About this place
Elk Lake sits among wild country, mountain lakes and streams. Birders come here for the wildlife.
Bears move through this landscape. Store your food properly and follow the rules on it.
There is a vault toilet and no drinking water.
The facts
- Cost
- Free to camp
- Roads around it
- Some need high clearance
- Stay limit
- 16 days in any 30
- Drinking water
- No, bring your own
- Toilet
- Yes
- Type
- Open area. Nothing is marked out
- When it’s open
- Mid May to mid September, depending on the weather
- Managed by
- Beaverhead-Deerlodge 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.
Food has to be stored under the 2022 Beaverhead-Deerlodge food storage order. In practice that means food, trash and anything else with a smell goes inside a hard-sided vehicle or hangs well clear of the ground.
Getting there
Coordinates 44.669290, -111.631980
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
There is another spot of ours within reach, and some better-known places further out.
- Henry's Lake Wilderness Study Area Directions
- Grand Prismatic Spring Directions
- Morning Glory Pool Directions
- Old Faithful Directions
- Yellowstone volcano 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
- Lakeview, MT Directions
- West Yellowstone, MT Directions
West Yellowstone 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.
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.