Whitetail Cabin
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 33 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 29 of the next 30 nights read 15:19 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Whitetail Cabin sits at an altitude of 4,048 feet in the north end of the Custer National Forest approximately 20 miles from Ashland, Montana. The cabin was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Formerly a ranger station, it is now a registered historic site. The cabin is available year-round and is accessible by car, but guests should be prepared to hike about 100 yards to the cabin in winter, depending on road conditions. Some creature comforts are provided, but guests will need to bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding are popular options in the area. Horse facilities are provided at the cabin. In winter, the landscape is ideal for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The cabin is popular with hunters during elk, deer and turkey hunting seasons.
Facilities
The 2-room cabin sleeps 4 and comes furnished with 2 sets of bunkbeds with mattresses, a table with 4 chairs, electric range, electric refrigerator, cleaning equipment and some basic cooking and eating utensils. A wood burning stove is provided, along with a limited supply of firewood. A picnic table and campfire ring are located in front of the cabin. An outhouse with pit toilet is located nearby. Horse facilities include a corral, 1 hitching rails and approximately 5 acres of fenced area to contain livestock. Seasonal spring water can be used for livestock consumption only, but guests should call the Ranger District to check water availability in advance. No water is available at the cabin. Guests must bring their own supply of water for drinking, cooking and washing. Items such as bedding, lanterns or flashlights, matches, extra toilet paper, first aid supplies, trash bags, dish soap, and towels are not available. Guests are expected to pack out their trash and clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
The cabin sits in an open area backed by a stand of ponderosa pine. It is located in the Ashland Ranger District, which features a landscape of ponderosa pines and steep rocky outcroppings. Custer National Forest supports populations of bear, mule and whitetail deer, antelope, elk, cougar and bobcat ( bear precautions ). A variety of birds also inhabit the area.
What the agency tells you
Guests must provide their own water for drinking, cooking and washing
This is bear country; guests should keep all food, trash and scented products inside the cabin
Supplemental livestock feed must be certified weed-free
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Guests must pack out all trash and clean cabin before departure
Guests should fill out a condition report when the wood supply is running low
Guests should contact the District Office at (406) 784-2344 to check on weather and road conditions that might affect their visit
Learn more about Custer 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…in front of the cabin. An outhouse with pit toilet is located nearby. Horse facilities include a…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…to check water availability in advance. No water is available at the cabin. Guests must bring their…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- Biking
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
Full this Saturdayread 15:19 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 15:19 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 · 12
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 15:19 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 WHITETAIL CABIN | 001 | cabin electric | 1.5 miGriffin Pass Reservoir | $65 |
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
Diamond Butte LookoutCuster National Forest · 27 miPumpkin Creek Recreation Area29 miFrom Ashland, Montana, take Highway 212 east for approximately 5 miles to East Fork Otter Creek Road. Turn northeast onto East Fork Otter Creek Road and travel 12 miles to Whitetail Cabin.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ashland, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January 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
Whitetail Cabin is in Montana’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Troy Downing (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 moneyTroy DowningU.S. Representative · Montana’s 2nd 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 Whitetail Cabin, Custer National Forest, Montana
Dear Troy Downing, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Whitetail Cabin, Custer National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Whitetail 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. Whitetail Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Whitetail 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 Whitetail Cabin (Custer 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 Whitetail Cabin, Custer National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Whitetail Cabin, Custer National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Whitetail 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. Whitetail Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Whitetail 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 Whitetail Cabin (Custer 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 Whitetail Cabin, Custer National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Whitetail Cabin, Custer National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Whitetail 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. Whitetail Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Whitetail 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 Whitetail Cabin (Custer National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com