Swan Guard Station
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 16:14 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Swan Guard Station is located next to beautiful Swan Lake, in northwestern Montana, where visitors enjoy all kinds of recreation. The fully restored historic cabin can accommodate up to eight people and offers somewhat modern amenities and plenty of space. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
In addition to wildlife viewing, hiking and mountain biking trail access is nearby at Bond Creek Trailhead. Cross country skiing and snowshoeing are popular activities enjoyed by visitors during the winter. The cabin is located just south of the town of Swan Lake, which offers opportunities for fishing, motor boating, non-motor boating, swimming and picnicking.
Facilities
The accessible cabin has beds and mattresses to accommodate up to eight people. It offers electricity, but no indoor plumbing. A propane heater provides heat in the living room. A kitchen provides a refrigerator, sink, cooking range, and oven. It has ample cupboard space, as well as preparation and serving surfaces. A vault toilet and a hand-pump water system are available outside the cabin. Guests will need to bring bedding, food, flashlights, a first aid kit and other necessary camping gear. The cabin will need to be cleaned and all trash carried out before leaving. Click here for more cabin details.
Natural Features
The cabin is the oldest building in the Flathead National Forest. It was constructed in 1909 as a remote ranger station and has since been fully restored and reconstructed. It is located at the south end of Swan Lake, near the village of Swan Lake. The nearby Swan River Wildlife Refuge provides abundant bird and wildlife viewing opportunities. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (406) 837-7500.
What the agency tells you
The cabin combination code will be on your confirmation email. Contact the ranger district office at (406) 837-7500, during normal office hours (Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) for updates on weather and road conditions; refunds will not be given for inclement weather or road conditions.
Water system require electicity please plan accordingly. Refunds will not be given for a power outage which are possible due to the remote nature of the cabin. Click this link for outage information https://outage.flathead.coop:8181/
The road to the cabin is plowed in winter. However, you should be prepared for winter driving conditions. Depending on the severity of snowfall, the cabin may not be immediately plowed. It is also common for the cabin to lose power during weather events. Check the weather forecast and plan accordingly.
Everything else this campground posts · 11
This is a rustic cabin rental. While we have supplied the cabin rental with several amenities please realize this is not a hotel room or a vacation house rental. The cabin will not have all modern conveniences or comforts. We clean the cabins about once a week, which means we do not clean after every rental. Some renters are not as courteous as others and may leave the cabin less than spotless. Please take this into consideration when forming your expectations of the cabin rental.
During your stay the Forest Service or their representatives may be present at or around the cabin to perform repairs, stocking of cabin supplies, snow removal, or any other general maintenance.
Grizzly bears frequent the area; please store food, beverages, coolers and garbage inside the cabin at all times.
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack-it-in, pack-it-out' facility.
The porch, ramps, steps and roadways can be slippery when damp, or covered by snow or frost.
Please conserve propane and turn the thermostat to 55 degrees while away from the cabin.
Commercial use of cabin is prohibited.
Domestic pets are allowed; please be a responsible owner; clean cabin of dog hair and pick up waste.
Stock is prohibited.
Click here for more information on the Flathead 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…as preparation and serving surfaces. A vault toilet and a hand-pump water system are available outside…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 31 km away
- No change
Full this Saturdayread 16:14 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:14 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 16:14 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.
| SWAN GUARD STATION | 001 | cabin electric | 281 ft | $70 |
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
Swan Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 2.0 mi
Mission LookoutFlathead National Forest · 2.0 miPeter's Creek CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 14 miSpotted Bear CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 14 miDevil's Corkscrew CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 15 mi
Anna Creek CabinFlathead National Forest · 18 miFrom Bigfork take Hwy 83 south towards Swan Lake. Continue through the town of Swan Lake to mile-marker 69, just south of town. The cabin driveway is just south of the cabin rental sign. Continue down the driveway to the cabin with the porch.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Swan Lake, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 25°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
Swan 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 Swan Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Swan Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Swan 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. Swan Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Swan 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 Swan 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 Swan Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Swan Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Swan 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. Swan Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Swan 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 Swan 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 Swan Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Swan Guard Station, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Swan 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. Swan Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Swan 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 Swan Guard Station (Flathead National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com