Monument Peak Lookout
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 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:38 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Monument Peak Lookout offers guests an impressive yet rustic room with a view. The lookout, built in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, is perched atop Monument Peak, boasting spectacular 360 degree views of the Little Belt Mountains. The lookout was once used to spot forest fires but was left unused since the 1970s. In 1999, the lookout was removed from its 50 foot pole, restored and placed on a short, solid foundation for public rental use. A high clearance vehicle is recommended, as the 2 miles of road leading up to the cabin are rough and rocky. During wet conditions the entie road may be muddy and often times slippery. The Lookout/Cabin is avaialble for rental between June 1 and Novemebr 30 and is closed for the remainder of the year . Keep reading
Recreation
Small and big game hunting is popular in the area. Hiking, OHVing and wildlife viewing are also enjoyed.
Facilities
The rustic lookout has two beds with mattresses, two propane lanterns, a table and chairs and a propane cooking stove. Pots, pans, dishes and utensils are included but are limited. A vault toilet is about 100 feet from the structure. No water, electricity or plumbing is available. Recommended items to bring include drinking water, bedding, flashlights, food, small propane canisters, firewood, matches and a cooler. ( Click here ) for more cabin details.
Natural Features
The lookout sits at 7,395 feet in elevation, offering views of Monument Ridge and Strawberry Ridge. The surrounding region is a dense coniferous forest with fir, spruce and pine trees. Lewis and Clark National Forest has many miles of streams and fishing opportunities. Native wildlife includes black bears, mule-deer, white-tailed deer, elk, bald eagles, mountain lions and other species.
What the agency tells you
The cabin sleeps two people, however, two additional tents are allowed at the site (accommodating another four people). The whole facility can only provide enough room and service for six people total. Exceeding this limit is grounds for eviction without refund.
No water, electricity or plumbing available
Bring firewood; although there is some firewood in the area if visitors are willing to gather it
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Clean lookout and grounds prior to departure; a fee may be charged if additional clean-up is needed. Check out time 11:00 AM.
Road to the lookout is rough the last 4 miles; a high clearance vehicle is recommended. First 2 weeks of June and the month of Oct. may be walk in, due to snow conditions.
In winter, access is limited to snowmobile, cross country skiing or snowshoeing; trail is not groomed
Window shutters are heavy and usually require two people to open and lock in place; hardhats are available for safety purposes while opening the shutters
Flies are abundant; visitors may need to sweep up dead flies upon arrival
Pets are not allowed in the cabin at any time, but can be kept outside in a kennel or on a six-foot or less leash. Users are responsible for removing all pet food and droppings from rental site prior to departure.
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
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…utensils are included but are limited. A vault toilet is about 100 feet from the structure. No water,…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Recommended items to bring include drinking water, bedding, flashlights, food, small propane…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Backpacking
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
Full this Saturdayread 16:38 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 16:38 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 · 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 16:38 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 MONUMENT PEAK LOOKOUT | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 3,265 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
Calf Creek CabinLewis & Clark National Forest · 12 miMoose Creek Campground - Little Belt MountainsLewis & Clark National Forest · 15 miAspen CampgroundLewis & Clark National Forest · 16 miMany Pines CampgroundLewis & Clark National Forest · 21 miJumping Creek CampgroundLewis & Clark National Forest · 22 miFrom Great Falls, go east on U.S. Highway 87/89 about 22 miles (just past Belt) and turn right (south) at the rest area onto U.S. Highway 89 (heading toward Monarch and Neihart). Go about 9.5 miles and turn right on County Road 340. Drive 8 miles to the junction with Road 349 and turn left (south), then drive 4.3 miles to Forest Road 839 and turn right (south). Go 8.5 miles and turn right on Road 268. Drive 3.5 miles to the lookout.
Snowmobiles, cross-country skis or snowshoes are required for access during most of the winter.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Monarch, MT
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
Monument Peak Lookout 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 Monument Peak Lookout, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Monument Peak Lookout, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Monument Peak Lookout 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. Monument Peak Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Monument Peak Lookout. 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 Monument Peak Lookout (Lewis & Clark 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 Monument Peak Lookout, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Monument Peak Lookout, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Monument Peak Lookout 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. Monument Peak Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Monument Peak Lookout. 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 Monument Peak Lookout (Lewis & Clark 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 Monument Peak Lookout, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Monument Peak Lookout, Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Monument Peak Lookout 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. Monument Peak Lookout keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Monument Peak Lookout. 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 Monument Peak Lookout (Lewis & Clark National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com