Homestake Pass

We stayed in the parking lot before you cross the railroad tracks since it had recently snowed and we were unsure of the road conditions further back. There is an outhouse on the far end of the parking lot. After we unhooked we decided to drive further back and see what it was like. We were glad we didn’t try to make it as the road was rutted and rough in a lot of places. There were several pull offs, some large enough for several large rigs and some smaller would fit just one. It is a stunning area! Beautiful scenery in the mountains! Highly recommend! We plan to come back next summer when the weather is better. There was no AT&T service but we had full Verizon service.

Stayed here from 8/26/19 to 8/28/19. This was honestly a really great location. It's right off the interstate up on a beautiful mountain. I was only using this place as a two night layover before moving on, so I just took the first site I saw on the left when I came in. I later walked further up the road into the woods and I'm glad I didn't try to bring my rig up there. The road was very rough and I only saw one or two places that could even be used as campsites. i think most of the sites are right off the main road in the big open area where you'll see other campers.

As others have said, it was definitely cool and breezy up there. The first night it got down into the 30's. It had beautiful wide open skies that were awesome for my solar, and I even had some range cattle stop by for a visit each morning. The Verizon service was also perfect and I had full bars (without a booster). Overall this place would have been amazing, except for the insane amount of generator noise. No joke, the guy next to me never turned his generator off the entire three days i was there. It ran all day and all night. I walked around the area to check things out and noticed that pretty much everyone was constantly running generators. I have no problem with generators at all, but running them all through the night seems really unnecessary and rude to me. I think it maybe wouldn't have been such a problem if it hadn't kept me awake all night.

This is definitely an ATV camping area and so it's maybe a bit different crowd than some of the other places I've boondocked. It's also possible that I just happened to be here with a bad group and that this wouldn't even be an issue at other times. I can't say for sure, but just to rate my own experience I have to say that the noise drove me nuts and kind of ruined it for me.

For a quick stop off the interstate before moving on this area was awesome, however, I don't think I could have lasted any longer here with the amount of noise at the time I was there.

This was a quick stop off the highway. Up a dirt road, with lots of pull outs. We were in a tent, and saw lots of RVs gathered at various sites, then finally found a lone spot on top of the mountain. The skies were open and starry, I ended up sleeping outside. There was highway noise since we were so close, so that kind of ruined the impression of being in the wilderness, but other than that it was beautiful. We were able to stop in Butte, have a late dinner and still get set up just at sun down.

Followed the GPS coordinates from a previous poster, and took advice to find the "site under the power lines" as I need AT&T for connectivity to work. The site is 1.6 miles down the main dirt/gravel road. We are directly under the power lines, and if we were staying long term, probably would not stay in this location, but not bad for 2 nights. No trees above the camper, so no shade. Which for our solar panels, that's good. And the weather was cool and breezy, so no need for AC. The road wasn’t too rutted, a few washboard areas, but not horrible. The site is near the road, and with the wind, it can get a bit dusty with the people driving by. We walked down the hill a ways and came across many other sites that are off the gravel road. If arriving during the week, it’s easy to find a spot. But the sites start filling up for the weekend on Friday.

Easy access in; the road is well maintained. We stayed here for five nights, and it was beautiful. We need a cell signal and Mother Nature; this gave us both. Granted, you do need a WI-FI antenna. Gets busy on the weekends, but people are generally awesome and also just there to camp and have a great time. There are so many trails to hike, bike, and off-road, you will never get bored.

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.

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.

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.