Mapped · not agency-listedPublic land · dispersedFree
Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT
Drive-up · public land · Carbon County, MT · 45.17108, -109.42424
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 →A mapped lead, not an agency listing. Somebody marked this as a campsite; we could not match it to a land-manager record. Worth checking rather than counting on. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
What the record says about the site — Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT
- Tent camping
- Trailers and RVs fit
- Informal, undeveloped site
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 7,249 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MTNIFC · 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 Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater4 mi
- FFuel8 mi
- GGrocery8 mi
- HHardware9 mi
- @Mail9 mi
- MMechanic9 mi
- OOutfitter9 mi
- +Urgent care24 mi
- DDump44 mi
- LLaundry47 mi
- EVEV fast charger47 mi
- RxPharmacy48 mi
- ShShower48 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 8 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 47-mi run (and back).
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 — Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
7,249 ft
Ground slope
15% · steep
County
Carbon County, MT
Coordinates
45.17108, -109.42424
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWest Fork Rock Creek · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Also mapped (OSM)Lower Basin Creek Lake (water) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townRankin Place · ~7.1 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~3.7 mi
- FuelFuel · ~8.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesBeartooth IGA · ~8.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicBeartooth Billings Clinic · ~9.3 mi
EV charging — from Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger46.9 mi straight-line NE — Laurel, MT - Tesla Supercharger (at a hotel) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 2 within 50 · 20 within 100 · 30 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS48.1 mi — DENNY MENHOLT CHEVROLET BUICK GMC, CODY
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO55.4 mi — Denny Menholt Nissan, Billings
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)47.9 mi — Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, WY (at a museum) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2023-03-08 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — City of Red Lodge - Tesla Destination, Red Lodge, 8.7 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
Level 2, restricted access — Super 8 by Wyndham - Cooke City, Cooke City, 26.8 mi · J1772 · hours: 24 hours daily; for guest use only; see front desk for access · AFDC lists it “Free” - 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 303733 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomCascade · ~1.3 mi W · USFS
- RestroomBasin · ~1.7 mi SE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBasin · ~1.9 mi SE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletTimberline · ~1.9 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps West Fork Rock Creek as a perennial stream, 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 15% — steep. 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.
- The game's day in this forest These lines are for the whole Custer Gallatin National Forest, not for this camp's own spot: a fire restriction is posted by county, and a forecast is for one point in the forest. A camp's own night can differ from that point, most in the mountains. Read when this page loads from the same daily files the game uses; every line says where it came from and when it was read.
- This camp's own spot: sun and fire record Worked out for this camp's recorded point from federal records, not for the whole forest. Every line says where it came from and when.
Sun behind the west ridge: (USGS 3DEP elevation, bare ground, 30-meter steps, finer close to camp; trees not counted; worked out October 15, 2026 for the 15th of each month, in this forest's clock; nobody has stood on it for this.)
Fire history: Inside the 2008 Cascade fire perimeter (10,174 acres), by the national fire history record. Inside the 2007 Timberline fire perimeter (10,174 acres), by the national fire history record. (NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History, read October 15, 2026. This says where the record draws the line at this camp's recorded point, not what the ground here is like.)
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- 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 Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT elsewhere
Other camps near Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Dispersed camp #4 — Carbon County, MT~0.3 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — MT #633~0.5 mi
- Dispersed camp #5 — Carbon County, MT~0.6 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — MT #606~0.7 mi
The unit that manages Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT are set by Custer Gallatin National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Cole Creek at 7,910 ft, about 4 miles away. It sits about 661 ft higher than this camp, so treat it as a guide rather than a reading for this spot. We do not repeat a depth here, because any number we stored would be stale by the time you read it — the station publishes today's.
How we know this — Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
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
auto: drive (road/trail right there)
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
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
Contributed, not agency-listed. A mapper marked this as a campsite. We have not matched it to a land-manager record, so it stays at Likely.
What we don’t know about Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT
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 — Dispersed camp #3 — Carbon County, MT
Winter vs summer roads →Finding water out here →Forest road numbers →Camping with a dog →All field notes →