Kalispell Island Boat-In Campground
3Heads up3 fires, nearest 12 mi
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 13 of the next 16 nights read 16:21 UTC
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 52All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Surrounded by clear waters of Priest Lake, the 52 sites on Kalispell Island provide the ideal getaway for people looking for a rugged, but highly rewarding, camping experience on the peaceful shores of Priest Lake. There are 51 single sites on the island as well as one group site known as Three Pines Group Site. This Group Site is located on the southeast side of the island and has been renumbered from Site #001 to site #29 for groups of 10-30 individuals. All sites are only reachable by boat. A popular activity among visitors is to kayak, canoe, or power boat up a 3.5-mile thoroughfare, which leads to the Upper Priest Lake Scenic Area. The upper lake - just like Kalispell Island - cannot be access by car, so water is an excellent navigation option. Keep reading
Recreation
Priest Lake is less than an hour from the Canadian Border, nestled deep below the crest of the Selkirk Mountains. Surrounded by the natural beauty of Northern Idaho and the mile-high mountains, this 25,000-acre lake offers clear, blue waters reaching depths of 300 feet. Fantastic wildlife viewing is available on the 2.5-mile loop trail that encircles Kalispell Island, offering phenomenal lake views and bird watching opportunities. The waters of Priest Lake offer anglers access to record-breaking Mackinaw trout, Dolly Varden, Cutthroat and Kokanee.
Facilities
Most campsites require campers to bring their own portable toilets. They can check out toilet buckets at the Kalispell Boat Launch. Kalispell Island can only be accessed by boat. No drinking water is availabe and this is a pack it in, pack it out facility. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided Natural Features Kalispell Island is one of seven islands scattered throughout Priest Lake. Kalispell is the largest of these islands, spanning 264 acres, and is shaped like a tooth. Priest Lake, at a 2,400 foot elevation, is one of the top three largest lakes in Idaho. To the north, the lake connects to the Upper Priest Lake, divided by a narrow channel, which can be passed through by boat.
Nearby Attractions
Hike the Lakeshore or Beach Trails that traverse along the west shore of Priest Lake. The Beach trail extends between Outlet Bay Campground and the Kalispell Bay Boat Launch. The Lakeshore Trail runs for 8 miles along the northwest shores of Priest Lake. In winter, ice fishing, shoe shoeing and snowmobiling on nearby trails entertain visitors.
What the agency tells you
Site is accessed by boat only
No drinking water; please bring your own water
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack in-pack out' facility
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
No bathing or washing dishes in lake
No glass bottles allowed on beaches
No fireworks
Click here for more information on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Please display camping reservation on dashboard if parking at Kalispell Bay Boat Launch
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 52 · 1 tent-only, 51 boat-in, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Portable Toilets
- “…require campers to bring their own portable toilets. They can check out toilet buckets at the Kalispell…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…Island can only be accessed by boat. No drinking water is availabe and this is a pack it in, pack it out…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Water sports
Something open on 13 of the next 13 bookable nightsread 16:21 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:21 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
52 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 52 mapped sitesAll 52 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 51 of the 52 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| Cottonwood | 35 | boat in | 471 ft | 44 ft | $15 |
| KALISPELL ISLAND GROUP SITE | 029 | group tent only area nonelectric | 248 ft | 35 ft | |
| Kalispell Vista | 51 | boat in | 233 ft | under 10 ft | $15 |
| Kalispell Vista | 52 | boat in | 233 ft | under 10 ft | $15 |
| North Cove | 45 | boat in | 71 ft | 53 ft | $15 |
| North Cove | 46 | boat in | 71 ft | 34 ft | $15 |
| North Cove | 47 | boat in | 71 ft | 41 ft | $15 |
| North Cove | 48 | boat in | 67 ft | 44 ft | $15 |
| North Cove | 49 | boat in | 67 ft | 38 ft | $15 |
| Peninsula | 8 | boat in | 332 ft | under 10 ft | $15 |
| Peninsula | 9 | boat in | 332 ft | under 10 ft | $15 |
| Rocky Point | 36 | boat in | 61 ft | 58 ft | $15 |
| Rocky Point | 37 | boat in | 52 ft | 65 ft | $15 |
| Rocky Point | 38 | boat in | 52 ft | 50 ft | $15 |
| Rocky Point | 39 | boat in | 53 ft | 13 ft | $15 |
| Rocky Point | 40 | boat in | 53 ft | under 10 ft | $15 |
| Rocky Point | 41 | boat in | 50 ft | 36 ft | $15 |
| Rocky Point | 42 | boat in | 50 ft | 22 ft | $15 |
| Rocky Point | 43 | boat in | 70 ft | 33 ft | $15 |
| Rocky Point | 44 | boat in | 70 ft | 38 ft | $15 |
| Schneider | 10 | boat in | 48 ft | 59 ft | $15 |
| Schneider | 11 | boat in | 48 ft | 57 ft | $15 |
| Schneider | 12 | boat in | 81 ft | 63 ft | $15 |
| Schneider | 13 | boat in | 81 ft | 53 ft | $15 |
| Schneider | 14 | boat in | 93 ft | 22 ft | $15 |
| Selkirk | 26 | boat in | 71 ft | 37 ft | $15 |
| Selkirk | 27 | boat in | 71 ft | 16 ft | $15 |
| Shady | 50 | boat in | 1133 ft | 38 ft | $15 |
| Silver Beach | 15 | boat in | 62 ft | 38 ft | $15 |
| Silver Beach | 16 | boat in | 51 ft | 54 ft | $15 |
| Silver Beach | 17 | boat in | 51 ft | 58 ft | $15 |
| Silver Beach | 18 | boat in | 83 ft | 56 ft | $15 |
| Silver Beach | 19 | boat in | 76 ft | 52 ft | $15 |
| Silver Beach | 20 | boat in | 76 ft | 43 ft | $15 |
| Silver Beach | 21 | boat in | 69 ft | 28 ft | $15 |
| Silver Beach | 22 | boat in | 69 ft | 36 ft | $15 |
| Silver Cove | 23 | boat in | 51 ft | 27 ft | $15 |
| Silver Cove | 24 | boat in | 43 ft | 22 ft | $15 |
| Silver Cove | 25 | boat in | 43 ft | 25 ft | $15 |
| Three Pines | 28 | boat in | 248 ft | 42 ft | $15 |
| Three Pines | 30 | boat in | 93 ft | 65 ft | $15 |
| Three Pines | 31 | boat in | 60 ft | 56 ft | $15 |
| Three Pines | 32 | boat in | 60 ft | 42 ft | $15 |
| Three Pines | 33 | boat in | 77 ft | 47 ft | $15 |
| Three Pines | 34 | boat in | 77 ft | 46 ft | $15 |
| West Shores | 1 | boat in | 63 ft | 36 ft | $15 |
| West Shores | 2 | boat in | 52 ft | 29 ft | $15 |
| West Shores | 3 | boat in | 52 ft | 33 ft | $15 |
| West Shores | 4 | boat in | 59 ft | 29 ft | $15 |
| West Shores | 5 | boat in | 72 ft | 39 ft | $15 |
| West Shores | 6 | boat in | 79 ft | 41 ft | $15 |
| West Shores | 7 | boat in | 79 ft | 34 ft | $15 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 52 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Bartoo Island Boat-In Campground1.6 miLuby Bay CampgroundKaniksu National Forest · 1.7 mi
Luby BayKaniksu National Forest · 2.2 mi
Outlet at Priest Lake3.8 mi
Reeder Bay4.2 miAccess to the campground is by boat only. To reach various boat launches around the lake, travel north from Priest River, Idaho on State Highway 57.
To access the Kalispell Bay Boat Launch, travel on Highway 57 for 31 miles to Kalispell Bay Road. Turn east (right) until you reach West Lakeshore Road. Then head south .5 miles to the boat launch.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Coolin, ID
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 22°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Kalispell Island Boat-In Campground is in Idaho’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Russ Fulcher (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →