★ Field-verified · Dave's ownUSFSFree
Park County
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · Park County, MT · 45.09630, -110.60541
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 free campground in the National Forest just north of Yellowstone. High-elevation, with picnic tables, fire rings, and an outhouse. Fairly remote, with numerous signs warning of bears. Located in wooded area adjacent to a clearing. A nice place to relax for a couple nights with convenient access to Yellowstone. Enough room for multiple vehicles. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 14 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 — Park 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 Park County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 7,152 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Park 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 Park 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
- FFuel7 mi
- GGrocery7 mi
- OOutfitter7 mi
- EVEV fast charger7 mi
- MMechanic7 mi
- LLaundry7 mi
- @Mail7 mi
- WWater16 mi
- ShShower20 mi
- DDump26 mi
- +Urgent care38 mi
- RxPharmacy38 mi
- HHardware39 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 7 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 — Park County
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
7,152 ft
Ground slope
6.5% · gentle
County
Park County, MT
Coordinates
45.09630, -110.60541
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Park County · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureBear Creek · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townJardine · ~2.3 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelSinclair · ~8.0 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~25.5 mi
- GroceriesKremer's C-Store · ~6.6 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
Yes
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Park County · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger6.6 mi straight-line SW — Gardiner, MT (at a public site) · RIVIAN_ADVENTURE · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 11 within 50 · 18 within 100 · 45 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)36.0 mi — Big Sky, MT - Tesla Supercharger, Big Sky
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO8.0 mi — GARDSINCLAIR DC FAST LEVEL 3, Gardiner
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)6.8 mi — Yellowstone Forever, Gardiner, MT (at a national park) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-06-06 · 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 391213 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Park County · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletTimber Camp · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBear Creek · ~1.0 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletEagle Creek · ~5.2 mi SW · USFS
- RestroomMAV003S - Vault Toilet, Boiling River/45th Paralle · ~8.3 mi SW · NPS
Coming out here — Park County · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Bear Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.2 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 6.5% — gentle. 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.
- 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 Park County elsewhere
Other camps near Park County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Bear Creek Road-005~0.2 mi
- Bear Creek Road-006~0.5 mi
- Ash Mtn Road-004~0.6 mi
- Bear Creek Road-004~0.7 mi
The unit that manages Park County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Park 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 Mill Creek at 7,420 ft, about 15 miles away. It sits about 268 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 — Park 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 (Park 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 14 October 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Park 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 — Park County
Winter vs summer roads →Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →How to read this page →All field notes →