Beaver Creek Cabin (MT)

A locked gate stands at the head of a short spur off Beaver Creek Road, Forest Service Road 985. The combination that opens it also opens the cabin door. The cabin sits 300 yards down the spur, in a wooded canyon along Beaver Creek at about 7,000 feet. Above it rises Hilgard Peak, 11,316 feet. The Custer Gallatin National Forest rents the cabin through its Hebgen Lake Ranger District. The Forest Service places it 21 miles northwest of West Yellowstone; Visit Montana gives the distance as 26 miles.

The stove, the bunks, the woodshed

The cabin holds a wood stove, an axe, a shovel, a bucket, a table and chairs, two bunk beds and a sleeping loft. Recreation.gov lists three basic sleeping pads and a stock pot for boiling water, and sets the limit at five people. The Forest Service’s own page counts two mattresses and four people, loft included. Visit Montana’s listing adds dishes, pots, pans, a broom and a mop. The West Yellowstone chamber’s guide says no kitchenware is provided.

Firewood rounds are kept in the woodshed from October 1 to May 31, for use in the stove only. None is supplied in summer. The cabin has no electricity and no water, and creek water must be treated before use. Candles are not permitted, so renters bring flashlights or lanterns. The outhouse stands just west of the cabin. A hitching rail serves those who arrive with stock, and any hay they bring must be certified weed-free.

Grizzly bears frequent the area. Coolers, food, drink, stock feed and garbage are stored inside the cabin, and Hebgen Lake Ranger staff patrol the vicinity for compliance with the Food Storage Order. Deer, elk, moose and bighorn sheep also range here. Several trailheads nearby lead into the Lee Metcalf Wilderness and up to high lakes in the Madison Range.

Snow on Road 985

From November to May the road is closed to cars. Winter visitors park at the Refuge Point lot beside Highway 287. From there they go by snowmobile, ski or snowshoe about an eighth of a mile west to Road 985, then 3.5 miles north up it. Visit Montana places the plowed pullout a quarter mile east of the road. In spring and fall the district asks guests to telephone ahead for road conditions. Hebgen Lake lies within 10 miles, and Yellowstone National Park within 30.

Beaver Creek is one of four cabins the district rents near West Yellowstone. According to the chamber guide, the Forest Service cabins of the area were built in the 1920s and 1930s for early forest rangers working on projects in the field. The guide adds that some of them are still in use by the Forest Service.