Free Camp Guide
Aerial view of Whitehouse Campground

Montana Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest

Whitehouse Campground

Free to campSet campsiteNo waterToilet16-day limit
Free to camp The Forest Service record for this site says there is no charge to camp, as of August 2026. Records get old, so look for a sign when you pull in.

About this place

Whitehouse sits in the Boulder River drainage, about 20 miles north of Butte.

It is small. There are 5 units, and trailers up to 22 feet will fit. There is a picnic area for the day with accessible toilets.

There is water from a hand pump at the campground entrance. The Boulder River runs alongside, and there is fishing in it.

There is more camping just east of the campground, with nothing marked out, and it fills up through late spring, summer and fall.

People come for the camping, for the hunting, and for the off-highway riding on the roads and trails in the hills around it.

Several trailheads within 5 miles reach the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.

In winter a groomed snowmobile system starts here, or at a pullout to the east, depending on the snow.

The facts

Cost
Free to camp
Roads around it
Takes trailers up to 22 feet
Stay limit
16 days
Drinking water
Yes, a hand pump at the entrance
Toilet
Yes
Type
Specific campsite
When it’s open
Memorial Day through November
Managed by
Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest

Rules and restrictions

You can camp here for 16 days.

There are food storage rules here. 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 46.258950, -112.478770

Open in Google Maps Agency page

Nearest town and supplies

Deer Lodge 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 Basin Canyon Campground and Picnic Area, Montana — 28 miles in a straight line, but a 40 mile drive. One more sits 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.

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.

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.