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U.S. Forest Service · Little Missouri National Grassland · ND

Sather Lake Campground (ND)

1Heads up1 fire 40 mi away
Wildfire
Bear fire · 40 mi away · 10 acres · updated Oct 9, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 9, 2026
ReservableBooking 6 months out; today unlocks April 16. Season not published.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
A night
$10From, per site
Sites
18All of them booked ahead
Photos · Laura Tonner
2,270 ftElevation
59 ftWater · Sather Lake
15.4 miE of Sidney, MT
n/aTree cover · water-masked cell
Bortle 4Night sky · 21st darkest of 27 in ND

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices

In the agency’s own words

Sather Lake Campground lies in the Badlands of North Dakota. There are 18 sites and 3 campground loops. The campground has no reservable sites. Keep reading

Recreation

Here you will be able to boat and fish.

Facilities

There are 3 Vault Toilets and water is available using a hand pump. Water is available Memorial day to Labor day. This date depends on the severity of the weather. Picnic tables at each site, fire rings with grill at each site, parking pads up to 60 ft long.

Natural Features

During your stay you may have Prong horn, mule and white tail deer going through your site.

Nearby Attractions

Watford City is a 30 min drive East and Sidney, Montana is 30 min drive West for any supplies that you may need.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

What the agency tells you

Rule

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.

Source: recreation.gov facility notices, quoted verbatim · Sep 9, 2026

Tents and rigs

Sites
18
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
18
Pets
Allowed
Campfires
Allowed, barring fire bans
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Vault Toilets
“…to boat and fish. Facilities There are 3 Vault Toilets and water is available using a hand pump. Water is…”
Drinking water
Yes
“…Facilities There are 3 Vault Toilets and water is available using a hand pump. Water is available Memorial day…”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Lake
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026

Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:27 UTC

Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.

Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.

Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
A night$10plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$28DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 12

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night$10
RV Nonelectric$10
Rates for the season the campground is in now, Jan 1, 2026 to Dec 31, 2026.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$18
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$28

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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
Sign price: recreation.gov facility rate schedule, quoted as the agency publishes it · Sep 10, 2026
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

recreation.gov availability, read 15:27 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

18 sites

All 18 sites

SleepsUp to

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 18 of the 18 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

Sather LakeSather Lake 1rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 10rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 11rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 12rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 13rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 14rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 15rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 16rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 17rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 18rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 2rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 3rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 4rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 5rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 6rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 7rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 8rv nonelectricyes$10
Sather LakeSather Lake 9rv nonelectricyes$10
Price: Derived by CAMPANAC: each site takes the per-night rate this campground publishes for the site’s own site type (recreation.gov rate schedule). recreation.gov publishes no per-campsite fee, and a site whose type carries no published rate is left blank rather than called free · Sep 11, 2026
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Coordinate47.66763, -103.81103
The phone701-842-8500
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Today73°Sunny
Tonight42°Partly Cloudy
Sunday59°Sunny
Sunday Night36°Mostly Clear

NWS forecast for Alexander, ND

Source: National Weather Service, BIS forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 34°F, day 59°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 7°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

100°32°0°

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.

Measured at: SIDNEY, MT (USC00247560), 16 miles away and 337 ft lower
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
John Town / Horse Creek25,125 acres · 6 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026

Who answers for this land

Julie Fedorchak, official portrait

Sather Lake Campground (ND) is in North Dakota’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Julie Fedorchak (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate: the number below is the only way to be sure.
Sites on recreation.gov: recreation.gov’s own month availability payload for this facility, asked for October 2026 and November 2026. It names 18 of the 18 campsites the agency files here, and every one of them carries an answer either way. A campground nobody has read carries no answer at all, never a no. · Oct 14, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.91 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 27 rated federal campgrounds in North Dakota · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Alexander, ND, 13.4 mi SW. Straight line.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026