Spire Rock Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $26From, per site
- Sites
- 19All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Spire Rock Campground is located in scenic Gallatin Canyon on the Bozeman Ranger District of the Gallatin National Forest, in southwestern Montana. It is 26 miles south of Bozeman. The surrounding area offers many outdoor recreational opportunities, including fishing, rafting, hiking and viewing local wildlife. Keep reading
Recreation
Great opportunities for hiking, fishing, scenic driving and wildlife viewing are available around the campground. Anglers cast for rainbow, brown, brook and cutthroat trout, whitefish and Arctic grayling on the Gallatin River. Rafting and kayaking are popular activities as well. The popular Storm Castle Trail begins nearby. This steep, 3-mile one-way trail climbs to Storm Castle Rock, with excellent views of the canyon below. Garnet Mountain Lookout Trail also begins near the campground. The 3.5-mile trail climbs 2,800 feet in elevation, to the lookout.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family campsites and an overnight, GROUP AREA (SITE 12) , that can be used for overnight camping or day-use picnicking. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets. No drinking water is available in the campground. Campers must bring their own water. Roads and parking spurs within the campground are gravel.
Natural Features
The campground sits next to Storm Castle Creek, a tributary of the Gallatin River, at an elevation of 5,600 feet. Most campsites are located along the creek and are surrounded by spruce and fir trees. A variety of wildlife makes its home in the area. Visitors can often glimpse bald eagles, bighorn sheep, moose, elk, mountain goats, deer and coyotes. Black bears and grizzly bears also live in the canyon. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
What the agency tells you
Bears frequent the area; all food must be stored in approved containers and secured when campsite is unoccupied.
Drinking water is not available at the campground.
Firewood is available on site for $10.00 per bundle.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Click here for more information on the Gallatin National Forest.
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.
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.
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
- 19 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- 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. No drinking water is available in the campground.…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…are provided, as are vault toilets. No drinking water is available in the campground. Campers must bring…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Backpacking
- Berry Picking
- Biking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
- Mushroom Picking
- Stargazing
- Wildlife viewing
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 · 14
What you actually pay
“The first two vehicles are included in the reservation fee and a $8.00/night fee for each additional vehicle will be collected at the campground.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $26 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.
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
20 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 20 mapped sitesAll 20 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. 19 of the 20 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| SPIR | 001 | standard nonelectric | 126 ft | 28 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 002 | standard nonelectric | 380 ft | 318 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 003 Host | host pad | 126 ft | 89 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 004 | standard nonelectric | 139 ft | 134 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 005 | standard nonelectric | 101 ft | 37 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 006 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 124 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 007 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 116 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 008 | standard nonelectric | 81 ft | 128 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 009 | standard nonelectric | 81 ft | 134 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 010 | standard nonelectric | 103 ft | 146 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 011 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 213 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 012 | group standard nonelectric | 179 ft | 29 ft | $50 |
| SPIR | 013 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 183 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 014 | standard nonelectric | 216 ft | 31 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 015 | standard nonelectric | 216 ft | 74 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 016 | standard nonelectric | 363 ft | 136 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 017 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 90 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 018 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 82 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 019 | standard nonelectric | 114 ft | 52 ft | $26 |
| SPIR | 020 | standard nonelectric | 131 ft | 30 ft | $26 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Spire Rock CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 0.7 mi
Garnet Mountain Fire LookoutGallatin National Forest · 1.0 mi
Greek Creek CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 4.4 mi
Little Bear CabinGallatin National Forest · 4.7 mi
Swan Creek CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 5.1 miFrom Bozeman, travel south on Highway 191 for 23 miles to the Storm Castle turnoff. Turn left and go 3 miles to the campground. The last 3 miles are on a gravel road.
From West Yellowstone, go 66 miles north on Highway 191 to the Storm Castle turnoff. Turn right at the intersection after the bridge and continue 3 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 Big Sky, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 15°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
Spire Rock Campground 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 →