Swan Lake Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $22From, per site
- Sites
- 4241 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
This recreation area is located near the village of Swan Lake at the north end of the scenic Swan Valley in northwest Montana. The campground consists of two loops. Ponderosa Loop offers open, large sites with plenty of space, while sites at Birch Loop are shaded and more clustered together. There is also a reservable group site which accomodates up to 100 people. Here, we have 38 rentable sites. 24 sites are reservable and 14 sites are for our walk-up visitors. The stay limit is 16 consecutive days. Keep reading
Recreation
Campers and day-use visitors have access to a boat ramp and a beach. Both power and non-motorized boating is permitted. This campground also offers Kayak, Paddleboard and Canoe rentals and firewood for sale. Anglers can fish for several kinds of trout as well as Kokanee salmon and Northern Pike. Bike lanes wind throughout the campground.
Facilities
The campground has 38 family-sized campsites and large group site with paved parking areas, fire rings and picnic tables. Drinking water and vault toilets are available. There is no dump station at this campground but there is a fill station as you enter the park on the right just passed the Pay Kiosk. Some sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you want to move your reservation to a first-come, first serve (walk in) site upon arrival, you will have to pay for the new spot as you held a reservable spot that fellow campers were not able to book online.
Natural Features
In the heart of the Rocky Mountains lies the 2.4 million acre Flathead National Forest. Home to lynx, grizzly bear, and bull trout, with numerous lakes, streams and rivers to enjoy, the forest is the premiere destination for visitors looking to experience natural landscapes of the American West. Swan Lake is surrounded by dense conifer forest and the craggy, snow-covered peaks of the Swan Mountain Range.
Nearby Attractions
Glacier National Park is within an hour drive. About a mile from the campground is the Swan River National Wildlife Refuge, with a wildlife and bird observation area. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (406) 210-8199.
Charges & Cancellations
Please cancel 4 days prior. For day of arrival cancellations please call Leona at 406- 210-8199 so we can get the information to the Campground Host. All Considerations will be made after your original reservation dates have passed. *No shows have no chance of a refund.
What the agency tells you
Camping fee is per camping unit. A camping unit is an RV, motorhome, camper, tent, mobile camping unit, etc. Many spots can accomodate more than one camping unit. Recreation.gov can only charge per site, if you have additional camping units be prepared to pay the additional $22/per nite (cash or check) at the fee tube or to the camphost.
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.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
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.
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.
Sites 6, 8 and 14 are not recommended for tent camping
Horses are not allowed in the campground
Click here for more information about Flathead National Forest
Changes and Cancellations If I book this reservation today, what are my options to change or cancel? Please remember that reservations at these facilities prevent other visitors from using these sites. Planned changes to your stay should be made as far in advance as possible. You can make changes to your reservation ahead of your arrival date in Reservations. Changes If your new stay dates are completely different from your original stay dates, there is a $10 change fee (per reserved site). Cancellations Starting 2025, Swan Lake Group site will require a non-refundable down payment. Reservations will require a down payment equal to 50% of the full nightly rate. The remaining balance must be paid no later than 30 days prior to check-in. The Recreation.gov site will send the guest up to two reminder emails with links to facilitate payment. Those emails are sent seven days and 24 hours before the 30 day deadline. Down payments are non-refundable. If you do not complete the payment by the 30 day deadline, your reservation will be cancelled and the down payment forfeited. If you place a reservation 30 days or less prior to check-in, you must pay the down payment and the remaining rental fee at the time of reservation. If you cancel after that point you will be responsible for the $10 cancellation fee and forfeit the down payment. If you cancel within 14 days of the check-in date, you will forfeit the down payment and one day at the rental rate, as well as the $10 cancellation fee. This is an automated process and Holland Lake personnel cannot make changes.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 42 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 75 ft
- Paved pads
- 38 of 42
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and picnic tables. Drinking water and vault toilets are available. There is no dump station at this…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…areas, fire rings and picnic tables. Drinking water and vault toilets are available. There is no dump…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 296th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 3 days ago, 34 km away
- No change
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 41 of the 42 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 22
What you actually pay
“You are allowed two motorized vehicles per site, the first vehicle is included in the site fee and an extra vehicle charge of $5.00/day per vehicle will be collected upon arrival at the campground.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
“Group Site Reservation (G1): 1 - 25 people - $200/night 26 - 50 people - $250/night 51 - 75 people - $300/night 76 - 100 people - $350/night There is no extra vehicle charge in the group site.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $22 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.
“Please cancel 4 days prior. For day of arrival cancellations please call Leona at 406- 210-8199 so we can get the information to the Campground Host. All Considerations will be made after your original reservation dates have passed. *No shows have no chance of a refund.” · 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
43 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 40 mapped sitesAll 43 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 40 of the 43 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 41 of the 43 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A Loop | G1 | group standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 316 ft | 78 ftHall Creek | 240 ft | ||
| BIRC | 001 | standard nonelectric | 111 ft | 872 ftHall Creek | 440 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 002 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 92 ft | 827 ftHall Creek | 327 ft | $22 | |
| BIRC | 003 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 705 ftHall Creek | 265 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 004 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 77 ft | 759 ftHall Creek | 196 ft | $22 | |
| BIRC | 005 | standard nonelectric | 123 ft | 621 ftHall Creek | 202 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 006 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 910 ftHall Creek | 189 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 007 | standard nonelectric | 77 ft | 823 ftHall Creek | 178 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 008 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 99 ft | 943 ftHall Creek | 268 ft | $22 | |
| BIRC | 009 | standard nonelectric | 92 ft | 901 ftHall Creek | 312 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 010 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 957 ftHall Creek | 412 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 011 | standard nonelectric | 129 ft | 1,090 ftHall Creek | 473 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 012 | standard nonelectric | 107 ft | 1,060 ft | 597 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 013 | standard nonelectric | 107 ft | 954 ft | 661 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 014 | standard nonelectric | yes | 122 ft | 814 ft | 672 ft | $22 | |
| BIRC | 015 | standard nonelectric | 111 ft | 920 ftHall Creek | 551 ft | $22 | ||
| BIRC | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 108 ft | 742 ftHall Creek | 375 ft | $22 | ||
| Day Use | D1 | day use | $75 | |||||
| POND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 87 ft | 360 ftHall Creek | 76 ft | $22 | |
| POND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 87 ft | 320 ftHall Creek | 124 ft | $22 | |
| POND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 76 ft | 239 ftHall Creek | 92 ft | $22 | |
| POND | 020 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 191 ftHall Creek | 108 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 021 | standard nonelectric | 79 ft | 233 ftHall Creek | 84 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 022 | standard nonelectric | 116 ft | 125 ftHall Creek | 197 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 023 | standard nonelectric | 81 ft | 219 ftHall Creek | 236 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 024 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 117 ftHall Creek | 222 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 025 | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | 164 ftHall Creek | 154 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 026 | standard nonelectric | 109 ft | 47 ftHall Creek | 153 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 027 | standard nonelectric | 95 ft | 126 ftHall Creek | 60 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 028 | standard nonelectric | 79 ft | 125 ftHall Creek | 139 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 029 | standard nonelectric | 84 ft | 158 ftHall Creek | 74 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 030HOST | standard nonelectric | 79 ft | 201 ftHall Creek | 180 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 031 | standard nonelectric | 86 ft | 240 ftHall Creek | 127 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 032 | standard nonelectric | 88 ft | 306 ftHall Creek | 187 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 033 | standard nonelectric | 92 ft | 237 ftHall Creek | 155 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 034 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 357 ftHall Creek | 288 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 035 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 293 ftHall Creek | 252 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 036 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 451 ftHall Creek | 216 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 037 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 396 ftHall Creek | 148 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 038 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 506 ftHall Creek | 214 ft | $22 | ||
| POND | 039 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 71 ft | 459 ftHall Creek | 161 ft | $22 | |
| S&P | Double Occupancy, S&P | type not stated | 53 ft | $22–$44 | ||||
| S&P | Single Occupancy, S&P | type not stated | 53 ft | $22–$44 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 43 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Swan Guard StationFlathead National Forest · 2.0 mi
Mission LookoutFlathead National Forest · 3.1 miPeter's Creek CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 13 miDevil's Corkscrew CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 14 miSpotted Bear CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 15 mi
Anna Creek CabinFlathead National Forest · 16 miFrom Bigfork, Montana, take State Route 209 east for 4.9 miles to Swan Lake/State Route 83. Turn right and go 10.9 miles to the campground sign. Turn left at the sign into the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Swan Lake, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 25°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
Swan 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 →