Winter recreation includes cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling on the Mill Creek Snowmobile Trail. The cabin also offers easy access to the Snowbank and and Passage Creek Falls ski trails.
Facilities
This 20-by-14 log structure has a front and back porch. It has bunk beds with mattresses to accommodate up to four people. Other amenities include a table with chairs, wood-burning stove for heat. It also has an electric range and electric lights. Water is available in the cabin from mid-June to mid-September. FIREWOOD IS NOT AVAILABLE FROM JUNE 1ST THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30TH. PLEASE BRING FIREWOOD OR GATHER FROM FOREST DURING SUMMER. DO NOT BURN PROVIDED FIREWOOD FOR OUTDOOR FIRES, EVER, AS IT IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO REPLACE. Firewood is available for indoor use during winter as long as supplies last. The front porch has a picnic table and benches. A campfire ring( bring your own wood) and outdoor vault toilet are located near the cabin. A corral for up to four horses is located across from the parking area and has running water and a trough during the summer months. Water is not available at the cabin from mid-September through mid-June, so guests need to provide their own drinking water. Guests also need to bring cookware, utensils, bedding, fire starting materials (newspaper and matches), flashlights, first aid supplies and extra toilet paper. The cabin and corrals (if used) should be cleaned and all trash removed prior to leaving.
Natural Features
Mill Creek Cabin is tucked into the Absaroka Mountains, at an elevation of 5,750 feet. The cabin sits at the edge of a meadow in front of a stand of evergreens. The back porch overlooks bubbling Mill Creek, a tributary of the Yellowstone River. Deer, elk and black bears are sometimes visitors to this area. Bird species that inhabit this area include bald eagles, owls, jays, western meadowlarks and mountain bluebirds.
What the agency tells you
5 night maximum stay limit
The cabin remains locked; guests must CHECK their confirmation letter for the cabin combination. When operating the combination lock, line up the numbers and squeeze the handle and base together; the lock will pop open.
ARRIVAL ON 1st DAY OF RESERVATION 2:00 p.m. DEPARTURE ON THE LAST DAY OF YOUR RESERVATION 12:00 p.m.
Everything else this campground posts · 17
Water is only available from June through September; water obtained from nearby natural water sources should be treated prior to use to prevent Giardia.
Cell phone coverage is either limited or not available in this area.
A high clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended to access the cabin.
Guests must carefully follow the food storage order for Gallatin National Forest (Click here for more information).
Maximum group size for using the facility and adjacent area is 15 people.
No garbage service; please bring garbage bags and pack out all trash and personal belongings.
No liquid fueled (white gas) stoves or lanterns allowed in the cabin or on the porch.
Stock corral provided; please clean corral (if used) before leaving. Hay and feed brought to the site for stock must be certified weed-free. Out of state horses must have current Coggins test.
Within the Yellowstone Ranger District, refunds for weather or accessibility issues on the day of arrival or later will not be considered. Refunds will not be considered for conditions resulting from poor housekeeping by previous visitors.
Out of state horses must have current Coggins test.
Please collect your own firewood for campfires. Woodshed is locked during July and August.
The primary occupant is responsible to ensure all members of their party abide by USFS regulations.
Firing a gun or use of any other weapon is not allowed within 150 yards of the cabin.
Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to Hantavirus when visiting remote cabins; click here for more information
Click here for more information about Gallatin National Forest.
Please call the Livingston office of the Yellowstone Ranger District at (406) 222-1892, during business hours: 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. MST, Monday through Friday, for current weather conditions/alerts, information and questions about the cabin.
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
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER (SEASONAL) on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Meadow
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:32 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 16:32 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 · 16
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 16:32 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 MILL CREEK CABIN | 001 | cabin electric | 32 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
Where it is
Snowbank CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 0.1 mi
Snowbank Group CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 0.2 mi
Bear Creek Campground - MTGallatin National Forest · 13 mi
Timber Camp CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 14 mi
Pine Creek Group CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 14 mi
Pine Creek CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 14 miFrom Livingston, travel south on Highway 89 for approximately 15 miles. Turn left (east) on Mill Creek Road 468. From this point, it is approximately 12 miles to the cabin along a paved then gravel road. The cabin (marked as the Mill Creek Work Center) will be on the right, just before the Snowbank Campground. In winter, the road is plowed to the Snowbank snowmobile parking area, which is beyond the cabin.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pray, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 57°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 20°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
Mill Creek 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 Mill Creek Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Mill Creek Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mill Creek 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. Mill Creek Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mill Creek 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 Mill Creek 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 Mill Creek Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Mill Creek Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mill Creek 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. Mill Creek Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mill Creek 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 Mill Creek 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 Mill Creek Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Mill Creek Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mill Creek 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. Mill Creek Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mill Creek 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 Mill Creek Cabin (Gallatin National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com