Ninko Cabin
- 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 · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ninko Cabin is located 45 miles north of Columbia Falls, in northwestern Montana. It is an ideal rental for winter sports enthusiasts. Open only during cold months, the cabin provides a rustic, cozy setting with a good chance for pristine snow-capped scenery. It also provides access to a variety of recreational activities. The cabin can be accessed via a 12-mile hike, snowshoe, ski or snowmobile trek from North Fork Road. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Cross country skiing, snowmobiling and snowshoeing are popular activities enjoyed by visitors to the area. Reaching the cabin on the 12-mile journey is part of the snow-sport fun to be had when visiting the cabin.
Facilities
The rustic cabin sleeps six with two bunk beds and two single beds. Amenities include a propane cook stove, lights, wood stove for heating, and a vault toilet. Pets are allowed, but cleaning up after them is required. No water is available. Renters should pack their own bedding, drinking water, food, matches and all basic camp gear. Click here for more cabin details. Guests will need to clean the cabin, carry out all trash and replenish cut firewood supply prior to departure.
Natural Features
The cabin sits in a mountain valley, near Whale Creek, at an approximate elevation of 4,600 feet. Surrounding peaks include Hornet Mountain and Mount Thompson-Seton. The Glacier View Ranger District is bordered on the east by the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and Glacier National Park. To the north is Canada and west is the Kootenai National Forest. A variety of wildlife make its home in the area.
What the agency tells you
There is a maximum stay of three consecutive nights with a total of seven days per calendar year.
Water, electricity and sewer is not available at the cabin.
Bears frequent the area; use appropriate containers for food and garbage.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Minor maintenance work may be conducted during cabin rental period.
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack-it-in, pack-it-out' facility.
Firewood is provided for heating purposes only; please replenish cut wood supply prior to departure.
Conserve propane by minimizing use of lights and setting the thermostat at 55-degrees when away from the cabin.
Contact the ranger district office at (406) 387-3800, during normal office hours (Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) for updates on weather and road conditions; refunds will not be given for inclement weather or road conditions.
The cabin remains locked; a combination lock code will be contained in the reservation confirmation letter.
Guests must clean cabin prior to departure; a fee will be charged if extra clean-up is needed.
Commercial use of cabin is prohibited.
Click here for more information on the Flathead 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.
Check-out time is 1200 pm. Check-in time is 2 pm.
This is a remote cabin that may be unoccupied for extended periods of time. Mice may be present in cabin - there are supplies to trap mice and remove safely in cabin. Please do your part to help mitigate rodents by picking up food crumbs, cleaning thoroughly, and trapping mice if they are present.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…lights, wood stove for heating, and a vault toilet. Pets are allowed, but cleaning up after them is…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
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 · 14
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 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 NINKO CABIN | 01 | cabin nonelectric | 109 ft | $50 |
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
Hornet LookoutFlathead National Forest · 4.1 miTuchuck CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 4.5 miRed Meadow Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 7.3 mi
Wurtz CabinFlathead National Forest · 9.5 mi
Ford CabinFlathead National Forest · 10 mi
Schnaus CabinFlathead National Forest · 11 miFrom Columbia Falls, travel north on Nucleus Avenue and turn east on Railroad Street at the stop sign. The road becomes the North Fork Road as it travels about 45 miles and over the railroad overpass. Turn left on Whale Creek Road 318 and park in the plowed pullout. Then ski, snowshoe or snowmobile about 7 miles from the parking area to the gated road No. 10832. Continue northwest for about 2 miles to Ninko Cabin. Signs are posted along the way.
The North Fork Road is gravel, rough in spots and only intermittently plowed during the winter months. A four-wheel drive vehicle and chains are recommended for passage in winter.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Fortine, MT
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Ninko 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 →