Savenac East Cottage (MT)
1Heads up1 fire 14 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 2 of the next 3 nights read 15:23 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Savenac East Cottage provides a well-equipped kitchen and sleeping quarters for a family or small group of four people at the Savenac Historic Tree Nursery in the Lolo National Forest of Montana. The area is filled with history and was once the site of the U.S. Forest Service's largest and most beautiful nursery in the West. The cottage offers somewhat modern facilities, as well as access to a variety of recreational opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
A variety of historic sites and memorials, as well as interpretive trails, are located around the cottage. A self-guided tour of the nursery is available to provide visitors with historical perspective. The world-class Route of the Hiawatha Trail is located just 14 miles to the west at Taft Exit # 5, offering pristine mountain biking. Numerous mountain streams and the St. Regis River are available for fishing, wading and non-motorized boating within just a few minutes of Savenac. The beautiful Savenac Creek runs through the compound. In the winter, trails in the area are groomed for snowmobile use and opportunities abound for cross country skiing and snowshoeing. Lookout Pass ski hill is located just 16 miles west, on Interstate 90.
Facilities
Guests are required to clean the facility before leaving. Follow the cleaning instructions posted in the kitchen. Hosts are onsite to perform a checkout inspection before leaving the facility. The cottage has two bedrooms, a modern bathroom and kitchen, a dining area, as well as a living room. It has one queen bed with mattress and two twin beds with mattresses that can sleep up to four people. The kitchen is equipped with a stove, a microwave, refrigerator and assorted cooking utensils and dishes for eating. Guests will need to bring their own bedding, including sleeping bags, blankets and pillows, as well as towels, soap, and other necessities. The cottage is available May to October, except when it is reserved for administrative use or maintenance. Guests to the facility are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety. The cottage is a locked facility. A key code will be sent in the reservation confirmation email. The key code will unlock the lock box located in the entry way of the cottage. The lock box holds the key to the front door. Please return the key to the lock box before leaving the facility.
Natural Features
The cottage is one of four rental cabins located at the Historic Savenac Nursery. The nursery was founded in 1907 to grow trees for the Forest Service Nursery operations that concluded in 1969. The site is now open to the public for recreation. The facilities are close to the Idaho border in the Bitterroot Mountains of western Montana. The Lolo National Forest is home to many species of wildlife, including deer, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, mountain lions, moose and black bears.
Nearby Attractions
Savenac is in Haugan, Montana with easy access to Interstate 90. It is within walking distance of a family restaurant, gas and general store and gift shop. The Savenac Compound also consists of a visitor center that is operated from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
What the agency tells you
Visitors should be aware of avalanche danger in the surrounding area.
All garbage, food and personal belongings must be packed out of cottage. Dumpsters available onsite.
Smoking and pets are prohibited inside the cottage.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Before making a reservation, become aware of bear, water, and weather safety.
Learn more about the Lolo National Forest at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/lolo
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.
The maximum stay limit is 5 nights per reservation.
Check in time is 2:00 PM. Check out time is 11:00 AM.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Store
- Nearby
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Information Site
- Ranger programs
- Picnicking
- Snowmobile Trails
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 15:23 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
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.
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 · 12
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 15:23 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
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 Savenac East Cottage | Savenac East Cottage | cabin electric | $80 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Savenac West CottageLolo National Forest · 0.0 mi
Savenac BunkhouseLolo National Forest · 0.0 mi
Savenac CookhouseLolo National Forest · 0.0 mi
Up Up LookoutLolo National Forest · 4.4 mi
Cabin City Campground (MT)Lolo National Forest · 6.3 miGold Rush CampgroundLolo National Forest · 10 miTraveling on Interstate 90 take Exit 16 at Haugan, Montana. At the stop sign head north to the frontage road. At the frontage road turn right and take the first left, crossing the cattle guard. Signs are onsite to follow. Maps are available online or for purchase by calling the Superior Ranger District.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Haugan, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°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
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
Savenac East Cottage (MT) 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 Savenac East Cottage (MT), Lolo National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Savenac East Cottage (MT), Lolo National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Savenac East Cottage (MT) 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. Savenac East Cottage (MT) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Savenac East Cottage (MT). 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 Savenac East Cottage (MT) (Lolo 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 Savenac East Cottage (MT), Lolo National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Savenac East Cottage (MT), Lolo National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Savenac East Cottage (MT) 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. Savenac East Cottage (MT) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Savenac East Cottage (MT). 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 Savenac East Cottage (MT) (Lolo 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 Savenac East Cottage (MT), Lolo National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Savenac East Cottage (MT), Lolo National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Savenac East Cottage (MT) 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. Savenac East Cottage (MT) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Savenac East Cottage (MT). 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 Savenac East Cottage (MT) (Lolo National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com