Porcupine 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 · 19 notices
In the agency’s own words
Porcupine Cabin sits in the foothills of the Crazy Mountains at an elevation of 6,400 feet. It was built in 1914 after a previous structure burned down, and was remodeled by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934. Since its construction, the cabin has been used as temporary housing by Forest Service rangers while they were patrolling for timber poachers, watching for fires and monitoring livestock. Today, it is available year-round to outdoor enthusiasts, offering access to a variety of activities. Keep reading
Guests can drive to the cabin in the summer, but a high-clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended due to road conditions. Winter access requires snowshoeing, skiing or snowmobiling up to 3 miles from the end of the maintained gravel road. Please park out of the way of snow plow equipment and do not block other users access or turn-around areas. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities.
Recreation
Guests can access the nearby trailhead for hiking, mountain biking and equestrian use, heading east into the Crazy Mountains. The trails are used by snowshoers and cross-country skiers in the winter.
Facilities
The 26 x 44 frame house has three rooms and a screened front porch. It has bunk beds with mattresses to accommodate up to eight people. It has a table and chairs, some cleaning equipment and a propane lantern available for use. A wood stove is available to heat the cabin. FIREWOOD IS NOT AVAILABLE FROM JUNE 1ST THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30TH. PLEASE BRING FIREWOOD OR GATHER FROM FOREST DURING SUMMER. DO NOT BURN PROVIDED FIREWOOD FOR OUTDOOR FIRES, EVER, AS IT IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO REPLACE. Firewood is available for indoor use during winter as long as supplies last. An axe and splitting maul should be available. An outhouse with vault toilet is located behind the cabin. A campfire ring is out front. (Please bring wood to burn outside). Water, electricity and propane canisters for the lantern are not provided. Guests need to bring their own drinking water, cooking gear and food, bedding, fire starters (matches and newspaper), extra toilet paper, flashlights, first aid kit, cookware, dishes and utensils, among other necessities. The cabin will need to be cleaned and all trash carried out. Equestrian trails are located nearby, and a small pasture near the barn is available for cabin renter's stock. Please be aware that the pasture fence may not be secure. Stock is not allowed near the cabin or inside the cabin fence.
Natural Features
The cabin sits on a hillside overlooking the grasslands of Shields Valley. This vantage point provides a majestic view of the Bridger Mountains and spectacular star gazing on a clear night. Guests can look out at the northern peaks of the Crazies from the front porch. Porcupine Cabin offers a quiet and fairly isolated retreat, however, there may be some passing traffic from recreational users accessing the nearby trailhead. Deer, moose, bears and elk may be spotted nearby. Several bird species that inhabit this area include bald eagles, owls, jays, western meadowlarks and mountain bluebirds.
What the agency tells you
5 night maximum stay limit
The cabin remains locked; guests must CHECK their confirmation letter for the cabin combination. When operating the combination locks, line up the numbers and squeeze the handle and base together. The lock will pop open.
ARRIVAL ON 1st DAY OF RESERVATION 2:00 p.m. DEPARTURE ON THE LAST DAY OF YOUR RESERVATION 12:00 p.m.
Everything else this campground posts · 16
Water is not available at the cabin; water obtained from nearby natural water sources should be treated prior to use to prevent Giardia
A high clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended to access the cabin
Cell phone coverage is either limited or not available in this area
Guests must carefully follow the food storage order for Gallatin National Forest (Click here for more information)
Maximum group size for using the facility and adjacent area is 15 people
No garbage service; please bring garbage bags and pack out all trash and personal belongings
No liquid fueled (white gas) stoves or lanterns allowed in the cabin or on the porch
Please collect your own firewood for campfires
A small pasture by the barn is provided but stock users must use their own containment system. Fence may not be secure. Hay and feed for stock must be certified weed-free. Out of state horses must have current Coggins test. No stock is allowed near cabin nor inside cabin fence.
Within the Yellowstone Ranger District, refunds for weather or accessibility issues on the day of arrival or later will not be considered. Refunds will also not be considered for conditions resulting from poor housekeeping by previous visitors.
The primary occupant is responsible to ensure all members of their party abide by USFS Regulations
Firing a gun or use of any other weapon is not allowed within 150 yards of the cabin
Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to Hantavirus when visiting remote cabins; click here for more information
Click here for more information about Gallatin National Forest
Please call the Livingston office of the Yellowstone Ranger District at (406) 222-1892, during business hours: 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. MST, Monday through Friday, for current weather conditions/alerts, information and questions about the cabin.
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
- “…should be available. An outhouse with vault toilet is located behind the cabin. A campfire ring is out…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Guests need to bring their own drinking water, cooking gear and food, bedding, fire starters (matches and newspaper), extra toilet paper, flashlights, first aid kit, cookware, dishes and utensils, among other necessities.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- Biking
- Hiking
- 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 Friday and Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. 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 · 16
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
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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 PORCUPINE CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 483 ft | 50 ft | $65 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Crandall Creek CabinGallatin National Forest · 5.9 mi
Ibex CabinGallatin National Forest · 7.7 mi
Halfmoon CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 12 miBattle Ridge CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 25 mi
Battle Ridge CabinGallatin National Forest · 26 mi
Fairy Lake CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 28 miFrom Livingston, Montana, travel north on Highway 89 to Wilsall. Just north of Wilsall, turn northeast onto Shields River Road. Continue 8 miles to Porcupine Road, turn east (right) and then drive another 8 miles to the cabin. Four-wheel drive vehicles are recommended due to the road condition.
During the winter, the last two miles of the road to the cabin are not plowed. Skis, snowshoes or snowmobiles are required to reach the cabin.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Wilsall, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 13°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Porcupine 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 Porcupine Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Porcupine Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Porcupine 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. Porcupine Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Porcupine 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 Porcupine Cabin (Gallatin 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 Porcupine Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Porcupine Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Porcupine 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. Porcupine Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Porcupine 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 Porcupine Cabin (Gallatin 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 Porcupine Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Porcupine Cabin, Gallatin National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Porcupine 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. Porcupine Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Porcupine 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 Porcupine Cabin (Gallatin National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com