Stony Cabin
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 18 mi
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 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:37 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Stony Cabin is a small primitive cabin that was built in 1914 as a place for Forest Service employees to sleep while working in the area. The cabin is situated close to Stony Creek Road and across the street from Stony Creek Campground. It is not remote but ideal for those who want to stay in a cabin while friends camp across the street at the campground. It provides access to Rock Creek, a Blue Ribbon Trout Stream, and Stony Creek. The cabin is within close proximity to a variety of hiking and biking trails also. Keep reading
Guests can enjoy winter recreation on those same trails when there is snow in the area, typically from December until April of each year. The cabin is available all year, offering the opportunity to experience the backcountry of western Montana in all seasons. The cabin can be accessed by vehicle most of the year. There is limited parking in the driveway and trailers are not recommended. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring their own personal amenities.
Recreation
Fishing is available in Rock Creek and Stony Creek and anglers might find plentiful brook, brown and rainbow trout. Much of the stream is protected from bull or west slope cutthroat trout fishing to improve the fishery. It is illegal to target Bull Trout, if caught they must be released immediately with minimal handling. Big game hunting is possible in designated areas. Appropriate licensing is required to fish and hunt in Montana. Rock creek is a popular rafting and boating trip at appropriate water levels. A variety of hiking, mountain biking, ATV and horseback riding trails as well as old roads climb into the steep drainages and canyons of the Bitterroot Range. Stony Lake trailhead is at the end of the road another 3 miles, and it is open to foot, horse, and bike travel. Guests also enjoy snowmobiling, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing in the area during the winter.
Facilities
This is a small, primitive, one-room cabin and is equipped with two sets of bunk beds with mattress pads that can sleep up to four people. It has a small table and chairs, plates, bowls, cups, silverware for 4 people, a 2 burner coleman stove (BYO Propane), pots, pans, french press, kitchen utensils (spatula, large spoon, knives, cutting board, can opener, cheese grater, measuring cups, measuring spoons), sponges/scour pads, Battery Powered LED Lantern (D batteries), mop, broom, washbasins, dish rack, splitting maul, hatchet, cleaning products, rags, hot mitts, fly swatter, and mouse traps. Paper towels, matches, toilet paper, garbage bags, bleach wipes, batteries, newspaper, and hand sanitizer are stocked monthly. There is a wood stove for heat. Firewood is almost always available but cannot be guaranteed. A fire ring and picnic table are located outside the cabin. Please gather or bring wood for outside fires. A vault toilet and a hand pump for drinking water are located across the road in the Stony Cr. Campground. Guests will need to bring their own bedding, food, personal items, propane (1lb coleman propane bottles for stove), and specialty kitchen items. Guests are asked to replenish the supply of split wood and kindling, pack out all trash and food, and clean the cabin prior to leaving. Please alert the Pintler Ranger Station at 406 859 8230 if you notice any of the above items missing or broken.
Natural Features
Many older maps still refer to this cabin as the Squaw Rock Cabin because the notable Squaw Rock formation overlooks the site. This cabin is right off of Stony Creek Road and across from Stony Creek Campground in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. The cabin is very close to the confluence of Rock and Stony Creeks. The area is known for its high, rugged and beautiful mountain scenery, as well as the variety of wildlife that makes its home there, including bighorn sheep, elk, moose, deer, mountain lions and bears ( learn more about bear safety ).
Charges & Cancellations
Reservations are nonrefundable unless extenuating circumstances warrant otherwise. Determination will be made on a case by case basis.
What the agency tells you
For questions and concerns, please call the Pintler Ranger District at (406) 859-3211, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The cabin remains locked; a confirmation email containing the lock combination will be sent after booking, please check the email for the combo. Feel free to call the ranger station to confirm the code prior to your booking.
All food and garbage must be packed out.
Be Bear Aware, you are in bear country. Food Storage Order rules are enforced. All food, beverages, trash and scented items must be properly stored when not attended. Learn more about bear safety and forest-wide Food Storage Order
Everything else this campground posts · 2
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.
Hantavirus; guests should be aware of the risk of exposure to Hantavirus while staying in the cabin. Please visit http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/hps/transmission.html for more information about Hantavirus.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…or bring wood for outside fires. A vault toilet and a hand pump for drinking water are located…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…for outside fires. A vault toilet and a hand pump for drinking water are located across the road in…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:37 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:37 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 · 15
What you actually pay
“Reservations are nonrefundable unless extenuating circumstances warrant otherwise. Determination will be made on a case by case basis.” · this campground’s own terms
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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:37 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
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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 STONY CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 238 ft | 145 ft | $45 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Morgan-Case HomesteadLolo National Forest · 5.3 mi
Hogback HomesteadLolo National Forest · 6.1 miSiria CampgroundLolo National Forest · 7.3 mi
West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT)Deerlodge National Forest · 8.7 miFrom Philipsburg, travel west on Rock Creek Road/County Road 348 for approximately 14 miles, then turn right onto Rock Creek Road/County Road 102 and continue about 5 miles. Turn left at Stony Creek Road/County Road 241 and the cabin is about a quarter-mile on the right. Depending on snow conditions, the last quarter-mile may be impassable during the winter. Maps may be purchased by calling the Pintler Ranger District.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Philipsburg, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 13°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
Stony Cabin 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 Stony Cabin, Deerlodge National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Stony Cabin, Deerlodge National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Stony Cabin 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. Stony Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Stony Cabin. 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 Stony Cabin (Deerlodge 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 Stony Cabin, Deerlodge National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Stony Cabin, Deerlodge National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Stony Cabin 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. Stony Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Stony Cabin. 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 Stony Cabin (Deerlodge 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 Stony Cabin, Deerlodge National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Stony Cabin, Deerlodge National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Stony Cabin 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. Stony Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Stony Cabin. 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 Stony Cabin (Deerlodge National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com