Agency-listedUSFS · dispersedFree
West Deer Creek Trailhead 03
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · MT · 45.64819, -110.00315
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 — West Deer Creek Trailhead 03 · 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 West Deer Creek Trailhead 03
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4,990 ft.
Fire & smoke — around West Deer Creek Trailhead 03NIFC · 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 West Deer Creek Trailhead 03 · 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
- FFuel12 mi
- @Mail12 mi
- GGrocery13 mi
- HHardware13 mi
- EVEV fast charger13 mi
- MMechanic26 mi
- LLaundry27 mi
- +Urgent care27 mi
- OOutfitter27 mi
- RxPharmacy27 mi
- ShShower40 mi
- WWater44 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 44-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 12 mi out.
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 — West Deer Creek Trailhead 03
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service · dispersed
Elevation
4,990 ft
Ground slope
3.6% · gentle
Nearest rail line
~9.6 mi · main line
Nearest highway
~9.2 mi · Interstate 90
State
MT
Coordinates
45.64819, -110.00315
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around West Deer Creek Trailhead 03 · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWest Fork Upper Deer Creek · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townMcLeod · ~5.4 mi
- Nearest rail line~9.6 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~9.2 mi · Interstate 90
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~22.6 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesBig T IGA · ~13.0 mi
- PharmacyWestern Drug · ~27.4 mi
- Hospital / clinicPioneer Medical Center · ~12.7 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~13.1 mi
EV charging — from West Deer Creek Trailhead 03 · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger13.3 mi straight-line N — 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 reach1 within 25 mi · 2 within 50 · 20 within 100 · 36 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS48.2 mi — Audi of Bozeman, Bozeman
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO48.2 mi — Audi of Bozeman, Bozeman
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)26.8 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 West Deer Creek Trailhead 03 · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletWest Bridger · ~8.6 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletEast Boulder · ~10.5 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMeyers Creek · ~11.7 mi S · USFS
- Flush restroomMeyers Creek Rental Cabin · ~11.8 mi S · USFS
Coming out here — West Deer Creek Trailhead 03 · Custer Gallatin National Forest · MT
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps West Fork Upper Deer Creek as a perennial stream, under 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 3.6% — 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 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.)
Fire history: Inside the 2006 Derby fire perimeter (207,238 acres), by the national fire history record. (NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History, read October 15, 2026. This says where the record draws the line at this camp's recorded point, not what the ground here is like.)
- Rail line mapped ~9.6 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.
- Interstate 90 is mapped ~9.2 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- 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 West Deer Creek Trailhead 03 elsewhere
Other camps near West Deer Creek Trailhead 03
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- West Deer Creeck Th~0.1 mi
- West Deer Creek 002~1.5 mi
- West Deer Creek001~2.2 mi
- Happy Jack Gully~2.5 mi
The unit that manages West Deer Creek Trailhead 03
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at West Deer Creek Trailhead 03 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 East Boulder Mine at 6,310 ft, about 11 miles away. It sits about 1,320 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 — West Deer Creek Trailhead 03
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 West Deer Creek Trailhead 03
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 — West Deer Creek Trailhead 03
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Forest road numbers →How to read this page →All field notes →