Star Meadows Guard Station
1Heads up1 fire 23 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 28 of the next 30 nights read 16:36 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Star Meadows Guard Station has all the rustic feel of a remote Forest Service cabin while still being accessible by paved road from Whitefish. Furnished with a refrigerator/freezer, range and oven, microwave, coffeemaker, pots and pans, dishes and silverware, and electric heat, this cabin has everything you need to come and enjoy some time in the Forest. Nearby Tally Lake and Sylvia Lake offer opportunities for water play and fishing and a centralized location in the Tally Lake District to access miles of hiking, biking or horseback riding trails with a trailhead right behind the cabin. Keep reading
Enjoy a large backyard area for family games, or just sit in front of the campfire with s’mores and make some memories. Star Meadows Guard Station is 23 miles from Whitefish on Forest Service Road #539. The road is paved and open year-round. The Star Meadows Guard Station was built in 1941 to house Forest Service personnel and stock for the Tally Lake District. It was built to replace a 1908 building at the same location. The site operated as a work center when the Ranger Station was located at Tally Lake. In 1953, the District Office moved to Whitefish. The station housed fire suppression crews, contractors, and timber camps, and served as a staging area for engineers designing and building the roads on the District. During the winter months, the road was not plowed, and the site was inaccessible. In 1991 a cultural survey found that the facilities were historically significant and were placed on the National Historic Register. In 2001, A Passport in Time project (PIT) funded the beginning of the restoration.
Recreation
There is plenty of opportunity for hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking in the area surrounding the cabin. Trail #171A starts in the back yard and goes all the way to Sylvia Lake approximately 10 miles away. In the winter, visitors enjoy cross country skiing and snowshoeing. Snowmobiling can be enjoyed on designated trails, but is not permitted on the cabin grounds. Big game hunting in the national forest lands is a popular activity enjoyed by visitors, as well as fishing in Sheppard Creek behind the cabin, other nearby mountain streams and Tally Lake, which is about 11 miles east of the cabin. Guests at the cabin also enjoy ample open space for yard games and other outdoor group activities.
Facilities
The Star Meadow Guard Station is a two-room cabin. The bedroom has two bunk beds with queen on bottom and full on top and sleeps 6. The second room is the kitchen area with a couch, table with chairs and benches. A bunk house located 20 yards away from the main house has two bunkbeds and a futon couch. Sleeps 6 and is great for the kids!. There are electric heaters throughout the cabin and in the bunkhouse. The kitchen comes complete with refrigerator, oven, microwave and coffeemaker; dishes, utensils and pots and pans are provided. Cleaning supplies are provided and the cabin must be cleaned upon departure. All garbage must be packed out. The restroom is a wood paneled vault toilet 20 yards from the cabin and has electric lights. A well with a hand pump is also located 30 yards from the cabin and water is available approximately April 1st through November 30th. There is no running water. A patio provides an outdoor area with tables, chairs and a charcoal grill. Please bring your own charcoal and empty it in the receptacle provided. An outdoor fire pit, picnic tables and horse shoe pit are in the large backyard. Dogs are allowed. No pets are allowed on the furniture and cleaning up after them is required. Pets may not be left in the cabin while renters are away; an outdoor kennel is provided. The site is also an excellent area for large family gatherings, with ample room in the lower meadow for several RVs or tents. Stock animals are allowed, but there is no corral or running water on site. Renters with stock or additional camp units should contact the district prior to their stay for access to the lower meadow and an additional fee may be charged. Guests must bring their own bedding and food, among other necessities. Guests will also need to bring water if the reservation falls outside of the range of dates when water is available nearby. There is no cell phone service at the cabin. During winter storms or snowfall accumulation, the paved access road may not be plowed, so be prepared for winter driving and road emergencies. This is a non-smoking facility. Please be respectful to adjacent neighbors.
Natural Features
The cabin sits in a valley near the foot of Mt. Swaney, providing views of the surrounding forested mountains. It is in the northwestern corner of Flathead National Forest in the Tally Lake Ranger District.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Whitefish is about 45 minutes away. Tally Lake, the second deepest lake in Montana is located 7 miles away.
What the agency tells you
Check out time is 11 AM Check in time is 1 PM
For more information, contact the Tally Lake Ranger District (406) 758-5204, Monday -- Friday, 8 a.m. through 4:30 p.m.
Pack-in and pack-out all garbage; clean cabin before departing.
Everything else this campground posts · 3
The combination to the cabin will be on your letter of confirmation from Recreation.gov
There is a food storage order in the Flathead National Forest. Please keep all food and attractants in the cabin or your vehicle. This is bear country.
Hand-pump will be left on well over the winter of 2025-2026 as an experiment to see if freezing is an issue. Be prepared to bring your own water if the pump becomes frozen. If pump continues to work, please pump an ample amount of water during each use to warm up pipe.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…out. The restroom is a wood paneled vault toilet 20 yards from the cabin and has electric lights. A…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Night sky · 361st darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 2
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- None
Full this Saturdayread 16:36 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:36 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
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 16:36 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
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 STAR MEADOWS GUARD STATION | 001 | cabin electric | 20 ft | 606 ft | $75 |
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
Tally Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 6.1 miAshley Lake North CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 13 miAshley Lake South CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 13 mi
Fairview Ranger StationKootenai National Forest · 15 miUpper Stillwater Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 16 miSTAR MEADOW GUARD STATION 5250 Star Meadows Road Whitefish, Montana 59937 Travel from Whitefish west on Highway 93 approximately 12 miles to mile marker 139, turn left onto Farm to Market Road. Continue 1.7 miles; turn right onto the Star Meadows Road. Continue to mile marker 15 located almost across from the cabin driveway.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Rhodes, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 12°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Star Meadows Guard Station 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 Star Meadows Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Star Meadows Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Star Meadows Guard Station 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Star Meadows Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Star Meadows Guard Station. 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 Star Meadows Guard Station (Flathead 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 Star Meadows Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Star Meadows Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Star Meadows Guard Station 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Star Meadows Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Star Meadows Guard Station. 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 Star Meadows Guard Station (Flathead 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 Star Meadows Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Star Meadows Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Star Meadows Guard Station 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Star Meadows Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Star Meadows Guard Station. 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 Star Meadows Guard Station (Flathead National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…of dates when water is available nearby. There is no cell phone service at the cabin. During winter storms or snowfall accumulation,…”