Rattin Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $18From, per site
- Sites
- 6All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rattin Campground is located 7 miles south of Red Lodge, Montana, just off the scenic Beartooth Highway. The area is a popular location for fishing, hiking and scenic driving. Keep reading
Recreation
The Main Fork of Rock Creek offers rainbow trout fishing. Greenough Lake is 8 miles away and is a popular area for canoeing, kayaking and fishing. The Beartooth Wilderness can be accessed via the Hellroaring and Lake Fork Trailheads, both of which are nearby. Beartrack and Corral Creek Trailheads are close by as well. Visitors also enjoy mountain biking and hiking on the Parkside National Recreation Trail. Hellroaring Road is open to off-road vehicles.
Facilities
This small campground offers single-family sites. Picnic tables and campfire rings with grills are provided, as are accessible vault toilets and drinking water.
Natural Features
The campground sits in the shadow of the Beartooth Range on the banks of Rock Creek. A forest of aspen and pine covers the area. A variety of wildlife, including grizzly bear, deer and elk, make their home in the surrounding area. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (928) 537-8888.
Nearby Attractions
The charming town of Red Lodge, Montana offers a variety of dining and lodging options, galleries, shops and summer events. The Home of Champions Rodeo is held on the Fourth of July weekend, Beartooth Bike Rally and Iron Horse Rodeo in mid-July, Mountain Man Rendezvous in late July and the Festival of Nations in early August. The Beartooth Highway was deemed "the most beautiful drive in America" by the late Charles Kuralt. It snakes across the rugged Beartooth Mountains from Red Lodge to Cooke City, Montana, and is the highest elevation highway in the Northern Rockies. Along the way, visitors are treated to sweeping views and plentiful outdoor recreation opportunities. Yellowstone National Park's Northeast Entrance is 60 miles from the campground via the Beartooth Highway. The park offers unparalleled wildlife viewing opportunities, as well as breathtaking scenery and unique geological features.
Charges & Cancellations
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This cancellation processing fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
What the agency tells you
Entrance to campground is now open via the southside bridge. Please note: Trailers are prohibited past Site #3 because there is no turnaround.
Standard Single Family sites: Recreation Use Fee allows ONE camping unit ONLY.
Late Arrivals: campers are not considered a "no-show" until 24 hours after arrival date check in time. Our policy is that your site will not be released before that.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Extra Vehicles: Cannot be paid for in advance - upon arrival coordinate with the host for payment and where to park.
FIRST COME FIRST SERVE sites must be booked in person. DO NOT call to determine availability, as they are only available on-site.
Bears frequent the area; please obey all food storage rules and regulations. Check with your host for details.
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. Firewood bundles can be purchased from the campground host.
Click here for more information on the Custer National Forest.
Opening and closing dates are weather permitting, please call 928-537-8888 for more information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 6 · 3 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…grills are provided, as are accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features The campground…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…as are accessible vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features The campground sits in the shadow…”
- Store
- Nearby
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hotel/Lodge/Resort Privately Owned
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Scenic drives
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 328th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 2
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 · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $18 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
7 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 6 mapped sitesAll 7 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 6 of the 7 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA RATTIN CAMPGROUND | 1 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 69 ft | 221 ftRock Creek | $18 |
| AREA RATTIN CAMPGROUND | 2 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 53 ft | 226 ftRock Creek | $18 |
| AREA RATTIN CAMPGROUND | 3 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 53 ft | 246 ftRock Creek | $18 |
| AREA RATTIN CAMPGROUND | 4 Host | host pad | 30 ft | $18 | ||
| AREA RATTIN CAMPGROUND | 5 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 126 ft | 391 ftRock Creek | $18 |
| AREA RATTIN CAMPGROUND | 6 | tent only nonelectric | 28 ft | 43 ft | 295 ftRock Creek | $18 |
| AREA RATTIN CAMPGROUND | 7 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 43 ft | 266 ftRock Creek | $18 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
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
SheridanCuster National Forest · 1.3 miParkside Campground and Group CampsitesCuster National Forest · 5.3 mi
ParksideCuster National Forest · 5.5 mi
Limber PineCuster National Forest · 5.8 mi
Greenough LakeCuster National Forest · 5.8 miRattin Campground is located 60 miles northeast of Cooke City, MT and the northeast gate to Yellowstone National Park. It is 7 miles south of Red Lodge, MT. On U.S. Highway 212, turn off at Rattin Campground Road (Forest Road 379; formerly Eastside Road) and proceed 0.5 miles to the campground entrance on the left. THE SOUTH BRIDGE IS OUT!
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Red Lodge, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 17°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
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
Rattin Campground 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 →