Haymaker WMA
SEASONAL -- this WMA is open only May 15 to Nov 30; it is CLOSED the rest of the year to protect big-game winter range. Do not plan a winter or early-spring night here. Haymaker Wildlife Management Area, managed by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (1,334 acres), FWP Region 5. FWP's own site record lists a designated primitive campsite here and its fee table shows no camping fee. IMPORTANT -- THIS IS NOT FREE LAND, even though the camping itself costs nothing: Montana requires a Conservation License of every person aged 12 and older to use an FWP wildlife management area FOR ANY REASON, not just to hunt or fish. It is $8/year for residents, $10/year for nonresidents ($4 for resident youth 12-17 and seniors 62+). Buy it before you arrive. There is no separate per-night camping fee. Camping is allowed only in areas FWP has designated or marked for it (ARM 12.12.107), for no more than 7 nights in any 30-day period statewide. Primitive: pack in / pack out, no hookups and no drinking water; no toilet is listed. BEAR COUNTRY -- black and possibly grizzly bears use this area. FWP requires food and attractants stored in a vehicle or a certified bear-resistant container. Carry bear spray. Access is partly or wholly walk-in from established roads and parking areas, so check the area's travel plan map before assuming you can drive to a site. Quiet hours are 10 p.m.-7 a.m. and certified weed-free feed is required for stock. We have not visited this site. Confirm the current season dates, the travel plan map and whether camping is still allowed with FWP Region 5 at (406)473-2504 before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Haymaker WMA · Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · MT
- @Mail12 mi
- GGrocery20 mi
- +Urgent care22 mi
- FFuel22 mi
- RxPharmacy33 mi
- LLaundry33 mi
- ShShower33 mi
- WWater37 mi
- MMechanic38 mi
- OOutfitter44 mi
- HHardware49 mi
- EVEV fast charger55 mi
The read: water is a real 37-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 20 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 55-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Dump, 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 — Haymaker WMA
Nearby & resupply — around Haymaker WMA · Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Nearest townMartinsdale Colony · ~8.6 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelSinclair · ~22.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesGrocery · ~20.4 mi
- Hospital / clinicBair Memorial Clinic · ~21.7 mi
EV charging — from Haymaker WMA · Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · MT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger55.2 mi straight-line S — Big Timber, MT - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 4 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 reachnone within 25 mi · none within 50 · 19 within 100 · 30 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS74.2 mi — Kendall Ford of Bozeman, Bozeman
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO74.8 mi — Audi of Bozeman, Bozeman
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)66.8 mi — Silos's Junction - Tesla Destination, Townsend, MT · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
- 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 102260 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Haymaker WMA · Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletHaymaker Dispersed · ~4.5 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletDaisy Dean Camp · ~6.3 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletJellison Place · ~8.8 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletSpring Creek · ~11.7 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Haymaker WMA · Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · MT
- No named surface water mapped within 1 mi of the pin in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset (data refreshed October 2022), and none within about a mile and a half in our OpenStreetMap pull — which is not proof there is none, only that neither map has one. Plan to carry washing water as well as drinking water.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 28.6% — 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.
- Practice a first night on real ground in Dispersed 3D, free in the browser. The game's ground is Montana's Lolo, Custer Gallatin and Beaverhead-Deerlodge forests and the Arizona desert at Quartzsite; this camp is not in it.
- 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 Haymaker WMA elsewhere
Other camps near Haymaker WMA
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Haymaker Dispersed~4.5 mi
- Daisy Dean Camp~6.3 mi
- Pierce Park Rd 189-6~7.1 mi
- Pierce Park Rd 189-7~7.2 mi
Who holds the land at Haymaker WMA
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Haymaker Wildlife Management Area, manager on record: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Region 5 (state). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Daisy Peak at 7,590 ft, about 6 miles away. It sits about 1,876 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 — Haymaker WMA
What we don’t know about Haymaker WMA
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