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An imagined scene of Lolo National Forest
Imagined scenePhotorealistic landscape photograph at golden hour in the northern Rockies near Missoula in autumn: ponderosa-pine benches and hillsides ablaze with golden western larch, a clear trout river winding through the valley, a snow-dusted peak on the skyline, warm low sun and long shadows, no people, no buildings, no signs. 35mm lens, natural color, faint film grain.
National Forest · ID · MT

Lolo National Forest

343 free camps mapped · tap a dot for its page
Cascade CampgroundCopper King CampgroundClark Memorial CampgroundCabin City CampgroundMonture 006Dunham 06Rice Ridge 08Road Side DriveLower Petty Creek AHiawatha 6Richmond Ridge 13Peninsula -004Drd-Como550Rd-007Schwartz Creek - Off RoadSawmill CCedarcreek-003AUSFS dispersed camp — MT #299USFS dispersed camp — MT #347Hiawatha 1USFS dispersed camp — MT #431Southside Road Site BBlind Canyon 06Moore Lake CampgroundSouth Fk Lolo Creek 4328Old Town SiteBoles 03Morrell Creek 06Quartz Flat CampgroundAuggie Cut-Off 04Clearwater Lake 07Pow595Rd-010BBoles 06Patrickaccess-008Dunham 08Tamarack 005Albert 2USFS dispersed camp — ID #2Richmond Ridge 04Mill Creek DLittlejoe-006DMccormick CreekSchwartz CreekSchwartz Creek / MillerRice Ridge 09Cottonwood Lakes-002Cedarcreek-003BClearwater Lake 04Site 14-1Littlejoe-003Howard 1Tamarack 009Deer Creek CampgroundRoad 4245Morrell Creek 02Trailhead 96Cutoff Misc-002Hiawatha 4Site 5Burnt Fork 2Tamarack 002CClearwater Crossing CampgroundCedarcreek-001ETroutcreek005Rd 3025 Site 5West Fork Fish AUSFS dispersed camp — MT #109USFS dispersed camp — MT #119Patrick Cg-004Soldier Creek 2Cold_Cr-008Clearwater Loop 08Clearwater Lake 06Donlan_001Site 99-25Peninsula _North-001West Fork Fishtrap Creek CampgroundRice Ridge 02Plant Creek Rd 2132Troutcreek006BRd 451 Mp 2 CampsiteTroutcreek014Richmond Ridge 05USFS dispersed camp — MT #193USFS dispersed camp — MT #194Cedarcreek-008Littlejoe-005USFS dispersed camp — MT #213Clearwater Loop 07Ccc Camp 3Site 12Toole_001Cold_Cr-007ASouth Fk Lolo Creek Horse ThLittlejoe-008W.Fk. Tyler SaddleBearcreek 01USFS dispersed camp — MT #243Howard Creek 17790BSeeley Lake Campground ComplexHiawatha 4Bear CreekClearwater Lake 09Rice Ridge 05Hiawatha-001Troutcreek013BHiawatha 6Road 4312Patrickaccess-002Site 11Spook Lake 05Peninsula-012Site 3Site 99-26USFS dispersed camp — MT #309Lake Alva Campground ComplexTamarack 007BRice Ridge 03Rice Ridge 01Troutcreek003Trout Creek CampgroundRoad 4257-1Monture 002Grizzly CampgroundSouth Fk Lolo Creek Horse ThMissoula Lake CampgroundPeninsula -008Troutcreek010Morrell Creek 04Plateau SaddleLee Creek CampgroundDonkey Alley 1Boles 07Clearwater Loop 03USFS dispersed camp — MT #373Richmond Ridge 03Richmond Ridge 02Clearwater Loop 01Cedarcreek-007Tamarack 003Howard Creek 238-6Boles 02Monture 003Richmond Ridge 14Spook Lake 06Hiawatha 5Littlejoe-010Schwartz CreekMorrell Creek 08Peninsula_001Troutcreek004USFS dispersed camp — MT #413Clearwater Loop 04Hiawatha 11Plateau Lookout-CSite 99-??Big Larch Campground ComplexCold_Cr-004Morrell Creek 03Rice Ridge 07Nor Pac 3Dunham 03Donkey Alley 2Tamarack 001CSloway CampgroundClearwater Lake 01Albert SpurCottonwood Lakes 05Cottonwood Lakes 06Monture 001Peninsula -013Bitterroot Flat CampgroundTroutcreek009ASouth Fk Lolo Creek Horse TUhler Creek 04Richmond Ridge 08Patrickaccess-006Hiawatha 8Nor-Pac 2BRichmond Ridge 11Monture 008USFS dispersed camp — MT #500Richmond Ridge 07USFS dispersed camp — MT #504Cottonwood Lakes 03Cottonwood Lakes 08Uhler Creek 01Site 15-3Hidden Lake CampgroundAuggie Cut-Off 02Dalles CampgroundSpook Lake 02Hiawatha 13Diamond Lake CampgroundHiawatha 2Boles 05Peninsula -010ANorthfork 08Tamarack 08AWest Morrell 01Lower Petty Creek BLittlejoe002Ninemile CreekTamarack 004USFS dispersed camp — MT #553Stony CreekLittlejoe-007Troutcreek007Morrell Creek 08Site 99-28Harrys Flat CampgroundDunham 04Littlejoe-004Black Canyon 001Siria CampgroundRainy Lake CampgroundHiawatha 7Tamarack 006Cold_Cr-003ASite 13South Fork Fish CreekDunham 02Earl Tennant CampgroundNor Pac 4Peninsula -010Norton CampgroundSurveyor CreekElsina 02Troutcreek002Clearwater Lake 02Northfork 07Site 7Lodgepole SaddleColt Creek 04Richmond Ridge 10Schwartz Creek / MillerTroutcreek011AHoward Creek 4398Patrickaccess-004Lake Inez Campground ComplexSite 9Miller Creek Road 464Spook Lake 07Northfork 03Morrell Creek 05Burnt Fork 1Patrickaccess-009Toole _002Cedarcreek-006Site 1Northfork 04USFS dispersed camp — MT #692Site 6Tank CreekAuggie Cut-Off 03Drd-Como550Rd -008USFS dispersed camp — MT #707Road 451 Mp 6 SiteHoward Creek 4236-1Howard Creek SpurSite 14-1Cottonwood Lakes 05Clearwater Lake 05Albert 3Nor Pac 7HiawathaHiawatha 10Northfork 05Morrell Creek 07Gold Rush CampgroundCcc Camp 5Dunham 10West Fork Fish BCorral Creek 2Richmond Ridge 09Bertha Creek 02Morrell CreekSite 2Clearwater Loop 05Toole _003Road 4245Muchwater Camping AreaSite 8USFS dispersed camp — MT #770USFS dispersed camp — MT #773Morrell Creek 11Fsroad-4353 01Uhler Creek 06Littlejoe-009Clearwater Loop 06USFS dispersed camp — ID #778Cold_Cr-001Colt Creek 03Uhler Creek 03Kreis Pond CampgroundCold_Cr-002Cedarcreek-005Boles 08Mccabe 002Colt Creek 02Pow595Rd-009BDunham 05Corral CreekBertha Creek 01Monture Creek CampgroundLittlejoe-001Nor Pac 5Uhler Creek 05Nor Pac 6Miller Creek Road 464Sixmile CreekSouthside CampPlant Creek Rd2132-1Mormon HelispotBrewster Creek RoadPatrickaccess-005Spook Lake 04South Fk Lolo Creek ThSite 10Troutcreek - 001Lolo Creek Campground And Picnic AreaCedar CreekHiawatha 14Rice Ridge 04Hiawatha 9Cold_Cr-005Hiawatha 12Site 4Sullivan CreekUSFS dispersed camp — ID #36Hiawatha 7Howard Creek 238-4Fishtrap Lake CampgroundPlant Creek Rd 2132Cottonwood Lakes 04Northfork 06Cache CreekBig Nelson Campground ComplexRiver Point Campground ComplexLakeside CampgroundTroutcreek008Auggie Cut-Off 01Richmond Ridge 06Colt Creek 01MissoulaPolsonWallaceMullanPierceWeippeAlbertonArleeAvon025 miN
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Where the camps cluster

The place

Lolo National Forest spreads across western Montana -- on the order of two million acres of national forest wrapped around the mountains that frame Missoula, with its western edge riding the Idaho line along the Bitterroot crest. This is the classic northern-Rockies working forest: ponderosa and larch on the dry south slopes, dark cedar in the wet draws, and a skyline of peaks in every direction from town. The Rattlesnake Wilderness rises straight out of Missoula's back door; the Clark Fork and the Blackfoot -- the river of Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It -- run through its valleys; and over its southwest shoulder sits Lolo Pass, the low saddle in the Bitterroots that the Nez Perce, and later Lewis and Clark, used to cross some of the hardest country in the West. The supervisor's office is in Missoula.

History

The forest took shape in the early 1900s out of the federal forest reserves of the northern Rockies, and carries the name of Lolo Creek and Lolo Pass -- though where "Lolo" itself comes from, nobody's quite sure. The stories range from a corruption of a French-Canadian trapper's name to a word borrowed from Chinook trade jargon; take your pick. Long before any of that, the pass and the trail over it were an ancestral route of the Nez Perce, who crossed the Bitterroots here for generations. In 1805 the Lewis and Clark Expedition followed that same corridor west over the mountains, and returned across it in 1806 -- some of the hungriest, hardest days of the whole journey. In 1877 the Nez Perce came back through during their long flight toward Canada; the route is remembered today along the Nez Perce and Lewis and Clark national historic trails. And in 1910 the "Big Burn" -- the enormous wildfire that swept the northern Rockies that August -- roared across this landscape along with millions of acres of neighboring forest, an event that seared fire into the young Forest Service's identity for a century afterward.

Wildlife & plants

Lolo is big, varied habitat, from dry ponderosa benches to high alpine basins, and it holds most of the northern-Rockies cast. Elk, moose, mule and white-tailed deer, black bear, mountain lion and gray wolf all range here; mountain goats work the high crags and bighorn sheep the open slopes. Toward the forest's northern and eastern edges -- the Scapegoat country and the wild ground north of the Rattlesnake -- you are on the fringe of grizzly range as bears push out from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, so bear-country habits matter. It is also habitat for two of the West's hardest animals to ever see, the Canada lynx and the wolverine. The cold streams hold native westslope cutthroat trout and threatened bull trout, a fish so fussy about clean, cold water that biologists treat it as a gauge of a healthy river. The forest itself is a mix worth noticing: ponderosa pine and Douglas fir on the sunny slopes, lodgepole in the burned-and-regrown country, western larch that turns brilliant gold in October, and, in the wettest draws, big western redcedar that hints at the Pacific.

Notable features

The forest's signature piece is the Rattlesnake -- a National Recreation Area whose main trailhead sits just a few miles north of Missoula, so close that people head in after work, with the Rattlesnake Wilderness and its chain of high lakes rising in the backcountry beyond. Lolo also holds the small, rugged Welcome Creek Wilderness in the Sapphire Range, and shares in two big wild landscapes at its edges: the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness along the Idaho line and the Scapegoat Wilderness, which forms the southern end of the vast Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. Its rivers are famous in their own right -- the Clark Fork running west past Missoula, and the Blackfoot, the trout river Norman Maclean made immortal in A River Runs Through It. Over the southwest corner is Lolo Pass on the Montana-Idaho line, with a visitor center on the historic trail and Lolo Hot Springs (a private resort) just down the highway; above the north end of the Bitterroot valley stands Lolo Peak, a snow-streaked skyline landmark rising to around 9,100 feet on the forest's edge.

Camps are sourced from public U.S. Forest Service recreation data and have not been personally visited. Roads shown are Forest Service passenger-car routes (maintenance level 3–5) and may be seasonal or gated. Always confirm access, fees and fire rules with the ranger district before you go. Found a fee where we show free? Tell us on the contact page.