Forest Service & Other Rental
Cabins & Yurts for Skiers
Web Address: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/cabins.htm
By Cliff Keene. Last Edit: 02/06/10 20:45 PM
Caution, mileages are not yet verified.
INTRODUCTION:
I’m often asked if there are some cabins or yurts that one could rent or use for ski trips. The following discussion assumes winter conditions unless otherwise stated. In the following, phrases that are highlighted in blue or red and underlined are “Hot Links” that will take you to another web page with added information. Please report broken links or send questions to ckeene41-b4@yahoo.com Any Email should include a clear subject such as: “Your Ski Cabin Rental Page”.
Most of the following cabins are reserved with the Recreation.Gov program. See more detail below. To check the availability of a site, be sure cookies are enabled and click on the respective CLICK HERE link for the cabins listed below. In the resulting web page, in the “Find Sites” box on the left, under “Dates (optional)”, select “Range” and then click in the “Start Date” box to bring up a calendar and enter tomorrows date or another starting date. Click the ending date and select a later date. Then click “Search Sites”. You’ll then see the “Date Range Availability” screen. “A” means Available, “R” means Already Reserved, and “X” means not available. See the legend for other codes. Click on the “Next 2 Weeks” button to scroll ahead. You should be able to see all dates up to the closing date for rentals or 6 months (the limit for reserving). Note for all but the William’s Cr. A-frame, most of the weekend dates are taken. Don’t reserve a site until you’ve read all the details about the site and have read the FAQs at the bottom of the Recreation.Gov site. I’d even suggest calling the FS contact number first to see if there are any last minute changes not posted on the internet. Call them for sure after making reservation. See more specific detail below.
1. The closest rental to Salmon is the William’s Cr. A-Frame, about 2.7 miles north of William’s Cr. Summit on the Salmon-Challis NF. CLICK HERE for Recreation.gov description. A high clearance 4 wheel drive is recommended to drive to the Summit because the road is not plowed on weekends. Currently this unit isn’t rented as much as the following cabins.
There are three cabins near Chief Joseph Pass on the
Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF (BDNF) Wisdom RD:
2. The May Creek Cabin is about 2.5 miles from the May Cr.
Campground. There’s a plowed parking area at the entrance to the Campground
which is on Montana Hwy 43 about 7 miles beyond Chief Joseph Pass toward
Wisdom, MT. It’s usually an easy ski or snowshoe into the cabin. CLICK
HERE for Recreation.gov description.
3. The Hogan Cabin is about 4 miles
from the Cabinet Cr/Shoofly (or Richardson Cr) Trailheads via the Shoofly
Trail, or about 6 miles from Lost Trail Pass or Chief Joseph Pass using the
Gibbons Pass Road, or 6 miles (the snowmobile route) up the Trail Cr. Road.
This is the easiest way for beginning skiers however. CLICK
HERE for Recreation.gov description. Be sure to discuss parking and trail
access when you call the Wisdom RD.
4. The Gordon Reese Cabin is about ½
mile from the Chief Joseph Pass Trailhead. Note, however that the GR Cabin can
only be rented in the summer. During the winter it can be reserved at no charge
by those interested in becoming a cabin “host”. This includes: Shoveling snow,
keeping the fire going in the stove and other tasks for visiting skiers. You
have the cabin to yourself from about 5 PM to 10 AM. The downside is that most
of the prime dates are taken immediately. I’ll discuss these in more detail
below. These are on the Wisdom RD, Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF. CLICK HERE
for additional information.
If links 2 – 4 don’t work or to get added BDNF information go to the BDNF RECREATION PAGE and click on the Camping & Cabins link on the left. Then select the Cabin Rentals link, then select the desired cabin or other general info. This also applies to the Horse Prairie link below.
5. The next closest cabin is probably the East Fork Guard Station on the Bitterroot NF, east of Sula, MT. CLICK HERE for Recreation.gov description. The road is plowed to within ¾ of a mile of the site.
6. Another possibility is the Horse Prairie Guard Station on the BDNF Dillon RD. We’d get to it by driving to Leadore and heading toward Clark Canyon Dam via ID Hwy 29 and MT Hwy 324. Normally it shouldn’t be more than a 1.5 mile ski. However beware that sometimes Hwy 29 is closed due to snow drifting. Also in some cases snow may be quite limited at the guard station. CLICK HERE for Recreation.gov description.
There are other relatively close winter rental cabins on both the Beaverhead-Deerlodge and Bitterroot NF, but one would need a snowmobile to access them.
7. The Salmon-Challis NF Cape Horn Guard Station can also be rented. CLICK HERE for Recreation.gov description. Be sure to discuss the access route when you contact the Challis - Yankee Fork District Office at 208-879-4100.
8. The William’s Peak Yurt in the Sawtooth Mountains south of Stanley can be rented from Sawtooth Mountain Guides.
9. Further south toward Sun Valley yurts can be rented from the Galena Lodge, and others can be rented from Sun Valley Treking.
10. The next closest is probably the Idaho City Yurts and Harriman State Park Yurts & cabins. CLICK HERE for the State of Idaho cabins page.
11. There are some cabins on the Boise NF near Lowman that can be rented, including the Beaver Creek and Warm Springs cabins. See details below.
12. Idaho State University also rents some yurts near Pocatello, ID. CLICK HERE for their page.
13, CLICK HERE for a link to some “Hut Tours” in the Tetons. Hut Rental is available for “experienced parties”.
CAUTION: The GPS Latitude/Longitude locations for many of the above sites in the Recreation.Gov site are not correct. Many will take you to a Forest Service office. However when you click on the map, the location pins appear to be correct. An exception is the (Montana) East Fork Guard Station location. It’s shown on the map as somewhere in central Idaho.
FOREST SERVICE CABIN RESERVATIONS & RENTALS 101:
Most of the nearby rentals are USFS cabins that must be rented from
recreation.gov. On many web sites you may see a link to “Reserve USA”. This is
not used by the USFS any more, however most of these links will forward you to http://www.recreation.gov/ The maximum
advance time to call or reserve on-line is usually 6 months (180+ days) prior
to the desired date. Thus virtually all of the Friday and most of the Saturdays
are taken for May Creek and many of the others except for the William’s Cr A-frame.
If one is reserving a date range that extends past the 180+ day limit, you
will normally be able to reserve an additional 4 days ahead. If you really
want a certain weekend you may need to make your reservation in the summer. For
example 6th months before January 1st is July 1st.
To do that go to: http://www.recreation.gov/
and “Sign In”. Read any added instructions and be sure cookies are enabled on
your browser. In your Internet Explorer, go to “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy”,
and “Advanced” and verify that cookies are not listed as being “Blocked”. At
Recreation.Gov, click on the “FAQs” link (and subsequent links) at the bottom
of the page. Note that many of the FAQs apply to other agencies and to other
types of recreation including camping. Once signed in you can use the
instructions in the 2nd paragraph of my “Introduction” to use the
CLICK HERE links for one of the above cabins.
To find other sites (not listed above) access the main recreation.gov page and in the box on the left under “Looking For”, select “Cabins or Lookouts”. Then select the desired state, and enter a town in the “Near” box. You may then get several choices (oddly even from another state). Select the desired town and click on “Search Facilities”. You should get a list of facilities listed in order of the (air miles) distance from your town. You will have to use other data or click on each site to see if they can be reserved during your desired time. Many cabins can not be reserved in the winter.
If you are looking for a specific cabin, under the “Park or Facility Name” you can type the first part of the name, for example “William” and then click on the link to the William’s Creek A-Frame, etc. Then select “Range” and then the 1st of your desired time and an ending search date that’s not over 12 weeks from the start. However, you’ll only see a couple of weeks at a time anyway and can continue scrolling ahead (or back) so the later date isn’t too critical. But there is no sense in starting before Dec 1st because that’s the earliest that the winter cabins rent. Now select “1” for length of stay. Since you selected 1 night, there will almost certainly be a date available. Now click on the “See Details” link. You’ll see two weeks. If there are “X’s” it means that these days are out of the reservation period. An “R” indicates that the cabin has already been reserved. If there is an “A” listed, the cabin is available for that date. Hit your back button to go back and try another cabin. Remember to change the state if necessary. If you find a desired date you can reserve it on-line. Remember to read about the cabin, read the FAQs, and “register” first. It appears that you can still reserve a site by calling in on their Toll Free 1-877-444-6777 number. Once registered you’ll get some information which will usually also include the padlock combination number. Once you get this information, I’d advise you to call the FS Ranger District (Wisdom, Salmon-Cobalt, or Challis-Yankee Fork, for example) to see if there are any problems and to verify that you have the correct combination number. The district can also advise you as to the best place to park and the best access route. These things often change so the “reservation people” may not have the latest. Call well in advance in case the most knowledgeable person is not available. Plan to arrive as early as possible so that you don’t have to try and open a combination in the dark, etc. Also remember that all or some cell phones won’t work at most sites.
Note: If you are over 62 years old you qualify for a Golden Age Passport. You’d need to get one at a Forest Service, BLM, or National Park office and get your assigned number. Click Here for details. Once you have your assigned number you will probably qualify for a 50% reduction when renting some campgrounds. However, currently it doesn’t apply to renting cabins.
More Specific Details Re Forest Service Cabins:
Some of the links below this point don’t work. I’ll correct them soon.
Montana and Idaho, north of the Salmon River is covered by the Forest service Northern Region (r1). Click Here for their cabin reservation page. We will be most interested in the links to the Beaverhead and to the Bitterroot Forests. Here they are:
National Forest Rental Directory Information |
National Forest Map |
National Forest Recreation Web Sites |
The Beaverhead links include details for the Gordon Reese Cabin in the summer, Hogan’s Cabin, and the May Cr. & Horse Prairie Cabins. Except for the East Fork Guard Station, most of the Bitterroot NF Cabins would require a very long ski. Click Here for the Beaverhead Home page. Also see their General Information For Cabin Rentals. Note that in addition to the daily rental charge there is also a $9 reservation fee.
The national forests south of the Salmon River are in the
Intermountain Region (R4):
Here’s the Cabins
& Lookouts link. There are links to jump down to each National Forest. Our local
Forest is the Salmon-Challis, to the Southwest (Lowman area) is the Boise,
and to the Southeast is the Caribou-Targhee. There are no cabins listed
for the Sawtooth NF which is south of Stanley. CLICK HERE
for an Adobe PDF document that lists similar R4 (2006-2007) information, but in
a more attractive format. One could print selected pages. CLICK
HERE for a description of the reservation process.
The Public
Lands Information Center has a list of cabins (and campgrounds) in Idaho
and also a list for Montana:
You need to enable cookies when doing a multi page search. You can select for a
given state and a given activity (for example rental cabins). The list for
Idaho is quite long and is on several pages (alphabetical). An option is to modify
the search. For example in addition to the word “cabin” add the word “Salmon”
to get a list of rentable cabins on the Salmon-Challis NF. Caution, the
descriptions don’t list all the necessary details. Click
Here for a list for (mostly) the Salmon-Challis and Click
Here for the William’s Cr. A-frame. Generally this doesn’t provide as much
information as the other sites listed above but sometimes an alternate source
of information can be helpful. This also allows one to search by map quad.
CLICK HERE for a Forest Service National Office page with links similar to the above but for almost all Forests in the Nation.
MORE DETAILS FOR SPECIFIC CABINS:
Gordon Reese Cabin (Click for more
details):
CLICK
HERE for summer time (Recreation.Gov) rental information. The Forest link
states that: The cabin can be reserved from May 15 thru Labor Day for $35 per
night. However the Recreation.Gov site allows one to start renting on May 1,
2010. I’m quite sure there’s also a $9 reservation fee per stay.
In the winter one “Hosts” the cabin. In order to “Host” the cabin you
need to call the Wisdom Ranger District on the designated “call-in day” which
is usually in early October. Here’s my instructions for last fall which was
typical: “If you want to “Host” the Gordon Reese Cabin at the Chief
Joseph Cross Country Ski area you’ll need to call the Beaverhead National
Forest, Wisdom RD on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at (406) 689-3371. Calling
starts at 07:00 AM and you’d better be dialing before 7 to get any prime
dates. A certain number of dates have been given to the Bitterroot Cross
Country Ski Club for the tremendous effort they do in maintaining the trails
and the cabin. However I understand that they didn’t use all their dates so you
might have a chance for some good ones.
I encourage you to join the
Bitterroot Cross Country Ski Club. Their year starts on Nov. 1st and
dues are $15 for an individual. I’ve been doing this for several years to help
support the club and their excellent work”.
In previous years the “call-in day” was earlier in October, so if interested you need to start checking as to the date by mid-Sept.
Later in the year you can still call the Wisdom District office at: (406) 689-3371. There are usually some mid-week spots available. Another number listed for the Wisdom RD is: 406-689-3243.
The following is from the Bitterroot XC Ski Club: “During the winter no fee is charged, and there are seasonal duties to perform. During the summer there is a fee, along with seasonal duties. Yearly reservations will be on a first-come first served basis. Each group of hosts will be limited to three days and one weekend for the winter season, and up to eight people in a group.
Should anyone find that
they are unable to keep the hosting date that they have signed up for, please
let a friend or a member of the Bitterroot Cross-Country Ski Club know, or call
Earl Phillips, 961-0101. Earl provides a 'cancellation service' to allow
canceled reservations at the Gordon Reese Warming Hut to be filled. If
you want to be on his e-mail list, you must provide him with your name, phone
number and e-mail address. Earl's e-mail address is skihut@montana.com.”
Click Here
for the above details
Per: 12/15/06 telcon: All the 2006/2007 hosting positions were filled in the first 3 hours of the call-in in October.
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Last revised on web: 1/ |
02/06/2010 20:45 PM |
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Previously revised on web: |
Winter 2007 |
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Home Page Location |
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Contact: |
Email is: ckeene41-b4
followed by an @ and then yahoo.com |
1/ Items with an "*" were
added since previous revision.