About this place
Cow Creek is a small campground in the far southeast of Montana, south of the town of Ashland. There are only a handful of sites and one picnic spot. It’s first come, first served, and it can fill on summer weekends and holidays.
The last five miles in are gravel, on Cow Creek Road. There’s an accessible toilet. There’s no drinking water, no trash pickup and no firewood, so bring all three, and take your trash home.
You can stay 10 days here. That’s shorter than on most public land, so plan for it.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Stay limit
- 10 days
- Drinking water
- No, bring your own
- Type
- Specific campsite
- When it’s open
- All year, weather permitting
- Managed by
- Custer Gallatin National Forest
Getting there
Coordinates 45.309167, -106.246944
Open in Google Maps Agency page
Nearest town and supplies
- Birney, MT Directions
- Lame Deer, MT Directions
Lame Deer 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 10 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 Holiday Spring Campground, Montana — 26 miles in a straight line, but a 43 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.
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; a second independent record also says there is no fee.