Trapper Springs (MT)
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 15All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Dillon Field Office is unable to make reservations for you. Please call Recreation.gov (877-444-6777) to book a reservation or book online. Campsites are available for reservation for the Peak-Season times of May 1st through September 15th. All sites are first-come-first-serve from September 16th through April 30th. Trapper Springs Campground is adjacent to the lower Madison River and provides good access for camping, fishing and floating. The campground has 15 camp sites, 9 available for reservations. There is no boat launch available at this site, but there are several in the vicinity. Keep reading
The campground serves as a great central location to access the lower Madison River. The day use area has a large pavilion with parking for 20 vehicles. The pavilion can be reserved for groups ($50/day). The campground has 15 camping sites with two accessible vault toilets. Organized Group permits are required for groups larger than 15 people.
Recreation
The Madison River is well known for its robust trout fishery. The lower Madison River is a very popular destination for non-angling floaters (tubers) during the warm summer months. Trapper Springs sits roughly half way between Warm Springs boat launch and Black's Ford Fishing Access Site.
Facilities
15 campsites, 3 accessible vault toilets, drinking water, group use pavilion, fire pits, and picnic tables. Firewood is available for purchase at Red Mountain Campground, when the volunteer campground host is present.
Natural Features
Madison River Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (406) 683-8000.
Nearby Attractions
Lower Madison River, Bear Trap Canyon unit of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness Area, Norris Hot Springs, Ennis Charges & Cancellations Failing to arrive on the first night of your reservation will result in a forfeiture of your reservation and your site may be made available to someone else.
What the agency tells you
Campsites are available for reservation for the Peak-Season times of May 1st through September 15th. All sites are first-come-first-serve from September 16th through April 30th. Reservations are available on a rolling 6-month basis.
Additional vehicles at campsites are $5 each. Maximum vehicle limit is 3 per campsite. Truck and camper/trailer count as one vehicle. Additional vehicles must be paid for on-site.
Campsites must be occupied nightly
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Failing to arrive on the first night of your reservation will result in a forfeiture of your reservation and your site may be made available to someone else.
Firewood is available for purchase at Red Mountain Campground when the volunteer campground host is present. Collecting or cutting wood is prohibited on BLM administered lands throughout the lower Madison River corridor.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 15
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 16 of 16 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 16 of 16 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE DRINKING WATER on 16 of 16 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, River
- Boating
- Fishing
- Picnicking
- Tubing
- Night sky · 418th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 9 days ago, 33 km away
- Past peak
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
“Additional vehicles at campsites are $5 each.” · the Bureau of Land Management’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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.
“Failing to arrive on the first night of your reservation will result in a forfeiture of your reservation and your site may be made available to someone else.” · 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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
16 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 16 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. 15 of the 16 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | 1 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 106 ft | 568 ft | $20 |
| A | 10 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 65 ft | 944 ft | $20 |
| A | 11 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 65 ft | 1,009 ft | $20 |
| A | 12 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 110 ft | 1,101 ft | $20 |
| A | 13 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 110 ft | 1,158 ft | $20 |
| A | 14 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 1,011 ft | $20 |
| A | 15 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 80 ft | 960 ft | $20 |
| A | 2 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 106 ft | 526 ft | $20 |
| A | 3 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 106 ft | 529 ft | $20 |
| A | 4 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 58 ft | 581 ft | $20 |
| A | 5 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 58 ft | 547 ft | $20 |
| A | 6 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 70 ft | 588 ft | $20 |
| A | 7 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 70 ft | 571 ft | $20 |
| A | 8 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 107 ft | 669 ft | $20 |
| A | 9 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 130 ft | 800 ft | $20 |
| B | 1 | day use | 286 ft | 252 ft | $50 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. 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
Red Mountain (MT)Dillon Field Office · 0.2 mi
Lee Metcalf WildernessDillon Field Office · 6.4 mi
Spanish Creek CabinGallatin National Forest · 14 miPotosi Campground and Picnic AreaBeaverhead National Forest · 17 mi
Spire Rock CampgroundGallatin National Forest · 21 miBranham Lakes Campground and Picnic AreaBeaverhead National Forest · 21 miFrom Bozeman; Head west on MT Hwy 84 (Norris Road). Continue on MT Hwy 84 for 20.5 miles. Turn left (south) at South Bear Trap Canyon Road. If you cross the Madison River you have just passed the turn.
From Norris; Head East on MT Hwy 84 (Norris Road) travel for 8 miles and turn right (south) at South Bear Trap Canyon Road after you cross the Madison River.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Norris, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 24°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Trapper Springs (MT) 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 →