Best Cabin Camping near Gallatin National Forest

Staying at Strawberry lookout cabin in December was a great experience, well worth the 1 mile uphill hike to the cabin.  Our Venturing Crew stayed the night after pulling gear in a sled to the top in light snow.  Everyone had a great time at the cabin.  The cabin has a wood stove and firewood was provided.  Keep the fire small or you will cook in the little cabin, even when its cold outside.  A propane stove was provided but you will need to bring fuel.  The propane lantern was broken, but luckily we took along our own light sources.  Pots, pans, dishes and utensils are available in the cabin.  Plenty of games were in the cabinet to keep everyone entertained.  The cabin has two bunk beds, and a table with chairs.  Water is not available so you will need to bring it with you.  A vault toilet is next to the cabin.  Outside has a picnic table next to a fire ring.  Plenty of room if your group is to big for the cabin to set up tents.

The Maxey Cabin, although sparse in its' appointments, is a magical destination that is accesible year round. With two sleeping cabins, a large sun deck, fire pit and outdoor swing, this forest service cabin offers the active ncabin camper a gateway to the many recreation opportunities available in the world famous Hyalite Canyon recreation area- Bozeman's backyard.

The main cabin offers a table and chairs, two double bunk beds, wood stove for heat and a small counter area for preparing your meals. Guests need to bring their own water supply and all cooking supplies including stove, pots and pans and utensils. The second cabin has two single bunk beds and a table.

Invite your friends because they will want to share in the quiet solitude of Maxey cabin and there is plenty of room. At approximately a 35 minute drive from Bozeman, the convenience of this retreat is unmatched.

Excellently maintained and kept clean throughout, visitors to Maxey cabin can survey the surrounding mountains from the large front deck. Once you've been, you'll wonder why you haven't been before and not want to tell your friends.

If you are planning a weekend excursion, be prepared to reserve your spot 6 months in advance as reservations typically are in high demand.

We rented the Ibex cabin the first week of June. The cabin was in great shape. The area is nice and open, however a few more trees closer to the cabin for hammock use would have been nice. If you want to hammock there are a couple trees behind the cabin that would work but it’s kind of away from everyone if they’re hanging out up front. The open field was perfect for letting the kiddos run around while being able to keep a close eye on them. The fields were covered in wildflowers, which is always awesome! Despite that, the views were lovely and there’s a nice babbling stream right behind the campfire pit which added a nice ambiance. Fire pit was in great shape, nice solid grate for grilling. The cabin porch had a few notches where we had the pleasure of bird watching some pretty cool wood peckers come and go. Picnic table was in good condition, solid and layed flat which is always convenient. Sometimes you get picnic tables which are kind of wobbly, but this one was great. The pit toilet was fairly clean, most likely because the road had recently opened to vehicles so it was probably cleaned fairly close to when we were there. There’s also a trailhead right before the gate that connects to the neighboring Porcupine Cabin which is cool to have so close. There were quite a bit of flies inside the cabin when we arrived but luckily there was a fly swatter hanging on the wall so that took care of that problem. Nice big table inside, good for playing cards/board games. The bunk beds were slightly questionable. Two of us slept on the bottom bunks and the other two slept on ground pads on the floor just because the wobbliness of the top bunks made us a wee bit nervous. The wood burning stove was pretty small. We lit it for heat about a half hour before bed, had to restart it about five hours later, but it wasn’t too chilly outside so it wasn’t uncomfortable when it cooled off. If it had been colder outside, one would maybe have to keep waking up to relight it. All in all, great area to get away for the weekend. Highly recommend!

About 20 minutes south of Bozeman, MT on scenic Hyalite Canyon Road sits Langohr Campground. There are 19 spacious single sites and the 20th site is a group picnic site for day use. Langohr Campground runs along Hyalite Creek and is tucked inside Custer Gallatin National Forest in a small open meadow with Douglas fir, Lodgepole pine, and Englemann Spruce. 

I was fortunate to find a campsite as a walk-in even after arriving mid-afternoon at the beginning of June 2019 because it was too late to reserve online. Each site does have a picnic table and fire ring, and electrical sites are available. Some are drive-in or back into sites, and a few are literally next to Hyalite Creek which is an added bonus. A heavy snowfall occurred a week before and remnants of it were scattered along the campground. Good thing I brought a snow scraper to clear the picnic table of snow. The fee is $20.00 per campsite for two vehicles and $8.00 for any additional vehicles. The group picnic site is $45.00 for day use. I paid cash for the site, but I believe you may also pay by credit card.

Many of the campers were settling in and had parked RVs and pop-ups. Pets are allowed but must be on a leash as wildlife such as bears, deers, moose, and elk frequent the area. Bear lockers should be used for food storage or properly stored in vehicles. There are huge bear safe trash and recycling containers near the entrance for campers to use. The bathroom is clean, free of odor and bugs, and it is a vault toilet. There are no showers, dump station, or camp store, but you are close to Bozeman.  The camp host was settled on site 11 and sells firewood for $6.00. You can take a walk along the Hyalite Creek or drive 3.5 miles south down to Hyalite Reservoir for other activities such as fishing, kayaking, canoeing, climbing, hiking, and boating. The night sky was pretty spectacular especially with the trees around on a clear day.

The staff were very friendly and as helpful as possible. The restrooms and showers were nice and clean. Small store, nice pavilion area and a huge dog area. I did not see a playground area. The sites are very small and very crowded. A small fire ring and picnic table at each site however to sit on our picnic table one of us would have to sit directly beside our neighbors sewer dump. At our site two lengths of sewer hose wouldn’t reach from our tank to the sewer dump, so even though we paid for full hookups we were only able to utilize water and electric. The roads in the park are also very tight and in my opinion not very big rig friendly.