If you sleep in a tent, a soft-sided pop-up or a van with a canvas top, the Carbella Recreation Site in Park County, Montana is closed to you through December 31, 2026. The site is not closed. It is closed to you specifically, because of grizzly bears, and that is a mechanism most people have never run into.
What the order says
The BLM’s Butte Field Office “has issued a temporary order restricting camping at the Carbella Recreation Site in Park County to hard-sided camping units only through Dec. 31, 2026, due to ongoing grizzly bear activity in the area.” The order “prohibits tent camping, soft-sided pop-up campers and canvas-sided vehicles used for sleeping at the site during this period.” Butte Acting Field Manager Roger Olsen said the restriction is meant “to reduce the likelihood and severity of encounters between visitors and grizzly bears, which are frequently seen in the area.” Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks helped build it. The announcement is dated June 1, 2026, and we read it on 2026-08-17.
Two details get skipped. The scope is wider than the campground: “The affected area includes all BLM-managed lands within Township 7 South, Range 7 East, Section 20.” That is a square mile. Pulling a quarter mile up the road to a dispersed spot inside that section does not get you out from under the order. And signs go up at the site and at the field office, which is your real-time answer: the posted sign and the current word from the field office beat this page and any app you are using.
What the order does not say
It never defines hard-sided. A rooftop tent, a pop-top with the canvas stowed, a truck camper with canvas ends: the announcement gives you no test for any of them, and we are not going to invent one. Call the Butte Field Office at 406-533-7600, describe your rig, and get the answer from the people enforcing it.
The other tool for the same problem
On August 13, 2026, the BLM closed Fan Creek Campground on Oregon’s Nestucca River Corridor outright. “A mother bear and her cub have been aggressively looking for food in and around Fan Creek Campground,” the announcement says. “The bears have been threatening to visitors, and they do not seem to be afraid of humans,” said Tillamook Field Manager Janet Satter. The BLM pointed people to Dovre and Alder Glen instead, both reservable.
Same problem, two answers. Close the site to everyone, or close it to the shelters a bear can open. The second one is easy to miss, because from the outside the place looks open.
How to catch these
Neither of these orders lives on a campground listing. They live on the managing office’s announcement page, and they do not follow the fire calendar that gets all the August attention: Carbella’s runs into winter, well past the point most people stop checking. Before a trip into bear country, call the field office that manages the ground and ask two questions: is there a current restriction, and does it apply to my rig.
If you are headed to either state, our Montana free camping page and Oregon free camping page are the starting points, and how to find your own spot covers the method for the rest.