Agency-listedUSFS · dispersedFreeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Rice Ridge 01
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · MT · 47.24764, -113.51662
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. Forest Service lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Rice Ridge 01 · Lolo National Forest · MT
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 685 (Sawyer Creek), 80 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as native material surface and maintenance level 3 – suitable for passenger cars.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 685 (Sawyer Creek), 80 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles May 1 – Nov 30. That season ends after Nov 30.
MVUM record for FR 685 (Sawyer Creek): “05/01-11/30” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-27; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
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 Rice Ridge 01
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4,877 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Rice Ridge 01NIFC · 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 Rice Ridge 01 · Lolo National Forest · MT
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel5 mi
- HHardware5 mi
- LLaundry5 mi
- ShShower5 mi
- @Mail5 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- +Urgent care6 mi
- DDump18 mi
- RxPharmacy28 mi
- MMechanic33 mi
- EVEV fast charger33 mi
- WWater34 mi
- OOutfitter34 mi
- AAir-up34 mi
- PPropane44 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 34-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 5 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 33-mi run (and back).
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 — Rice Ridge 01
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service · dispersed
Elevation
4,877 ft
Ground slope
12.8% · noticeable
State
MT
Coordinates
47.24764, -113.51662
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Rice Ridge 01 · Lolo National Forest · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSawyer Creek · ~0.1 mi · USGS: intermittent stream
- Also mapped (OSM)Clearwater River (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townSeeley Lake · ~5.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelSinclair · ~24.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesMontana gas N shop · ~5.8 mi
- PharmacySt. Ignatius Tribal Health Pharmacy · ~28.0 mi
EV charging — from Rice Ridge 01 · Lolo National Forest · MT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger33.4 mi straight-line SW — Missoula, MT - Tesla Supercharger (at a hotel) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 6 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 · 7 within 50 · 26 within 100 · 35 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS34.2 mi — Missoula Chevrolet, Missoula
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO35.2 mi — Walmart 3259 (Missoula, MT), Missoula
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)28.4 mi — Gray Wolf Peak Casino, Missoula, MT · 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 — Trixi's Saloon - Tesla Destination, Ovando, 24.3 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 102266 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Rice Ridge 01 · Lolo National Forest · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletClearwater River Canoe Trailhead · ~1.7 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMorrell Falls Trailhead · ~3.6 mi NE · USFS
- Flush restroomSeeley Lake Campground Complex · ~3.8 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletLake Inez Campground Complex · ~4.1 mi NW · USFS
Coming out here — Rice Ridge 01 · Lolo National Forest · MT
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Sawyer Creek as an intermittent stream, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as intermittent — expect it dry for part of the year. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 12.8% — noticeable. 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 Lolo 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.)
- 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 Rice Ridge 01 elsewhere
Other camps near Rice Ridge 01
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Rice Ridge 07~0.8 mi
- Rice Ridge 05~1.0 mi
- Rice Ridge 02~1.2 mi
- Rice Ridge 09~1.3 mi
The unit that manages Rice Ridge 01
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Rice Ridge 01 are set by Lolo National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is North Fork Jocko at 6,110 ft, about 11 miles away. It sits about 1,233 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 — Rice Ridge 01
Source
U.S. Forest Service recreation data
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
USFS/BLM authoritative: free & dispersed. Access not field-checked (assumed drive-up).
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
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 Rice Ridge 01
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.
- Whether that MVUM road is the way in, and the last stretch beyond it
- Whether the site itself closes on its own schedule — only the road's season is on record
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 — Rice Ridge 01
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Forest road numbers →Getting unstuck →All field notes →