Twin Lakes Cabin (MT)
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- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 29 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 · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Twin Lakes Cabin is located in a scenic evergreen forest in the Beaverhead Mountains of western Montana. It was built in the 1920s to provide housing for trail crews, smoke chasers, timber cruisers and grazing inspectors who worked in the area. Guests have access to a number of recreational opportunities, including hiking and mountain biking in the summer and fall, and snowmobiling, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing during the winter. The cabin is accessible by vehicle during the summer months, and until the snow closes the road. Guests may need to hike, snowmobile, ski or snowshoe up to 12 miles when the access road is closed. The cabin is equipped with a variety of amenities to provide an optimal outdoor experience; however, guests need to bring some of their own supplies and gear. Keep reading
Recreation
A variety of hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding trails exist in the area, including the Big Lake Creek Trail, which traverses four miles of terrain surrounding the lake. The nearby trails also provide access to the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. During winter months, the trails are popular for snowmobiling, cross country skiing and snowshoeing. Visitors should be prepared for unexpected avalanches. Fishing and non-motorized boating are enjoyed by visitors to Twin Lakes. Anglers might see a variety of trout, as well as arctic grayling and mountain whitefish. Power boats are limited to electric motors only on the lake.
Facilities
The wood-frame, one-room cabin sleeps up to four people and comes equipped with one bunk bed with mattresses and two folding cots. Other amenities include a wood-burning stove, propane cook stove, table and chairs, cupboard space, a food storage box, basic cooking and eating utensils, cookware, a propane lantern, axe, shovel, bucket and cleaning equipment. A wood stove is available for heat, and firewood and an axe are provided from September 16-June 15. You will need to provide your own firewood from June 16-September 15. An outhouse with vault toilet is located nearby. The cabin has no electricity or running water. Guests will need to bring their own water for drinking, cooking and cleaning during the fall, winter and spring. Water is available from June to Sepember from a hand pump located near the cabin. Water can be taken from the mountain lake or streams, but it must be treated prior to use. Fuel is not provided for the cook stove or lantern, so guests need to bring 16-ounce propane canisters. Other items to bring include bedding, food, toilet paper, towels, matches, flashlights, garbage bags and maps, among other necessities. Guests are required to carry out all trash and food and clean the cabin prior to leaving.
Natural Features
The cabin is located in a heavily wooded area at the base of Squaw and Jumbo peaks on the shore of the 75-acre Twin Lakes. It is situated at an elevation of about 7,200 feet in the Beaverhead Mountains, a subrange of the Bitterroot Range that divides Montana and the neighboring state of Idaho. Extensive conifer forests provide habitat for a large elk herd that winters in Idaho and summers in Montana. Marshy glacial valleys in the area constitute some of the best moose habitat in the state. Other wildlife in the area includes mountain goats, bighorn sheep, lynx, marten, deer and black bears ( learn more about bear safety ).
What the agency tells you
Twin Lakes Cabin is only accessible by motorized vehicle from July 1-September 30, or until the snow closes the road. The remaining months of the year the cabin can only be accessed by snowmobiling, skiing, snowshoeing, all-terrain vehicles, hiking or horseback. Distance to the cabin varies by the snow conditions and can be as far as 12 miles.
Guests must bring their own water for drinking, cooking and cleaning. Water is available from June to September from a hand pump located near the cabin.
Propane fuel is not provided.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Firewood is only provided from October 1-June 15. Firewood is not provided June 16-September 30.
This facility is located in a remote area; before making a reservation, become aware of bear , water and weather safety, including avalanche danger.
All garbage and food must be packed out.
Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to hantavirus when visiting remote cabins; click here to learn more.
Learn more about the Beaverhead-Deerlodge 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.
The reservation cabin is locked between visitors. The padlock code will be provided to you when you confirm your reservation. You do not need to call the Wisdom District Office to obtain the cabin padlock code.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…June 16-September 15. An outhouse with vault toilet is located nearby. The cabin has no electricity or…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “Water is available from June to Sepember from a hand pump located near the cabin.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:36 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 15:29 UTC. See them
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on three midweek nights after it as well. 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.
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
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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 15:29 UTC
- Price Creek Campground (MT)Beaverhead National Forest · 30 mi · 1 of 1 site-night open
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 TWIN LAKES CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 89 ft | $55 |
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
Miner Lake CampgroundBeaverhead National Forest · 7.7 mi
Tower Rock CampgroundSalmon Field Office · 13 mi
Morgan Bar CampgroundSalmon Field Office · 15 miSouth Van Houten CampgroundBeaverhead National Forest · 15 mi
May Creek CabinBeaverhead National Forest · 17 miWallace Lake CampgroundSalmon National Forest · 19 miFrom Wisdom, MT, travel south on Highway 278 approximately 6 miles. If coming from Jackson, MT travel north on Highway 278 for approximately 12 miles. Turn west onto the Twin Lakes Road, follow for 8 miles, turn left Forest Road 945 continuing approximately 5 miles to Forest Road 183. Turn west onto Forest Road 183 for approximately 6 miles, turn northwest onto Forest Road 183A for approximately 1 mile. The cabin is located in Twin Lakes campground on the shores of the lake. Once you are in the campground turn left at the bulletin board. The cabin is located between Site #2 and Site #5. A map of the area may be necessary to reach the cabin and can be purchased by calling the Wisdom Ranger District.
Snowfall prohibits convenient access to the cabin throughout most of the year. Guests must snowmobile, ski, snowshoe or hike up to 12 miles to the cabin during the winter and spring months from the end of the plowed road. The route is marked with orange diamond stakes in the ground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Jackson, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 8°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
Twin Lakes Cabin (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 →
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 Twin Lakes Cabin (MT), Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Twin Lakes Cabin (MT), Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Twin Lakes Cabin (MT) 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. Twin Lakes Cabin (MT) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Twin Lakes Cabin (MT). 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 Twin Lakes Cabin (MT) (Beaverhead 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 Twin Lakes Cabin (MT), Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Twin Lakes Cabin (MT), Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Twin Lakes Cabin (MT) 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. Twin Lakes Cabin (MT) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Twin Lakes Cabin (MT). 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 Twin Lakes Cabin (MT) (Beaverhead 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 Twin Lakes Cabin (MT), Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Twin Lakes Cabin (MT), Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Twin Lakes Cabin (MT) 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. Twin Lakes Cabin (MT) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Twin Lakes Cabin (MT). 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 Twin Lakes Cabin (MT) (Beaverhead National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com