★ Field-verified · Dave's ownUSFS · dispersedFree
Gallatin County
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · Gallatin County, MT · 44.69494, -111.26496
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 →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on U.S. Forest Service land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
A secluded, primitive campsite in the National Forest west of Yellowstone, near the city of West Yellowstone. Next to picturesque creek, and features a fire ring, but no other conveniences. This is a nice place to stay due to its proximity to town and Yellowstone. Other boondockers may be present at neighboring sites. Some cell service. Enough room for one or two vehicles. Somewhat recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 17 October 2018. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Gallatin County · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT
No MVUM road within 1 mi of the pin; access may be a county road or unmapped.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Gallatin County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 6,822 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Gallatin CountyNIFC · 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 Gallatin County · 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
- FFuel6 mi
- LLaundry8 mi
- HHardware8 mi
- ShShower8 mi
- DDump8 mi
- GGrocery8 mi
- @Mail8 mi
- OOutfitter8 mi
- EVEV fast charger9 mi
- MMechanic17 mi
- WWater20 mi
- +Urgent care27 mi
- RxPharmacy54 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 20-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 6 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 — Gallatin County
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service · dispersed
Elevation
6,822 ft
Ground slope
15.2% · steep
County
Gallatin County, MT
Coordinates
44.69494, -111.26496
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Gallatin County · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWest Fork Denny Creek · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townHebgen Lake Estates · ~6.3 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelExxon · ~5.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~8.3 mi
- GroceriesGrocery · ~8.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicOld Faithful Clinic · ~26.9 mi
- HardwareWestmart · ~8.2 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
Had a signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Gallatin County · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger8.6 mi straight-line E — West Yellowstone, MT - Tesla Supercharger (at an other entertainment) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 6 within 50 · 28 within 100 · 55 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS19.5 mi — Island Park City Offices, Island Park
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO19.5 mi — Island Park City Offices, Island Park
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)19.4 mi — SpringHill Suites Island Park Yellowstone · Blink Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Holiday Inn West Yellowstone - Tesla Destination, West Yellowstone, 8.2 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · 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 102267 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Gallatin County · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletBasin Station · ~1.7 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletHorse Butte · ~5.1 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletSpring Creek Camp Area · ~6.2 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletRainbow Point Campground · ~7.3 mi NE · USFS
Coming out here — Gallatin County · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps West Fork Denny 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 15.2% — 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.
- 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 Gallatin County elsewhere
Other camps near Gallatin County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Lonesomehurst 1~2.9 mi
- Lonesomehurst Campground~3.2 mi · fee
- Cherrycr Disp 2~3.4 mi
- Cherrycr Disp 1~3.5 mi
The unit that manages Gallatin County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Gallatin County 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 Whiskey Creek at 6,790 ft, about 8 miles away. That is about the height of this camp, so it is a fair proxy. 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 — Gallatin County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Gallatin County, MT). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
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
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 17 October 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Gallatin County
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.
- How many rigs actually fit
- 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 — Gallatin County
Winter vs summer roads →Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →How to read this page →All field notes →