West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT)
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 16 mi
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 16:38 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
The West Fork of Rock Creek Cabin is located on the western edge of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest and is open for reservations year-round. It is a large cabin that provides a great experience in the mountains of southwestern Montana. The cabin offers access to numerous trails and wildlife viewing, as well as a comfortable place to picnic and spend the nights. The West Fork of Rock Creek is located just behind the cabin and is great spot to go fishing or take a quick dip to cool off in the warm summer months. Keep reading
There are three cabins at the site, which was once used as a Forest Service Guard Station and later as a youth camp. Only the large cabin has been restored and is available to the public. The smaller cabins are damaged and are not currently available to rent. The site can typically be accessed by vehicle, depending on conditions. Excessive snowfall may require renters to walk about 200 yards from the plowed highway to the cabin. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring all of their own amenities. This is a historic structure and is brought to you as a rental by the US Forest Service Historical Preservation Committee, the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest and the Pintler Ranger District. Please help us keep it nice for future generations and respect the historic nature of this cabin.
Recreation
A variety of hiking is available in the area, as well as ample wildlife viewing. Visitors enjoy cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, and snowshoeing in the winter. The cabin is about 45 minutes from Discovery Ski area as well. There is great hiking in open sage across the highway from the cabin, but there is no trail. Fishing is popular in the many clear mountain streams adjacent to the cabin, and the blue ribbon trout stream Rock Creek is nearby. Anglers may see plentiful trout populations, as the area is known for some of the world's finest trout streams. It is illegal to target Bull Trout, if caught they must be released immediately with minimal handling. Participants must have Montana licenses to hunt or fish. The cabin is located along the scenic Skalkaho Highway 38, which links Hamilton and Philipsburg, in southwestern Montana. The drive into the Sapphire Mountains is primitive and was once a trail widely used by Native Americans. The roadway was built to provide access between mining areas and agricultural communities in the Bitterroot Valley. The road leads to Skalkaho Falls in the nearby Bitterroot National Forest; the road is closed to wheeled vehicle traffic in the winter, and is accessible by snow machine.
Facilities
This two story log cabin has beds and table settings for up to 6 guests. The cabin has electrical lights, oven, refrigerator, baseboard heater, and outlets. It has a oak table and chairs in the dining room, a large couch and rocking chair in the living room, and various tables and chairs located through out. A wood stove is located downstairs. We recommend bringing along a personal water filter for the water pump on site, or bring your own drinking water. Water from the stream must be filtered or treated prior to consumption. The kitchen has a counter top, cupboards, sink, plates, bowls, cups, silverware for 6 people, pots, pans, cast iron, french press, kitchen utensils (spatula, large spoon, knives, cutting board, can opener, cheese grater), sponges/scour pads, Battery Powered LED Lantern (D batteries), mop, broom, washbasins, dish rack, splitting maul, hatchet, cleaning products, and rags. Paper towels, matches, toilet paper, garbage bags, newspaper, and hand sanitizer are stocked monthly. There is a picnic table and fire ring located outside. The entrance is gated and locked with a combination code to provide guests privacy. There is a very large parking area and circle driveway beside the cabin that will easily accommodate RV's and Travel Trailers. (There are NO hook-ups) A vault toilet is located a short distance north of the cabin. Firewood is almost always available but cannot be guaranteed. There is little to no cell phone service available in the area. Guests are asked to replenish the supply of split wood and kindling, pack out all trash and food, and clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
The log cabin is situated near the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness in an open meadow surrounded by evergreens. The area is known for its high, rugged, and beautiful mountain scenery. There is a resident herd of bighorn sheep near the cabin. The cabin is in prime wildlife habitat, and it is not uncommon to see elk, moose, deer, mountain lions, and bears(grizzly and black). Moose are frequently near the cabin and should not be approached ( learn more about bear safety . The cabin is in a large, fenced pasture and horses may be turned loose but you must check the fence for damage before using it. As a reminder, pelletized or certified weed seed free feed and straw is required in all National Forests in Montana; please plan accordingly. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (406) 859-8230.
Nearby Attractions
Moose Lake Day use area, 20 minutes south Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness Trailheads, 20-30 minutes south on Moose Lake Road Gem Mountain Sapphire Mine https://gemmountainmt.com/ The Town of Philipsburg http://www.visitphilipsburg.com/ , 20 minute drive Skalkaho Pass and Skalkaho Falls, 30 minutes west on Skalkaho highway Main fork of Rock Creek, Middle fork of Rock Creek, and North Fork of Rock Creek are all within 10 minutes Charges & Cancellations Reservations are nonrefundable unless extenuating circumstances warrant otherwise. Determination will be made on a case by case basis.
What the agency tells you
For questions and concerns, please call the Pintler Ranger District at (406) 859-3211, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The cabin remains locked; a confirmation email containing the lock combination will be sent after booking, please check the email for the combo. Feel free to call the ranger station to confirm the code prior to your booking.
All food and garbage must be packed out.
There is potable water provided at the cabin from a hand pump. This water is tested monthly for potability and, while safe to drink, it does have heavy mineralization. Guests may want to bring in their own drinking water if they do not want to drink water with heavy mineral content.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Hantavirus; guests should be aware of the risk of exposure to Hantavirus while staying in the cabin. Please visit http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/hps/transmission.html for more information about Hantavirus.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Spotty
Full this Saturdayread 16:38 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Thu, Oct 22. read 16:38 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
“Reservations are nonrefundable unless extenuating circumstances warrant otherwise. Determination will be made on a case by case basis.” · 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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:38 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
| AREA WEST FORK ROCK CREEK CABIN | 001 | cabin electric | 398 ft |
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
Stony CabinDeerlodge National Forest · 8.7 miCrystal Creek CampgroundDeerlodge National Forest · 9.0 miEast Fork Group Picnic AreaDeerlodge National Forest · 11 mi
Moose Lake CabinDeerlodge National Forest · 11 miSpillway CampgroundDeerlodge National Forest · 11 miFrom Philipsburg, travel south on Highway 1 for just over 6 miles. Turn right onto Skalkaho Highway/Highway 38 and travel west for about 13 miles. The entrance to the cabin is on the left, behind a locked gate, which uses the same key code as the cabin. The last 200 yards of the road may be closed due to snowfall during the winter months. Maps may be purchased by calling the Pintler Ranger District.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 26°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 10°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
West Fork Of Rock Creek 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 West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT), Deerlodge National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT), Deerlodge National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at West Fork Of Rock Creek 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run West Fork Of Rock Creek 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 West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT) (Deerlodge 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 West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT), Deerlodge National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT), Deerlodge National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at West Fork Of Rock Creek 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run West Fork Of Rock Creek 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 West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT) (Deerlodge 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 West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT), Deerlodge National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT), Deerlodge National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at West Fork Of Rock Creek 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run West Fork Of Rock Creek 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 West Fork Of Rock Creek Cabin (MT) (Deerlodge National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…available but cannot be guaranteed. There is little to no cell phone service available in the area. Guests are asked to…”