Sheepshead Picnic Area
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sheepshead Pavilion is available for reservations for private gatherings from mid-June through Labor Day weekend. The pavilion will accommodate about 200 people. It includes picnic tables, barbecue grills and water. There is no electricity to the pavilion, if electricity is needed please bring a generator. Fees are based on group size: $75 per day for groups 1-50 $125 per day for groups 51-100 $200 per day for groups 101-200 With a 2+ day reservation, overnight use may be granted, but only with prior approval. For more information on fees or overnight use please call the Butte Ranger District at (406) 494-2147 during regular business hours or email Scott Forman: scott.forman@usda.gov. Keep reading
Recreation
Recreational opportunities at Sheepshead include horseshoe pits, nature trails, volleyball courts, ball field and a paved walking trail. All pavilion picnic tables must be returned to their original location, if moved. All trash must be placed in a trash reciptical before vacanting the facility; no personal items can be left behind.
Facilities
Handicapped Accessible Natural Features Nearby Attractions Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (406) 494-2147.
What the agency tells you
- No electricity available - No net available for the volleyball court - No horseshoes available - Overnight use is by permission only, contact the Butte Ranger District for more information
Around the campground
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
Nothing here to sleep in
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
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 · 11
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 · 4
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
| AREA SHEEPSHEAD PICNIC AREA | 001 | day use | yes | 636 ft |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. 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
Where it is
Freedom Point Picnic AreaDeerlodge National Forest · 0.5 miLowland Campground and Picnic AreaDeerlodge National Forest · 2.4 miWhitehouse CampgroundDeerlodge National Forest · 7.2 miOrofino Campground and Picnic AreaDeerlodge National Forest · 10 mi
Delmoe Lake Campground and Picnic AreaDeerlodge National Forest · 13 miGalena Gulch Rec SiteButte Field Office · 15 miFrom Butte, take I-15/I-90 east for approximately 1 mile. Merge onto I-15 north and continue for approximately 12 miles. Take the Elk Park exit (no. 138) and drive west on Forest Service road #442 (Lowland Creek Road) for approximately 6 miles. Turn right onto Forest Service road #9485 and continue for approximately 2 miles. Turn left at the junction (Freedom Point) and drive approximately 1/8 mile; the campground is on the right. The road is a gravel road suitable for passenger vehicle access.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Butte-Silver Bow (balance), MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 27°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 7°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Sheepshead Picnic Area 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
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Sheepshead Picnic Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. Sheepshead Picnic Area, Deerlodge National Forest, Montana carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Sheepshead Picnic Area (Deerlodge National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Sheepshead Picnic Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. Sheepshead Picnic Area, Deerlodge National Forest, Montana carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Sheepshead Picnic Area (Deerlodge National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Sheepshead Picnic Area has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. Sheepshead Picnic Area, Deerlodge National Forest, Montana carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Sheepshead Picnic Area (Deerlodge National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com