Madison River level at Cameron
Montana · Fishing & wading
Measured at USGS 06038500 — Madison River bl Hebgen Lake nr Grayling MT · NWS forecast point GRYM8
Reading taken · as of 43 min ago
Low and clear — wadeable, and fish will be spooky
At 665 CFS, this gauge is in the lowest 10% of the 87 years USGS has recorded for this date (1939–2026), at 61% of the 1,090 CFS median.
Sponsor Madison River
One exclusive sponsor per river, on every gauge page for it.
Cancel anytime · Questions?
Flow history at Cameron
Daily values from USGS 06038500, updated every 15 to 60 minutes; NWS forecast for GRYM8 reissued through the day. Provisional.
Highest crests on record at Cameron
2 on record
| Stage | Flow | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 5.30 ft | 10,200 CFS | Aug 15, 1959 |
| 3.69 ft | 5,090 CFS | Jun 3, 1943 |
Crests published by the National Weather Service.
About Madison River at Cameron
USGS publishes this station as Madison River below Hebgen Lake near Grayling, upstream of Cameron. For a Montana river at 6,448 feet its seasonal curve is remarkably flat: the published monthly medians run from 758 CFS in May to 1,150 in June, and nine of the twelve months sit between 800 and 1,100. Hebgen is holding that shape.
Two readings in the record sit well outside everything around them. The largest instantaneous peak on file, 10,200 CFS, is dated 17 August 1959, roughly double the highest daily mean ever recorded here (4,910 CFS on 3 June 1943). The lowest daily mean, 5 CFS, is dated 9 May 1960. The statistics window covers 1939 to 2026, about 88 years, and nothing else in it approaches either figure.
Madison River at Cameron — common questions
6 questions
Why does a snowmelt river show almost no spring rise here?
Because Hebgen Lake sits immediately upstream and absorbs it. The published May median is 758 CFS, lower than October, November and December. On an unregulated Montana river at this elevation you would expect May and June to carry several times the winter flow. Here the entire annual range of monthly medians is roughly 758 to 1,150 CFS.
What are the unusual 1959 and 1960 readings in the record?
The peak flow record shows 10,200 CFS on 17 August 1959, which is about twice the largest daily mean ever measured at this station, and the daily record low of 5 CFS falls on 9 May 1960. Both sit far outside the rest of an 88 year statistics window. They are in the published record as measured; this page reports them without attributing a cause.
Does the Henrys Fork move with this gauge?
Hardly at all, which is a useful thing to know about both. Over 32,128 days of shared record since 1938, two rivers 31.2 miles apart in the same mountains correlate at just 0.108. This gauge has carried a median of about 1.93 times the Henrys Fork near Island Park. Two independent storage operations, not two independent watersheds, is what produces that.
What makes the flow change on Madison River at Cameron?
Rain upstream, plus seasonal baseflow. The 12-month chart shows how it behaves through the year.
Is Madison River at Cameron high or low for this time of year?
The USGS median flow for late September here is 1,090 CFS, from 87 years of record (1939–2026). Today sits in the lowest 10% of those years, at 61% of the median. The comparison is what makes the raw number mean anything: the same reading is a drought on one river and a flood on another.
How often does this reading update?
USGS transmits from gauge 06038500 every 15 to 60 minutes, and the National Weather Service reissues the flood forecast for GRYM8 a few times a day — more often when the river is rising. This page refreshes from both when you open it. The timestamp is in the gauge's local time.