Murray Bay Campground (MT)
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 37 mi
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $18From, per site
- Sites
- 20All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Murray Bay Campground is located on the Hungry Horse Reservoir, high in the Rocky Mountains, less than 30 miles from the Continental Divide, surrounded by towering mountain peaks. Visitors can expect a variety of recreational activities, including, fishing, boating, swimming, hiking, exploring and big game hunting. Murray Bay Campground has 20 sites, 11 which are reservable and 9 that are for our walk up visitors. The stay limit is 16 consecutive days. Keep reading
Recreation
Boating is popular on the 27,750-acre reservoir, and a concrete boat ramp is accessible from within the campground. Swimming and fishing are also popular pastimes, and anglers can expect to catch a variety of fish, including cutthroat trout.
Facilities
The campground offers 20 overnight sites for tent and RV camping. Each is equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. The water is 2 hand pumps and are not for filling RV's so please come full. Campground roads and parking spurs are gravel. An on-site host is available to answer any questions about the campground and surrounding area.
Natural Features
The campground is situated along the massive Hungry Horse Reservoir, which was dammed to provide hydroelectric power and flood control to the area. It is the 10th highest dam in the United States and provides a stunning backdrop.
Nearby Attractions
Murray Bay Campground is approximately 31 miles southwest of the West Glacier entrance to Glacier National Park.
Charges & Cancellations
No cancellations can be made within 4 days of your arrival date through recreation.gov. You must wait for your reservation dates to pass then call Cheryl at 406-752-PWAI (7924) or 406-404-4164 to turn in a Refund Request. Refunds can then be considered, by the concessionaire, of Camping fees only. You will automatically forfeit the first nights fee. Any cancellations within 4 days of your arrival must be turned to Cheryl also, to get the information to the campground Host. Otherwise your site will be held for you and there will be no chance for a refund. All Considerations can only be made after your original reservation dates have passed. *No shows have no chance of a refund.
What the agency tells you
CHECK OUT TIME IS 11:00 A.M. Check in is at 2:00 p.m.
If a site is not available for reservation online, it is shown as a first-come, first-served (FF) or walk-in (W) site. These sites will be identified at the campground on maps and campsite post markers with a W. First-come, First-served sites may already be taken as this cannot be updated on the Recreation.gov website. You may try to call for availability.
Reserved sites will be held until check out time (11am) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
We do not allow reservation holders to change campsites and move to a Walk-up campsite upon arrival. Most of our campsites are available for advanced reservations, and you must occupy the site you reserve.
You are allowed 2 passenger vehicles per site, the first vehicle is included in the site fee and an extra vehicle charge of $5.00/vehicle per night will be collected at the campground. Sites that are identified as double occupancy can accommodate an additional camping unit. In this situation, you will be charged for each camper.
Drop Camping is illegal without a Forest Service permit. If you rent a camper it may not be delivered by the owner.
There is a food storage order in effect on the Flathead National Forest. Know how to store all attractants all the time. See your Campground Host for more information or visit: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/flathead/recreation/?cid=stelprdb5347448
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.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/flathead Click here for more information on the Flathead forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 20
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…campfire rings with grills. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. The water is 2…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…grills. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. The water is 2 hand pumps and are not…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 32 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 357th 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
“the second vehicle is charged $5.00/day upon arrival at the campground.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $18 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.
“No cancellations can be made within 4 days of your arrival date through recreation.gov. You must wait for your reservation dates to pass then call Cheryl at 406-752-PWAI (7924) or 406-404-4164 to turn in a Refund Request. Refunds can then be considered, by the concessionaire, of Camping fees only. You will automatic…” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
20 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 20 mapped sitesAll 20 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. 20 of the 20 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop within Park | 01 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 228 ft | 422 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 02 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 97 ft | 154 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 03 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 97 ft | 121 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 04 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 137 ft | 140 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 05 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 84 ft | 141 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 06 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 93 ft | 92 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 07 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 84 ft | 192 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 08 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 103 ft | 79 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 09 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 103 ft | 175 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 10 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 78 ft | 229 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 11 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 79 ft | 171 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 12 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 95 ft | 205 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 13 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 78 ft | 261 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 14 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 90 ft | 267 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 15 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 108 ft | 168 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 16 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 90 ft | 333 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 17 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 101 ft | 389 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 18 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 87 ft | 392 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 19 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 87 ft | 312 ft | $18 |
| Loop within Park | 20 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 137 ft | 213 ft | $18 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Riverside Campground (MT)Flathead National Forest · 0.5 miLakeview CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 3.3 mi
Lid Creek CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 4.5 mi
Anna Creek CabinFlathead National Forest · 6.8 mi
Lost Johnny Point CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 7.5 mi
Lost Johnny CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 7.7 miFrom Martin City, Montana, turn off Highway 2 and continue on the main road through the town heading south. This road becomes East Side Reservoir Road. Continue for about 22 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Essex, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 35°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 20°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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Murray Bay Campground (MT) 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 →