Snowbank Campground
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:24 UTC
- A night
- $26When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 11In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Snowbank Campground will be open for the 2025 camping season! The bridge has been repaired! Snowbank Campground is located on the banks of Mill Creek, approximately 29 miles south of Livingston, in southwestern Montana. Visitors enjoy the area for its scenic natural beauty, and fishing and trail opportunities. This campground is not recommended for RV's over 30' in length . Keep reading
Recreation
Mill Creek offers anglers the opportunity to fish for whitefish, rainbow, brown and cutthroat trout. A number of hiking trailheads near the campground offer wilderness access, climbing into the Absaroka Range. The 6.3-mile Wicked Ridge Trail begins just outside the campground entrance. Off-road vehicle and bike trails also crisscross the area around Snowbank.
Facilities
The campground offers one GROUP CAMPING AREA (SITE 12) that can accommodate up to 25 people . Single-family sites are also available. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection. Firewood is available for $10.00 per bundle.
Natural Features
The campground is situated along Mill Creek near the western edge of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, where a scenic forest of mature spruce and fir trees covers the area. Thimbleberry and raspberry bushes dot the forest floor. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
What the agency tells you
This campground will reopen on 5/16/2025 for the 2025 camping season! The bridge has been repaired!
An additional fee will be collected at the campground if the number of people listed on the reservation is exceeded.
Click here for more information on the Gallatin National Forest.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
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.
This Campground is not recommended for RV's over 30' in length.
Reserved campsites will be held until check-out time on the day following your scheduled arrival.
No RV Dump Station is located in any of the USFS campgrounds managed by ExplorUS in the Custer-Gallatin National Forest.
There are NO Shower facilities available at this campground.
Firewood is available on site for $10.00 per bundle.
Camping fee covers 2 vehicles or RV/Trailer with tow vehicle. An extra vehicle fee of $9.00 is charged for each additional vehicle per night of stay. If you have an extra vehicle, it must fit on the campsite parking spur.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 11 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection. Firewood is…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are provided, as are vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection. Firewood is available for…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Backpacking
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Mushroom Picking
- Stargazing
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 226th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 2
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:24 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
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.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
“Any additional vehicles will be assessed a $8.00/night extra vehicle fee upon arrival at your site.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
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
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Snowbank Campground closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Canyon CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 18 mi · walk-up
- Mammoth Campground (Yellowstone)Yellowstone National Park · 23 mi · 87 sites
- Battle Ridge CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 44 mi · walk-up
- Bear Creek Campground and Picnic AreaBeaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest · 50 mi
recreation.gov availability, read 16:24 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
11 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 11 mapped sitesAll 11 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. 10 of the 11 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | 002 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 79 ft | 170 ftMill Creek | $26 |
| A | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 79 ft | 206 ftMill Creek | $26 |
| A | 004 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 103 ft | 166 ftMill Creek | $26 |
| B | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 140 ft | 114 ftMill Creek | $26 |
| B | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 124 ft | 180 ftMill Creek | $26 |
| B | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 91 ft | 141 ft | $26 |
| B | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 91 ft | 69 ft | $26 |
| B | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 127 ft | 109 ftMill Creek | $26 |
| B | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 127 ft | 83 ftMill Creek | $26 |
| B | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 197 ft | 56 ftMill Creek | $26 |
| B | 012 | group tent only area nonelectric | 376 ft | 137 ftMill Creek |
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
Mill Creek CabinGallatin National Forest · 0.1 mi
Snowbank Group CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 0.1 mi
Bear Creek Campground - MTGallatin National Forest · 13 mi
Timber Camp CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 14 mi
Pine Creek Group CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 15 mi
Pine Creek CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 15 miFrom Livingston, travel south on Highway 89 for 16 miles to the Mill Creek Road/Forest Road 486 (Pray turnoff). Turn left (east) onto Mill Creek Road, cross the East River Road (Highway 540) and continue east for 11 miles to the campground.
From Gardiner, take Highway 89 north for 36 miles to the Mill Creek Road/Forest Road 486 (Pray turnoff). Turn right (west) onto Mill Creek Road, cross the East River Road (Highway 540) and continue east for 11 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Pray, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 57°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 20°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Snowbank 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 →