Mapped · not agency-listedPublic land · dispersedFree
Shields River Dispersed Site
Drive-up · public land · MT · 46.18389, -110.40514
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.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Shields River Dispersed Site
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 6,369 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Shields River Dispersed SiteNIFC · 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 Shields River Dispersed Site · 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
- GGrocery17 mi
- @Mail18 mi
- FFuel23 mi
- +Urgent care32 mi
- HHardware32 mi
- EVEV fast charger33 mi
- RxPharmacy35 mi
- LLaundry35 mi
- ShShower35 mi
- OOutfitter35 mi
- MMechanic36 mi
- WWater46 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 46-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 17 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 33-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 — Shields River Dispersed Site
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
6,369 ft
Ground slope
2.1% · flat
State
MT
Coordinates
46.18389, -110.40514
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Shields River Dispersed Site · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureShields River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townBill Bracket Place · ~10.5 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- Fuelnone within 30 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Groceriesnone within 30 mi
- Mapping is thin out hereAn empty row means nothing is mapped within that radius — not that nothing exists. Small stores, seasonal resorts and single fuel pumps out here often never make it onto the map. Treat these as unconfirmed and ask locally.
EV charging — from Shields River Dispersed Site · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger32.7 mi straight-line SE — 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 · 9 within 50 · 23 within 100 · 31 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS45.5 mi — Audi of Bozeman, Bozeman
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO45.5 mi — Audi of Bozeman, Bozeman
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)37.0 mi — LEWIS STREET STATION 1, Livingston, MT · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · 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 102260 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Shields River Dispersed Site · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletShields River · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletCrandall Cabin · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletForest Lake Cg · ~4.5 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletPorcupine Cabin · ~5.9 mi SW · USFS
Coming out here — Shields River Dispersed Site · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Shields River as a perennial river, ~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 2.1% — flat. 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.)
- 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 Shields River Dispersed Site elsewhere
Other camps near Shields River Dispersed Site
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Shieldsloop39~0.1 mi
- Crandall40~0.3 mi
- Shieldsloop02~0.4 mi
- Shieldsloop44~1.0 mi
The unit that manages Shields River Dispersed Site
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Shields River Dispersed Site 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 Porcupine at 6,480 ft, about 6 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 — Shields River Dispersed Site
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)
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 Shields River Dispersed Site
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 — Shields River Dispersed Site
Finding water out here →Reading a forest MVUM →Dumping grey & black →Reading the aerial →All field notes →