Agency-listedBureau of ReclamationFree
Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area
Drive-up · U.S. Bureau of Reclamation · MT · 45.12914, -112.74127
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →U.S. Bureau of Reclamation lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Free camping at Bureau of Reclamation's Barretts Diversion Dam on the Beaverhead River, about 8 miles south of Dillon and 11 miles north of Clark Canyon Dam, just off I-15. READ THIS CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU RELY ON IT: Reclamation's brochure says of Barretts that "many people stop and use the facilities offered free to the public" and that "Day use as well as limited overnight camping is available." Those are two separate sentences -- Reclamation plainly says the facilities are free and plainly says overnight camping is allowed, but it never says in one breath that the camping itself is free, so we have listed this at lower confidence than the Clark Canyon campgrounds. The word "limited" is Reclamation's, not ours: this is a small site, not a campground loop. A large group-use shelter on the south side of the river is popular for weddings and family reunions and can be reserved through the Dillon Field Office, so it may well be booked. The site has historic interest -- Lewis and Clark wrote about the "Rattlesnake Cliffs" here, and between 1866 and 1880 this was a toll road, post office and store. Reclamation does not publish a stay limit for these campgrounds anywhere we could find -- you will see "14 nights" repeated on camping websites, but that number does not appear in any Reclamation document, so treat it as unconfirmed and ask the Dillon Field Office. Call the Dillon Field Office at (406) 683-6472 and confirm both the price and that overnight camping is still allowed before you count on this one. We have not visited it.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 5,260 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Barretts Diversion Dam Camping AreaNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area · U.S. Bureau of Reclamation · MT
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel1 mi
- MMechanic8 mi
- LLaundry8 mi
- GGrocery9 mi
- DDump9 mi
- WWater18 mi
- EVEV fast charger28 mi
- @Mail34 mi
- OOutfitter34 mi
- ShShower55 mi
- +Urgent care56 mi
- RxPharmacy60 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 1 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Elevation
5,260 ft
Ground slope
0.6% · flat
Nearest rail line
under 0.1 mi · main line
Nearest highway
~0.1 mi · Interstate 15
State
MT
Coordinates
45.12914, -112.74127
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area · U.S. Bureau of Reclamation · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureBeaverhead River · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townBarretts · ~0.2 mi
- Nearest rail lineunder 0.1 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~0.1 mi · Interstate 15
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelChevron · ~0.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~8.8 mi
- GroceriesSafeway · ~8.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicBarrett Hospital & Healthcare · ~6.8 mi
EV charging — from Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area · U.S. Bureau of Reclamation · MT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger28.0 mi straight-line S — Dell Mercantile (Dell, MT) · Electrify America · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 2 within 50 · 20 within 100 · 46 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)35.1 mi — Lima, MT - Tesla Supercharger, Lima
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO83.0 mi — Island Park City Offices, Island Park
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)7.4 mi — UMW #1 STATION 1, Dillon, MT · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 121712 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area · U.S. Bureau of Reclamation · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletBarretts Park CXT Single Vault Building · at this camp · BoR
- Vault / pit toiletBarretts Park-Precast Vault Toilet Building · at this camp · BoR
- Vault / pit toiletBarretts Park-Precast Vault Toilet Building · at this camp · BoR
- Vault / pit toiletBarretts Park CXT Single Vault Building · at this camp · BoR
Coming out here — Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area · U.S. Bureau of Reclamation · MT
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Beaverhead River as a perennial river, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 0.6% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- Rail line mapped under 0.1 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- Interstate 15 is mapped ~0.1 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area elsewhere
Other camps near Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Beaverhead River Campground (Clark Canyon)~10.3 mi
- Beaverhead Campground (Clark Canyon)~10.7 mi
- Horse Prairie Campground (Clark Canyon)~12.1 mi
- Cameahwait Campground (Clark Canyon)~12.6 mi
How we know this — Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area
Stay limit
None published
Source
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
Provenance: USBR facilities record for Clark Canyon Reservoir, Fees block verbatim: "Area Entrance no / Campgrounds no / Picnic Areas no / Boat Launch Facilities no / Parking no / Other yes" with "Campgrounds 9 / Campsites 96"; Cooperator (managing entity) = "Bureau of Reclamation, 1200 Highway 41 East, Dillon MT 59725" (usbr.gov/gp/recreation/ccrrec.html, page states "Last Updated: 9/29/17"). Reclamation's Clark Canyon brochure covers Barretts Diversion Dam on the same project and states verbatim: "Even today many people stop and use the facilities offered free to the public. Day use as well as limited overnight camping is available." The Reclamation MTAO project page (usbr.gov/gp/mtao/clarkcanyon/, "Last Updated: 3/16/23") confirms recreation on Clark Canyon Reservoir AND Barretts Diversion Dam is managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. Rated 'med' NOT 'high' because the free-ness and the camping are asserted in two separate sentences and no fee table entry is specific to Barretts. No stay limit is published by Reclamation in the facilities record, the brochure or the map, and recreation.gov's Clark Canyon gateway contains none of the words free/fee/night/stay/limit. The widely repeated "free for up to a 14 night stay" is aggregator-only and is NOT asserted here. Coordinate from OpenStreetMap node/12113075963 ("Barretts Station Campground", tourism=camp_site), which lies 390 ft from OSM node/357923686 "Barretts Dam"; that this OSM object is Reclamation's site is INFERRED FROM POSITION and is not stated by either source -- flagged in field_note. Verified and ingested 2026-07-21 00:37:18.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Barretts Diversion Dam Camping Area
Finding water out here →Cold-weather camping →Fire rules & restrictions →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →