Vigilante Cabin
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 15:26 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Vigilante Cabin, also known as the Vigilante Middle House, offers a comfortable place to stay deep in the mountains of southwestern Montana along the Ruby River between the Snowcrest and Gravelly Ranges. The house boasts two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and has electricity and seasonal water. A bathroom, with a toilet and shower,is usually available from May - September. It is close to many outdoor recreation opportunities, including fishing, hiking and hunting, as well as off-road vehicle trails and gold panning. The house was constructed in 1925 and served as the Ruby District headquarters. Keep reading
In the 1930s a Civilian Conservation Corp camp was established at the site and the adjacent houses and garage were constructed. The site also then served as a range experiment station. The white clapboard middle house is available for rent, while the two other houses on the property are still used by Forest Service personnel and volunteers throughout the year. Though usually quiet, this can be a busy site when work crews are using those adjacent facilities. The cabin is accessible throughout most of the year by vehicle; however, a portion of the road may be difficult to navigate when wet or snow-covered and the last mile may not be plowed in winter . Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring some of their own amenities.
Recreation
Guests can enjoy fishing the Ruby River for mountain whitefish and rainbow trout. Gold panning is also possible in a section of the river near the cabin. Big game hunting is possible in designated areas. Appropriate licenses are required. A variety of hiking trails and points of exploration exist around the cabin. Off-road vehicle trails are also available in the area. During winter months, guests enjoy snowmobiling and snowshoeing on the many nearby trails. Snowmobile use is not allowed on the Forest prior to December 2 of each year.
Facilities
The large, two-bedroom cabin has a bunkbed and single bed with mattresses in each bedroom to sleep up to six people. It has electric lights and a water heater, though water is limited to May through September. The kitchen is equipped with an electric oven and stovetop, refrigerator, table and chairs, cookware and utensils. A wood stove heats the cabin, and firewood is provided, for inside use only. We do our best to keep the firewood stocked. However there is no guarantee that firewood will be available for your stay. Please consider bringing your own wood The living room is fully furnished, and there is a functioning bathroom during the summer months, with running water, a sink, shower and a flush toilet. The bathroom is sealed off when the water system at the cabin is winterized. An outhouse with vault toilet is available east of the house. A picnic table and a fire ring are provided but guests must supply their own wood for campfires. Guests need to bring their own water, including enough for cleaning, from October to May. Other items to bring include bedding, pillows, towels, soap, matches, flashlight and garbage bags, among other necessities. Guests are asked to replenish the supply of split wood and kindling inside the cabin, clean the cabin prior to leaving and pack out all food and garbage. If it came with you, it should leave with you.
Natural Features
Located along the Ruby River, the facility stands at an elevation of about 6,100 feet between the Snowcrest and Gravelly mountain ranges. It sits in a mostly open and grassy area with just a few cotttonwood trees around it, offering views of the nearby peaks. A variety of wildlife makes its home in the area, including elk, mule deer, black and grizzly bears, mountain grouse, and other species ( learn more about bear safety ).
What the agency tells you
This facility is located in a remote and wild area; before making a reservation, become aware of bear, water and weather safety
The cabin remains locked; cabin code is available with your paid receipt. If you do not receive the code, contact Madison Ranger District, 406-682-4253, weekdays 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Guests must bring their own water from October through May
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Cell phone coverage is minimal to none
A mandatory food storage order is in effect annually between March 1 and December 1 to ensure all food is properly stored and unavailable to wildlife; please contactthe Madison Ranger District for more details
Private horses are not allowed at the site
Please do not chop wood on the porch. The wood provided is for use in the wood stove only. Campfires are no longer permitted at this site. We do our best to keep the firewood stocked. However there is no guarantee that firewood will be available for your stay, especially in late winter and early spring. Please call us for firewood information.
Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to hantavirus when visiting remote cabins; click here to learn more
Rodent poison may be used in cabin; take appropriate precautions to prevent ingestion by children or pets
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.
Be aware this facility is not cleaned between user visits. Please bring cleaning supplies for your visit. Renters are required to clean facility before leaving. We are doing the best we can to keep facilities open and available to the public so your cooperation is appreciated.
Earliest check in time is 3:00 PM and latest checkout time is 11:AM
Maximum occupancy at the cabin and within the administrative site is 8 people. Additional people, tents or camping units are not permitted.
There is a 7 day maximum stay limit within a 30 day rolling time period. Making additional reservations in the name of another member of the group is not permissible. The same people can not be there more than 7 days under any reservation name.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS (SEASONAL) on 1 of 1 campsite records / VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (PEAK SEASON) on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 15:26 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:26 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 15:26 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 VIGILANTE CABIN | 001 | cabin electric | 404 ft | $75 |
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
Black Butte CabinBeaverhead National Forest · 9.6 mi
Wall Creek CabinBeaverhead National Forest · 13 mi
Notch CabinBeaverhead National Forest · 13 miRuby Creek CampgroundDillon Field Office · 15 miFrom Sheridan, travel south on Highway 287 for about 10 miles to Alder. Turn south on Ruby River Road and continue about 22 miles to Vigilante Station. The last 20 miles are on a gravel road, which can be slippery when wet or snow-covered. The gate lock code is the same as the cabin. Maps of the area may be purchased by calling the Madison Ranger District.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Virginia City, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 14°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
Vigilante 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 Vigilante Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Vigilante Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Vigilante 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Vigilante Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Vigilante 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 Vigilante Cabin (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 Vigilante Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Vigilante Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Vigilante 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Vigilante Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Vigilante 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 Vigilante Cabin (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 Vigilante Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Vigilante Cabin, Beaverhead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Vigilante 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Vigilante Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Vigilante 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 Vigilante Cabin (Beaverhead National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com