About this place
This small campground sits at about 7,300 feet in the Pioneer Mountains, with three tent sites and a picnic area. It's quiet. Canyon Creek and the Wise River are both close, and both hold brook, rainbow and cutthroat trout, so bring a rod.
Lower down the same creek, nearer Melrose, stand the Canyon Creek charcoal kilns. They are tall brick cones. The Hecla Consolidated Mining Company built 23 of them in the early 1880s, to turn wood into charcoal for its smelter at Glendale. The Forest Service has restored some of them.
There are walking trails near the campground as well, so bring boots.
One thing to sort before you leave home: there's no water here, so arrive with what you need.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Stay limit
- 16 days
- Drinking water
- No, bring your own
- Toilet
- Yes
- Type
- Specific campsite
- When it’s open
- June to October
- Managed by
- Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest
Rules and restrictions
Trailers over 14 feet won't fit.
No trash collection, so everything you bring leaves with you.
You can stay 16 days. Those 16 days cover the whole Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, so moving down the road doesn't buy you more.
Getting there
From Melrose, take Forest Road 187 west for about 13 miles. Turn southeast onto Forest Road 7401 and follow it about 4.5 miles. The campground is near the end of the road.
Coordinates 45.623550, -112.942170
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What is near here
Nothing nationally famous is close. These are the landmarks nearby.
- Bloody Dick Peak Directions
- Big Hole National Battlefield 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
- Dewey, MT Directions
- Butte-Silver Bow, MT Directions
Butte-Silver Bow 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 Pintler Campground, Montana — 28 miles in a straight line, but a 58 mile drive. Two 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.
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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.