Mystic Lake 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 16:27 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Mystic Lake Cabin was built in 1930 and is currently open year-round. It provides access to a variety of recreational activities, including fishing, hunting and exploration of numerous trails. The cabin is located in a non-motorized area. Guests must be prepared to hike, horseback ride or mountain bike to get there in the summer, and winter access is by cross-country skis or snowshoes. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
New World Gulch Trail and Bozeman Creek Trail are just a couple of the multi-use trails in the area for hikers, equestrians, mountain bikers, skiers and snowshoers. The Mystic Lake Loop is popular with mountain bikers. Anglers can fish for brook, rainbow and cutthroat trout in Mystic Lake. Hunting opportunities are good in the fall.
Facilities
The cabin has bunk beds with mattresses to sleep up to four people. A wood-burning cook stove also heats the cabin. Other amenities include a table with chairs, basic cookware, dishes and tableware. Firewood is supplied for the stove. Outside is a campfire ring and a corral for up to two horses. An outhouse is equipped with a vault toilet. No electricity or water is available at the cabin. Guests need to bring their own supply of drinking water, as well as items such as fire starters (matches and newspaper), flashlights or lanterns, bedding, extra toilet paper, first aid supplies and dish soap, which are also not provided The cabin will need to be cleaned and all trash removed prior to leaving.
Natural Features
The cabin is tucked into a stand of pines near the southeastern shore of Mystic Lake, at an elevation of about 6,400 feet. The landscape surrounding Mystic Lake includes meadows that fill with wildflowers in the summer, as well as evergreen forest and the peaks of the Gallatin Range. Visitors may spot one of the resident black or grizzly bears, moose, elk or mule deer. Several bird species also inhabit the area.
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: Mystic Lake Cabin is not accessible by motorized equipment including E-bikes. (See below and refer to the Motor Vehicle Use Map) From Bozeman, MT.: Drive south on S. 19th Ave. for 5.1 miles to Nash Rd. Turn left (east) onto Nash Rd. Drive 1.7 miles to Sourdough Canyon Road, turn right (south), and drive for 0.9 miles to the Sourdough Canyon Trailhead. From the Sourdough Canyon Trailhead travel south on Trail 454. At mile 5 just before the bridge you have two options: 1. Before the bridge turn left onto the Mystic Lake Trail 457. Follow this single track trail approximately 2.8 miles to Mystic Lake. Cross the outlet of the lake to find the cabin up the hill on the south end of the lake. 2. Cross the bridge and go left at the junction to stay on Trail 454. Travel this old roadbed for another 5 miles to the cabin (this is the recommended winter route). In the winter, Trail 454 is a groomed cross-country ski trail and is closed to all bicycles and wheeled vehicles. Many stock users prefer accessing Mystic Lake cabin via the New World Gulch trailhead at the end of the Bear Canyon Road. From the trailhead follow New World Gulch Trail 50 ~4.5 mi. to Mystic Lake Cutoff Trail 430. Turn Right onto Trail 430 and continue 0.75 mi. to Bear Lakes Trail #53. Make a right and continue another 0.5 mi. to trail 454, where another right will take you down two wide, vehicle width switch-backs to the cabin within 0.25 mi. This route tends to have less bicycle traffic than the sourdough route, though they may still be present. ROAD CLOSURE INFORMATION: (Please refer to the Motor Vehicle Use Map) All trails mentioned here including Trail 454, Trail 457, Trail 50, Trail 430, and Trail 53 are Closed to all motorized use, including E-bikes. 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 · 9
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. No garbage service; please bring garbage bags and pack out all trash and 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. Provision of firewood is difficult at all times of year and impossible during the winter months. - 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
Federal regulations prohibit 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
A small corral is present, otherwise stock is not permitted within 100 yards of the cabin.
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
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…horses. An outhouse is equipped with a vault toilet. No electricity or water is available at the cabin.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Guests need to bring their own supply of drinking water, as well as items such as fire starters (matches…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:27 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:27 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 16:27 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.
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 MYSTIC LAKE CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 225 ft | $65 |
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 phone number
Where it is
Trail Creek CabinGallatin National Forest · 4.5 mi
Hood Creek CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 4.5 mi
Maxey CabinGallatin National Forest · 4.6 mi
Langohr CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 4.7 mi
Chisholm CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 4.9 mi
Window Rock CabinGallatin National Forest · 5.8 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bozeman, 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
Mystic Lake 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 Mystic Lake Cabin, Mystic Lake Reservoir Water Reserve Withdrawal, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Mystic Lake Cabin, Mystic Lake Reservoir Water Reserve Withdrawal, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mystic Lake 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. Mystic Lake Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mystic Lake 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 Mystic Lake Cabin (Mystic Lake Reservoir Water Reserve Withdrawal, 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 Mystic Lake Cabin, Mystic Lake Reservoir Water Reserve Withdrawal, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Mystic Lake Cabin, Mystic Lake Reservoir Water Reserve Withdrawal, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mystic Lake 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. Mystic Lake Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mystic Lake 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 Mystic Lake Cabin (Mystic Lake Reservoir Water Reserve Withdrawal, 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 Mystic Lake Cabin, Mystic Lake Reservoir Water Reserve Withdrawal, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Mystic Lake Cabin, Mystic Lake Reservoir Water Reserve Withdrawal, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Mystic Lake 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. Mystic Lake Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mystic Lake 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 Mystic Lake Cabin (Mystic Lake Reservoir Water Reserve Withdrawal, Montana) via campanac.com