Old Condon Ranger Station
1Heads up1 fire 38 mi away
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 15:05 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Old Condon Ranger Station is open year-round, providing access to great recreation opportunities in every season. Visitors to the area enjoy fishing in the nearby Swan River, as well as hiking and exploring areas surrounding the cabin. Varieties of birds and wildlife make their home in the area. The cabin provides modern amenities and can be reached by vehicle. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring some of their own supplies to ensure a comfortable stay. Keep reading
Recreation
Guests at the house enjoy fishing in the nearby creek and river, as well as viewing wildlife. The facility affords scenic views of the Mission Mountains. A variety of trails are available nearby for hiking and backpacking. The same trails serve as popular areas for cross country skiing and snowmobiling in the winter.
Facilities
The two-story cabin greets guests with a screened porch and a green painted front door. It has a living and dining room with a propane furnace, as well as electricity and a full kitchen. The kitchen includes a refrigerator with freezer and a modern gas range and oven. Cabinets are stocked with basic cookware, plates, cups, bowls and utensils. Upstairs are three bedrooms with a mix of two double and four single beds (two sets of bunkbeds). The couch in the living room also folds flat for use as a bed. Old Condon can comfortably sleep up to eight people. An indoor bathroom features running water and a flush toilet. Guests should bring bedding, food and personal toiletries. Binoculars are recommended for bird and wildlife watching. Click here for more cabin details. Guests must clean the cabin and carry out all trash before leaving.
Natural Features
The cabin is nestled in Swan Valley just west of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. It sits about five miles east of the Swan River. From the front porch, guests can see views of the Mission Mountains across an open field. Behind the cabin is a stand of towering mixed pine trees and Simpson Creek flows nearby. Part of a historic Forest Service compound, the ranger's residence was constructed in the early 1920s and later restored for public use. Historically, the site was used year round to operate the Condon Ranger District, which has been renamed as the Swan Lake Ranger District. The work center was relocated in the 1960s, but some structures remain to remind visitors of the old Forest Service days. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (406) 837-7500.
Nearby Attractions
Limited supplies are sold at a general store in Condon, about 20 minutes from the cabin.
What the agency tells you
The cabin remains locked; a combination lock code will be contained in the reservation confirmation letter. The combination code will be on your confirmation email. Contact the ranger district office at (406) 837-7500, 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 stove and water system require electricity please plan accordingly. Refunds will not be given for a power outage which are frequent due to the remote nature of the cabin. Click this link for outage information https://bills.meccoop.com/maps/OutageWebMap/
The road to the cabin is plowed in winter. However, you should be prepared for winter driving conditions. Depending on the severity of snowfall, the cabin may not be immediately plowed. It is also common for the cabin to lose power during weather events. Check the weather forecast and plan accordingly.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
During your stay the Forest Service or their representatives may be present at or around the cabin to perform repairs, stocking of cabin supplies, snow removal, or any other general maintenance.
Grizzly bears frequent the area; use appropriate containers for food and garbage, or store it in the cabin at all times
Domestic pets are allowed; please be a responsible owner; clean cabin of dog hair and pick up waste
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack-it-in, pack-it-out' facility
This is a rustic cabin rental. While we have supplied the cabin rental with several amenities please realize this is not a hotel room or a vacation house rental. The cabin will not have all modern conveniences or comforts. We clean the cabins about once a week, which means we do not clean after every rental. Some renters are not as courteous as others and may leave the cabin less than spotless. Please take this into consideration when forming your expectations of the cabin rental.
Candles or any other open flames are prohibited There is a light in the stairway leading to the upstairs. The switch to turn it on/off is located a the bottom of the stairs on the baluster. It is not a traditional 3-way switch as the switch at the top of the stairs needs to be turned on at all times to make it work.
Stock is prohibited
The porch, ramps, steps and roadways can be slippery when damp, or covered by snow or frost.
Conserve propane by setting the thermostat at 55 degrees when leaving the cabin
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Store
- Nearby
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 6 km away
- No change
Full this Saturdayread 15:05 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:05 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 · 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:05 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.
| OLD CONDON RANGER STATION | 001 | cabin electric | 461 ft | $85 |
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
Where it is
Holland Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 11 miHolland Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 12 mi
Owl Creek CorralFlathead National Forest · 12 mi
Owl Creek CabinFlathead National Forest · 12 miLindbergh Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 12 mi
Rainy Lake CampgroundLolo National Forest · 19 mi*ATTENTION* Due to significant blowdown in December 2025, access is currently only available via the southern end of the Condon Loop Road. This road is rough with large potholes. Please use a high-clearance vehicle. Turn east on Condon Loop Road 124 near Mile Marker 47. Continue for approximately 3/4 of a mile. The Old Condon Ranger Station driveway is located on the South (right) side of the road just past the wetland/meadow.
Old Condon is located between milepost 48 and 49 on Highway 83, in northwestern Montana. Turn east onto Condon Loop Road 124. Follow this road for approximately 2.5 miles. The driveway is on the left just before the large meadow and wetland.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Condon, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 16°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
Old Condon Ranger Station 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 Old Condon Ranger Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Old Condon Ranger Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Old Condon Ranger Station 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. Old Condon Ranger Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Old Condon Ranger Station. 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 Old Condon Ranger Station (Flathead 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 Old Condon Ranger Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Old Condon Ranger Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Old Condon Ranger Station 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. Old Condon Ranger Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Old Condon Ranger Station. 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 Old Condon Ranger Station (Flathead 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 Old Condon Ranger Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Old Condon Ranger Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Old Condon Ranger Station 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. Old Condon Ranger Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Old Condon Ranger Station. 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 Old Condon Ranger Station (Flathead National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com