Zips Place Cabin
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 26 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 28 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 · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Zip's Place Cabin is located 48 miles east of Hungry Horse, in northwestern Montana. It provides a beautiful setting on property that was originally a homestead granted in 1937. In 1945 the land was bought by the Kimmet family of Cut Bank, and in 1954 the family constructed the cabin that resides there today. Visitors enjoy a variety of recreational activities, including hiking, biking, winter sports and viewing wildlife. The cabin can be accessed by vehicle during the summer months. The summer parking area is approximately 120 ft. Keep reading
from the cabin, some visitors find a cart to be helpful to transport gear to the cabin. During the winter months when snow is present or when the road conditions are impassable, guests must park at the designated winter parking area and hike, snowmobile, ski, or snowshoe approximately one mile to the cabin. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities.
Recreation
Hiking and mountain biking are popular activities in warmer months. Cross country skiing, snowmobiling and snow shoeing entertain visitors in winter. Elk and moose are among the native animals that may be spotted in the area.
Facilities
The rustic cabin can accommodate up to eight guests. Amenities include a vault toilet, electric stove, coffee maker, refrigerator, microwave oven, lights, electric and propane heat, pots and pans, utensils and cutlery, dishes and cleaning items. Pets are allowed, but cleaning up after them is required. Electricity is provided but water is only available from a well hand-pump June 1 to November 30. Guests should bring food, bedding and basic camp gear, including a first aid kit. The cabin can be accessed by vehicle during the summer months. The summer parking area is approximately 120 ft. from the cabin, some visitors find a cart to be helpful to transport gear to the cabin. During the winter months when snow is present or when the road conditions are impassable, guests must park at the designated winter parking area and hike, snowmobile, ski, or snowshoe approximately one mile to the cabin. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities.
Natural Features
The cabin entrance faces a large grassy lawn area. The rear backs up to a stand of lodgepole pine and Douglas fir trees. A small stream runs behind the cabin. The Hungry Horse Ranger District is bordered on the east by the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and Glacier National Park. It also covers part of the 286,700-acre Great Bear Wilderness.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Hungry Horse, located an hour away, offers a variety of conveniences like grocery stores and gas stations.
What the agency tells you
There is a maximum stay of three consecutive nights with a total of seven days per calendar year.
The cabin remains locked; a combination lock code will be included in the reservation confirmation letter.
Contact the ranger district at (406) 387-3800 during normal office hours for updates on weather and road conditions.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Bears frequent the area; keep all food, beverages, coolers and garbage inside the cabin.
Please bring garbage bags and take all trash out of the facility.
Minor maintenance work may be conducted during cabin rental period.
Conserve propane by minimizing use of lights and setting thermostat at 55 degrees when outside of cabin.
Commercial use of cabin is prohibited.
Click here for more information on the Flathead 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.
Check-out time is 1200 pm. Check-in time is 2 pm.
Refunds will not be given for inclement weather
This is a remote cabin that may be unoccupied for extended periods of time. Mice may be present in cabin - there are supplies to trap mice and remove safely in cabin. Please do your part to help mitigate rodents by picking up food crumbs, cleaning thoroughly, and trapping mice if they are present.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…up to eight guests. Amenities include a vault toilet, electric stove, coffee maker, refrigerator,…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Night sky · 110th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 16:36 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Tue, Oct 20. 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 · 13
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 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 ZIPS PLACE CABIN | 001 | cabin electric | 20 ft | 44 ft | $70 |
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
Devil Creek CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 2.4 mi
Challenge CabinFlathead National Forest · 4.5 miSummit CampgroundLewis & Clark National Forest · 4.9 mi
Two Medicine CampgroundGlacier National Park · 16 miDevil's Corkscrew CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 17 miPeter's Creek CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 18 miFrom Hungry Horse, travel east on U.S. Highway 2 for 48 miles, to mile marker 191. Travel south on Geifer Greek/Lodgepole Lane (a gravel road that veers left initially). Follow the signs to the cabin.
During the winter months or when the road conditions are impassable, renters must park at the designated parking area and hike, snowmobile, ski or snowshoe about a mile to the cabin. Please respect the adjacent property owners and do not block the driveway.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Snowslip, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 49°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 15°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Zips Place 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 Zips Place Cabin, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Ryan K. Zinke, I’m a constituent in Montana’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Zips Place Cabin, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Zips Place 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. Zips Place Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Zips Place 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 Zips Place Cabin (Flathead 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 Zips Place Cabin, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Steve Daines, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Zips Place Cabin, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Zips Place 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. Zips Place Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Zips Place 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 Zips Place Cabin (Flathead 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 Zips Place Cabin, Flathead National Forest, Montana
Dear Tim Sheehy, I’m a constituent in Montana. I tried to camp at Zips Place Cabin, Flathead National Forest, Montana, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Zips Place 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. Zips Place Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Zips Place 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 Zips Place Cabin (Flathead National Forest, Montana) via campanac.com