U.S. Forest Service · MT
Lakeside Campground
1Heads up1 fire 28 mi away
Wildfire
Doney Lane fire · 28 mi away · updated Oct 15, 2026
Fires: NIFC/IRWIN via MTJP wildfire tracker · Oct 15, 2026
The agency doesn’t say how you get a siteIts record carries no access type, so treat it as a place to phone before you drive.
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- Season
- May 28 – September 30Open May 28 through September 30
Photos · (USDA Forest Service Photo)
4,090 ftElevation
95 ftWater · Lake Alva
8.4 miNW of Seeley Lake, MT
n/aTree cover · water-masked cell
Bortle 2Night sky · 253rd darkest of 501 in MT
Open May 28 through September 30Today
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Located at the south end of Lake Alva, this campground offers a chance to camp and enjoy lake activities such as swimming, fishing and boating. There are also wildlife and bird watching opportunities here. It is 15 miles to the Mission Mountain Wilderness.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 39 km away
- No change
Source: Stated in the agency description
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (39 km) · Oct 14, 2026
Phone before you drive
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 17, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 9
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
Five standard family sites (max 10 people) at $10 per night are available at this campground on a first-come first-served basis.
Fees are charged from the Friday before Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Group Sites: $50 per night.
Camping reservations accepted for small groups.
Visit Recreation.gov to reserve group site.
The booking feerecreation.gov
We hold no recreation.gov booking record for this campground, so we can’t say whether a booking fee applies.
What this campground addsits own record
Extra vehicle$5
“$5 fee for each additional vehicle after two vehicles.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 5
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
What this campground adds: The U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record and notices for this campground, quoted verbatim. An extra-vehicle charge is set locally and appears on no national schedule, so it’s never assumed. · Aug 24, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near here
Lakeside Lolo Campground (MT)Lolo National Forest · 0.9 mi
Lake Inez Point 6 (Group Camp Site)Lolo National Forest · 1.1 mi
Lake Alva CampgroundLolo National Forest · 1.3 mi
Rainy Lake CampgroundLolo National Forest · 2.3 mi
Seeley Lake Lolo Campground (MT)Lolo National Forest · 8.3 mi
Big Larch CampgroundLolo National Forest · 8.7 mi
Lakeside Lolo Campground (MT)Lolo National Forest · 0.9 miLake Inez Point 6 (Group Camp Site)Lolo National Forest · 1.1 miLake Alva CampgroundLolo National Forest · 1.3 miRainy Lake CampgroundLolo National Forest · 2.3 miSeeley Lake Lolo Campground (MT)Lolo National Forest · 8.3 miBig Larch CampgroundLolo National Forest · 8.7 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Today66°Widespread Frost then Mostly Sunny
Tonight32°Partly Cloudy3% rain
Sunday60°Sunny
Sunday Night35°Partly Cloudy
NWS forecast for Seeley Lake, MT
Source: National Weather Service, MSO forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical May night 34°F, day 65°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 34°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
90°32°0°
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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.
Measured at: SEELEY LAKE RS, MT (USC00247448), 7 miles away and at about the same elevation
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
Roadless
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026
Who answers for this land
Lakeside Campground is in Montana’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Ryan Zinke (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it out of season. The season it publishes is the bar below.
Season: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (39 km) · Oct 14, 2026
Reported by: iNaturalist fall color observations, reported no change · Oct 14, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.