Miller 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 16:48 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Miller Creek Cabin is located in the Townsend Ranger District and rests at the intersection of the Confederate Gulch Road (FS Road 287) and the Blacktail Road (FS Road 4171), surrounded by scattered forest in the Big Belt Mountains in west-central Montana. The cabin is accessible by high-clearance vehicle, but requires over-the-snow vehicle travel during winter months. Please use caution when accessing Miller cabin in the winter months, winter access will vary based on snow conditions. Do not count on wheeled vehicle access from November through April. You can get to Miller cabin in the winter months with snowmobile or cross country skiing. It is not recommended driving full size vehicle to the site during this time period. Keep reading
Recreation
During the summer months, enjoy a hike on local trails that will take you to high mountain lakes. During the fall, the cabin offers a wide array of recreation opportunities including hiking, hunting and off-highway vehicle access. The winter months provide for cross-country skiing and snowmobile opportunities.
Facilities
This is a two room log cabin that has been completely remodeled. In addition to the cabin there is a wood shed and new outhouse facility. Miller is a rustic log cabin furnished with two sets of bunk beds, kitchen hutch and table with four chairs. Pots and pans as well as dishes and some cleaning supplies are available for use. A two-burner propane camp cook stove and two lanterns are provided. Guests will need to provide their own fuel for the cook stove and lanterns. The stove and lantern require pre-filled propane cylinders which screw on (one pound cylinders work well). There is no water available. Guests must bring their own bedding and pillows, flashlights, towels, food, garbage bags, dish soap, dish towels, extra cooking utensils and dishes, toilet paper and paper towels. Bedding and linens are not provided. Guests must clean the cabin completely and pack out all food and trash before leaving. No firewood provided from June 1st - August 31.
Natural Features
The cabin sits at the confluence of two drainages, Confederate and Blacktail Creeks. The site is shaded for most of the day with mature trees and shrubs.
Nearby Attractions
Confederate Gulch is a steeply incised valley on the west facing slopes of the Big Belt Mountains. Its small stream drains westward into Canyon Ferry Lake on the upper Missouri River Valley near present day Townsend, Montana. In 1864 Confederate soldiers on parole from the American Civil War made a minor gold discovery in the gulch, but in 1865 the discovery of the sensationally rich Montana Bar - one of the richest placer strikes per acre ever made - led to other rich gold strikes up and down the gulch, and touched off a frantic boom period of placer gold mining that extended through 1869. From 1866 to 1869 the gulch equaled or outstripped all other Montana Territory mining camps in gold production, producing an estimated $19 to $30 million in gold - late 1860s money. For a time, the gulch became the largest community in Montana. In 1866 Montana had a total population of 28,000, and of these, about 10,000 (35%) were working in Confederate Gulch. The main community was Diamond City while gold production was at its height; Diamond City roared along both night and day.
What the agency tells you
Please use caution when accessing Miller cabin in the winter months, winter access will vary based on snow conditions. Do not count on wheeled vehicle access from November through April. You can get to Miller cabin in the winter months with snowmobile or cross country skiing. It is not recommended driving full size vehicle to the site during this time period.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…on (one pound cylinders work well). There is no water available. Guests must bring their own bedding and…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
Full this Saturdayread 16:48 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:48 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 16:48 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.
| MILLER CABIN | Miller Cabin | cabin nonelectric | yes | 1.5 mi | $45 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Thompson Guard StationHelena National Forest · 11 mi
White Earth Campground11 mi
Hellgate Campground12 mi
Bar Gulch CabinHelena National Forest · 13 mi
Jo Bonner Campground14 miFrom Townsend, Montana: Turn east from US Highway 287 onto US Highway 12 for approximately 3 miles. Turn north on State Highway 284 for approximately 15 miles. Turn northeast onto Forest Road 287, Confederate Gulch, travel on Forest Rd 287 for approximately 8 miles. Arrived at location. Junction of Forest Rd 287 and Blacktail Rd 4171.
Please use caution when accessing Miller cabin in the winter months, winter access will vary based on snow conditions. Do not count on wheeled vehicle access from November through April. You can get to Miller cabin in the winter months with snowmobile or cross country skiing. It is not recommended driving full size vehicle to the site during this time period.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Winston, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 11°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
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Miller 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 Miller Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Miller Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Miller 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Miller Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Miller 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 Miller 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 Miller Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Miller Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Miller 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Miller Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Miller 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 Miller 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 Miller Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Miller Cabin, Helena National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Miller 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Miller Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Miller 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 Miller Cabin (Helena National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com