McGregor Lake Campground
1Heads up1 fire 12 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 28All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
McGregor Lake Campground is located approximately 53 miles southeast of Libby, Montana, on Highway 2 at the west end of McGregor Lake in the Kootenai National Forest. This area is about halfway between Libby and Kalispell in the heart of the Thompson Chain of Lakes, a premier fishing and hunting area. Keep reading
Recreation
McGregor Lake is host to a prime mackinaw trout population and offers excellent opportunities for a trophy-size catch. There is a boat ramp on-site for access to the lake. Swimming and water skiing are also popular activities. Hikers can walk the 2.9-mile McGregor Lake Shoreline Trail.
Facilities
The campground has 27 sites, including one host site, all with tables and fire rings. Most sites offer an average length of 32 feet. Vault toilets, garbage service and drinking water are available during the peak season. The campground campsites are not currently on the reservation system. The reservable group site is available for large groups, this site is a 120' x 140' gravel parking area. Tables and fire ring are located within the site. Reservations can be made at Recreation.gov Day use picnic sites with tables and fire rings are located near the beach.
Natural Features
At an elevation of 3,900 feet, the campground is nestled among young pines at the west end of McGregor Lake in the Fisher River Area. The lake spans 1,240 acres, making it the largest lake in the Kootenai National Forest. The Fisher River Area is the watershed formed by the four forks (West, East, Silver Butte, Pleasant Valley) of the Fisher River and Wolf Creek. Within it is the Thompson Chain of Lakes, which consists of more than 20 lakes.
What the agency tells you
16 day stay limit
Non-reservable sites are first come-first serve. Saving sites is prohibited.
If your extra vehicle is at the site longer than 30 minutes, you will need to pay the $5 extra vehicle fee or move the vehicle to the overflow parking area.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 28 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…offer an average length of 32 feet. Vault toilets, garbage service and drinking water are available…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…feet. Vault toilets, garbage service and drinking water are available during the peak season. The…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Motel
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 225th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
“If your extra vehicle is at the site longer than 30 minutes, you will need to pay the $5 extra vehicle fee or move the vehicle to the overflow parking area.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
28 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 28 mapped sitesAll 28 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. 28 of the 28 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| McGregor Lake | 1 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 99 ft | 308 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 10 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 24 ft | 260 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 11 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 21 ft | 231 ftMcGregor Creek | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 12 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 16 ft | 186 ftMcGregor Creek | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 13 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 16 ft | 179 ftMcGregor Creek | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 14 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 21 ft | 245 ftMcGregor Creek | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 15 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 76 ft | 306 ftMcGregor Creek | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 16 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 428 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 17 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 19 ft | 507 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 18 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 19 ft | 525 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 19 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 70 ft | 464 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 2 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 207 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 20 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 29 ft | 407 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 21 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 29 ft | 419 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 22 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 94 ft | 509 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 3 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 66 ft | 273 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 4 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 74 ft | 265 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 5 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 83 ft | 338 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 6 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 20 ft | 290 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 7 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 20 ft | 279 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 8 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 78 ft | 309 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake | 9 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 24 ft | 236 ft | $20 | |
| MCGREGOR LAKE CAMPGROUND | Group Site | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 86 ft | 591 ft | $50 | |
| McGregor Lake Group Site | This site should be deleted | group standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 86 ft | 507 ft | $50 | |
| McGregor Lake Host Site | 23 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 104 ft | 485 ft | $20 |
| McGregor Lake Tent Site | 24 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 104 ft | 231 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake Tent Site | 25 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 91 ft | 159 ft | $20 | |
| McGregor Lake Tent Site | 26 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 91 ft | 93 ft | $20 |
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 28 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Meadow Peak Lookout (MT)Kootenai National Forest · 5.2 mi
Bend Guard StationLolo National Forest · 11 miAshley Lake North CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 18 miPleasant Valley CampgroundKootenai National Forest · 18 miFishtrap Lake CampgroundLolo National Forest · 18 miWest Fork Fishtrap Creek CampgroundLolo National Forest · 19 miFrom Libby, MT, take US Route 2 east 53 miles to campground sign. Turn right at sign and go 0.2 miles to campground.
An alternate route is to take US Route 2 west from Kalispell, MT, for 32 miles to campground entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Happys Inn, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 27°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 15°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
McGregor Lake 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 →