Homestake Pass Dispersed Camping

This is a BLM location less than a mile off of I90 at Homestake Pass east of Butte, MT. Area is popular for off road bikes, MC's and 4 wheeling. Looks to be popular on the weekends.

Area can accommodate any size rig. Road should be no issue and the turn into the flat area was smooth.

Good shot on Google earth and you can see a few coaches/TT's parked.

No stay limit that I could find. Short drive into Butte where there is lots of history, great mining museum and other activities.

Verizon was solid. 4 bars 29.63/11.38 Mbps down/up

We rolled into Butte and stayed at the KOA (I left a review for that separately) as I had called the BLM and they thought that a storm had a good chance of leaving snow up at Homestake Pass. After two days at KOA, and after the storm passed we headed up to HomeStake and it was beautiful, no snow at all. So after 3 nights in KOA we moved to HomeStake for our last 2 days in the area.

We drove a little past the ATV offloading area and after you climb a hill, on the left there is another wide open parking lot.

We loved it. Super quiet, lots of space for our rig. There were two other rigs up there, I think one may have been used as a hunting camp and left there for the weekends or something as we never saw anyone at that one.

There are free range cattle there. One morning around 10AM I looked out the window and saw 4 of the cattle headed around the side of our trailer, as they passed the back of the trailer the whole trailer shook a bit. Seems one of the cattle used our ladder as a back scratch (no damage done). I opened up the blind on the other side of the trailer and all 4 cows were circled around our fire pit sniffing around.

So as long as you don't mind cattle and watch where you step it is really an A+ place. Cell signal for both AT&T and Verizon was amazing.

Some freeway noise from I-90 but not much.

[Actual Stay 09/26/16]

Some noise from the nearby highway, garbage left behind by previous campers, and the cows scared the bejesus out of us (we had no idea they were there). But a great location and easy to get to.

After 2 days at the 2bars campground in Butte we found this place. This is open range so cows will come by but they are just added entertainment. The locals leave there RV's here and come on weekends and overnighters use it. TV Cell and 4G are all very good and very little highway noise. Its Friday and we are pulling out today as the place is packed but Monday through Thursday we had it all to our selves until late afternoon when the overnighters started to come in.

We arrived on a Tuesday so it was pretty empty. Only 4 other RV's and two of them left the next morning. We had plenty of space and the dogs were able to roam the entire property since we pretty much had the land to ourselves. We didn't have AT&T cell service here but drive 2-3 minutes and you will have service. We enjoyed our short stay here. We dumped our tanks at town and pump and filled up at KOA for free. Just wish there was more to do in butte!

Arrived right after a winter storm, so there was 6" of snow on the ground, none on roads tho. We are traveling inn a 32' ClassA, and if you miss the wide open space and cross the RR tracks, it'll be fun turning around! Not recommended to travel up the hill in a rig our size! But if you're traveling with any extra un towed car,.. it's worth checking out the site about 2.5mi. up! Great view, but no restroom close buy to that one! Where we stayed there's hartley any nose from the highway, nice flat open spots for larger rigs! (Bathroom is in need of cleaning, tho I always do what I can before and after a stay). Right by a cell tower, so? No problem until you travel up the hill a few miles. ENJOY!

My second experience taking a chance on open land, BLM, etc. The ratings by others were great and they weren't kidding. Coming off the Homestake Pass exit, turn north over the freeway (if going East). You'll get to a nice size parking lot with a public bathroom, on the East side of the road, and the railroad tracks up ahead. The dirt road after the railroad tracks is a nicely maintained dirt road with some rough spots but just slow down and take it easy. I drove my 38ft 1999 Class A without issue, the road was a little wet but if it rains a lot I can see that it could get very muddy. After you cross the railroad tracks as someone pointed out the turn around spots are few but they do exist, so do not worry. Once you embark up the road, not far around the first hill there is a large flat spot where there were plenty of campers. I wanted to be more isolated so kept driving. Passed several really nice spots as I kept driving, the road would get rough at times but just kept it slow & steady, then about 2.5 miles up the road there was a super sweet spot but under some power lines so I kept going. Even the really skinny dirt roads are flat enough to pull up maybe a smaller tow RV. Then up ahead about 3 miles I got this SWEET top of the hill spot with no one around far as the eye can see, overlooking the valley, a huge tree in the middle with a large flat loop for my 38", the loop could easily fit a 42" and a couple of cars. The tree in the center is huge, and has a rock outcropping next to which the campsite's firepit is located. It is May, so it was wet enough that there were not any fire restrictions in effect meaning nightly campfires!!!
There are plenty of trails that come off the main road, and the road continues for a while. Three miles (or so) from the railroad tracks after passing my campsite the road snakes high over the freeway's rest stop (it winds back to the freeway before turning northward), and it turns sharply down into a valley, that whole road is driveable by a class A no problem! and there are even more flat spots out there in a little valley next to a creek that has little wood bridges for motorcycles/peds on some of the trails. There are a TON OF TRAILS back there! Many are for motocross type but definitely hikeable.
I highly recommend boondocking out here, its the Continental Divide and it rocks.

Homestake Pass is a popular point of entry into the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest for boaters, ATV/dirt bike riders, and campers. We stayed at the location described by Pauly with our 25' Airstream, which was nice and flat, with good views and marginal cell service on AT&T (better with our MIMO antenna). It’s almost exactly 0.5 miles after you drive under the power lines on the road in. GPS coordinates are: 45.91853,-112.38074.

There are many different camping areas with different levels of seclusion. Sites start on the right side of the access road before you even reach the trailhead parking lot, with a few sites down the dirt road near Homestake Lake just 0.25 miles north of the I-90 exit. We also saw a Class A that was set up in the parking area of the trailhead on the right side of the road throughout the time we visited, which was apparently OK with the forest service and sheriff personnel that drove by regularly. The most popular camping spot is definitely the large flat area on the left side of the road about 0.5 miles after the railroad tracks. We were here over a weekend, and on Saturday night the rigs were packed into this area tighter than a private RV park! But there are also plenty of options if you continue further down the road. Cell service is spotty along the road; it was excellent at the spot underneath the power lines and OK at our spot, but nonexistent at others.

While the road was narrow and slightly washboarded, overall we thought access was completely acceptable and we saw many large Class As and Fifth Wheels at various points along the forest road. The forest road in to the area, Delmoe Lake Road, actually leads to a lake and gets a fair amount of traffic from people pulling skiffs and other small boats. There was also a steady amount of ATV and dirt bike traffic on the weekends, and this particular site overlooks I-90 so there is near-constant road noise. This is not the place for peaceful contemplation. Also, be aware that grazing rights are leased here, and we saw free range cows wandering through some of the campsites as well as plenty of evidence that they had visited ours in the past.

The benefits of this area, besides being free, are the relatively high elevation – which we really needed during our stay in the area in hot, hot August 2018 – and the close proximity to Butte. Homestake Pass trailhead is just off I-90 with its own exit, and Butte is about 5 miles west on I-90. We highly recommend the excellent and free RV dump station at the Town Pump / Exxon at the corner of South Harrison and Elizabeth Warren. It has three bays located behind the car wash, and, other than some slight denting on the threading on the rinse hose we used, it was immaculate. Butte has all the services and stores one could need, and we really enjoyed the (surprisingly interesting) World Museum of Mining.

Hung out for 8 days with another couple we had met last January in Quartsite, AZ. Livestock sometimes wanders in because this is open grazing lands. More people on the weekends. Had an altercation with some locals who claimed to be coming here over thirty years. They spent most of the weekend drunk and were loud andm played loud music until 2 and 3 AM. Initially seemed like they felt they had special privileges. We did eventually come to an understanding. The moved out Sunday but left their 5 trailers and 1 pickup camper on their sites. Poor AT&T 4g and cell.

First time here. Stayed sept 15-19 2018. Elevation 6400 so expect cool evenings. Took gravel road out to Delmoe Lake for a picnic. Took numerous walks. Met a lot of nice people. Look forward to visiting again.

Notes. Some broken glass found on some sites due to target shooting. Heard target shooting 3x in the distance during 4 day stay.