About this place
Black Bear Campground sits on the banks of Skalkaho Creek, 13 miles up the Skalkaho Highway. Six campsites with picnic tables and fire rings, plus a vault toilet.
Keep going up the road and you reach Skalkaho Falls, where the creek drops more than 150 feet. The highway is narrow and winding. Take it slowly.
RVs and trailers up to 50 feet will fit. There is no trash service. Bring your own drinking water, because there is none here.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Roads around it
- Some need high clearance
- Stay limit
- 16 days
- Drinking water
- No, bring your own
- Toilet
- Yes
- Type
- Specific campsite
- Managed by
- Bitterroot National Forest
The roads around this place are not maintained for a regular car. That comes from the US Forest Service, who grade every road by the kind of vehicle it is looked after for. Those records cover the roads nearby. They do not cover the last stretch in to the campsite, and nobody has checked that part. Treat this as a warning. We are not promising what you will find when you get there. If you have driven it, tell us what it was like and we will say so here.
Rules and restrictions
- You can camp here for 16 days.
- Quiet hours run from 10:00 pm to 6:00 am.
- Dogs stay on a leash.
- Nobody collects trash here. Everything you bring in has to come out with you again.
Getting there
From Hamilton, go 3 miles south. Then go 13 miles east on the Skalkaho Highway, Highway 38.
Coordinates 46.166389, -113.920556
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
Nothing nationally famous is close. These are the landmarks nearby.
- Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Directions
- Trapper Peak Directions
- Lolo Peak Directions
Every distance on this page is the driving distance. A short distance can still take a long time. The road may be closed for the season, covered in snow, or washed out. Many of these roads are dirt. Plan your route before you leave home. Out here there is often no phone signal to look it up on the way.
Nearest town and supplies
- Hamilton, MT Directions
Hamilton is big enough that you’d normally expect fuel and somewhere to buy food. Nobody from here has been to check, so don’t count on it if you’re running low.
Why the drive to town is usually twice what the map says — what we found measuring every campsite in this guide.
When it’s time to move on
You can camp here for 16 days. After that you have to move on. This is Forest Service land, and each forest sets its own rule for how far you have to go, so check before you travel.
The nearest other free campsite in this guide is Schumaker Campground, Montana — 28 miles in a straight line, but a 40 mile drive. Four more sit closer than 25 miles, if the rule here allows them.
This guide covers five states and does not list every free campsite, so there may be something closer that we do not hold. Check this site’s own rule before you rely on it.
Have you been here?
Fees and access change, and the records do not always keep up. If you have been, tell us what you found.
Thank you, that is recorded. It helps the next person.
Add road notes for this site
The thing we cannot get from any government record is what the drive in is actually like. If you have done it, this is the most useful thing you can leave behind. We read everything before it appears, and we print a first name with it if you give one.
Thank you. A person will read it before it goes on the page.
Where this information comes from
The description on this page is ours. The facts in it, and the fee and facility details below it, come from the Forest Service’s own records, read in August 2026.