West Fork Madison Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
West Fork is a small seven unit campground along the banks of the West Fork of the Madison River. The access road divides the campground with 2 sites north of the road and a 5 site loop on the south. Trailers are not permitted due to the tight, narrow turns and small camp spaces. This is a First Come - First Served campground. Reservations are not available. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing is available in both the West Fork and Madison Rivers. The West Fork road provides access to OHV trails and scenic drives in the Gravelly Mountains. There are hiking trails in Lee Metcalf Wilderness.
Facilities
There is a fire ring and picnic table in each campsite. There are bear-proof food storage lockers on each side of the campground. A water spigot and two outhouses are located in the loop.
Natural Features
The campground is located along the West Fork River, near it's confluence with the Madison, in a grove of old growth spruce and Douglas Fir. The vegetation is dense and shaded.
Nearby Attractions
The west entrance to Yellowstone National Park is less than 40 miles away.
What the agency tells you
There is a food storage order in effect. When unattended, all food and attractants must be stored in a bear proof manner in accordance with regulations.
Campsites must be attended the first night and may not be left unattended for more than a 24 hour period throughout the stay.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “A water spigot and two outhouses are located in the loop.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…on each side of the campground. A water spigot and two outhouses are located in the loop. Natural…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:28 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $12 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.
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 15:28 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
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.
| Standard | standard nonelectric | $12 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Riverview CampgroundBeaverhead National Forest · 0.2 mi
Madison River (MT)Beaverhead National Forest · 0.5 mi
Wade Lake (MT)Beaverhead National Forest · 5.4 miWade Lake Campground and Picnic AreasBeaverhead National Forest · 5.4 mi
Hilltop Campground (MT)Beaverhead National Forest · 5.8 mi
Cliff Point (MT)Beaverhead National Forest · 6.3 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Island Park, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 4°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
West Fork Madison 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 →