Agency-listedUSFS · dispersedFree
Top
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · MT · 45.65756, -112.94028
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 — Top · Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest · MT
No road within 1 mi of the pin in the national MVUM layer — and that layer carries no data at all for this forest (unit 0102), so this is the layer's silence, not the ground's. 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 Top
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 8,061 ft.
Fire & smoke — around TopNIFC · 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 Top · Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest · MT
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel9 mi
- LLaundry9 mi
- @Mail9 mi
- OOutfitter9 mi
- WWater14 mi
- GGrocery19 mi
- EVEV fast charger29 mi
- MMechanic30 mi
- DDump30 mi
- +Urgent care30 mi
- RxPharmacy30 mi
- ShShower30 mi
- HHardware31 mi
- AAir-up31 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 9 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 — Top
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service · dispersed
Elevation
8,061 ft
Ground slope
4% · gentle
Nearest rail line
~9.7 mi · main line
State
MT
Coordinates
45.65756, -112.94028
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Top · Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Nearest townGlendale · ~8.1 mi
- Nearest rail line~9.7 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~9.3 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesMa Barnes country market · ~18.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicBig Sky Diagnostic Imaging · ~30.7 mi
EV charging — from Top · Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest · MT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger28.8 mi straight-line NE — Butte, MT - Grizzly Trail - Tesla Supercharger (at a rest stop) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 3 within 50 · 22 within 100 · 41 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS29.1 mi — Flying J Town Pump (Butte, MT), Butte
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO79.1 mi — L146 DC1, Helena
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)32.6 mi — ApocWorld, Anaconda, MT · AMPUP · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2023-12-13 · hours: Contact site for information
- 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 327427 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Top · Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletCanyon Creek Campground · ~2.4 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletCanyon Creek Cabin · ~2.9 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletCanyon Creek Kilns · ~3.6 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletFourth Of July Campground · ~5.8 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Top · Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest · 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 4% — 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.
- The game's day in this forest These lines are for the whole Beaverhead-Deerlodge 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.)
- Rail line mapped ~9.7 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in 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 Top elsewhere
Other camps near Top
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Quartz Hill 06~0.8 mi
- Dual~1.9 mi
- Wood~1.9 mi
- Bottom Bouncers~1.9 mi
The unit that manages Top
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Top are set by Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Top
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 Top
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 — Top
When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Water on public land →Reading the aerial →All field notes →