U.S. Forest Service · Flathead National Forest · MT
Sylvia Lake Campground
1Heads up1 fire 18 mi away
Wildfire
Deer Creek fire · 18 mi away · 1,099 acres · 100% contained · updated Oct 13, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 13, 2026
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
4,970 ftElevation
231 ftWater · Sylvia Lake
16.5 miNW of Marion, MT
25%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 290th darkest of 501 in MT
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Sylvia Lake Campground has 3 designated campsites. Each site has a picnic table, firering and a vault toilet in the campground. There is a small boat ramp for fishing boats, canoes and kakaks. The lake has native grayling and cuttroat trout.
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…site has a picnic table, firering and a vault toilet in the campground. There is a small boat ramp for…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026
Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Picnicking
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 3
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Coordinate48.34480, -114.81816
The mapSee it on the map
The driveDirections ↗
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗
Where it is
Also near here
Star Meadows Guard StationFlathead National Forest · 5.6 mi
Fairview Ranger StationKootenai National Forest · 10 mi
Tally Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 12 miAshley Lake North CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 13 miAshley Lake South CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 15 miUpper Stillwater Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 19 mi
Star Meadows Guard StationFlathead National Forest · 5.6 miFairview Ranger StationKootenai National Forest · 10 miTally Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 12 miAshley Lake North CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 13 miAshley Lake South CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 15 miUpper Stillwater Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 19 miSource: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Overnight35°Partly Cloudy
Saturday57°Sunny1% rain
Saturday Night30°Mostly Clear
Sunday51°Sunny
NWS forecast for Little Bitterroot Lake, MT
Source: National Weather Service, MSO forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
developing
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Oct 9, 2026
Who answers for this land
Sylvia Lake 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Little Bitterroot Lake, MT, 12.6 mi NNW (a census designated place). Straight line.