Tally Lake Campground
1Heads up1 fire 29 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $22From, per site
- Sites
- 4140 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Tally Lake Campground is located on the northern shores of its namesake lake, west of Whitefish, Montana. The campground is popular with locals and tourists visiting the Flathead National Forest and offers a variety of recreation facilities and activities for the whole family. The campground has 38 rentable sites with 21 of them being reservable and 17 are for our walk-up visitors. We also have a group site, site 39 and also our Pavilion group site available for reservations. The stay limit is 16 consecutive nights. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, horseback riding and biking trails wind around the Tally Lake Campground and the lake. Wildlife like waterfowl, bald eagles and migratory birds are commonly spotted. (No horses are allowed in the campground) A dock provides access to the lake's best fishing, which includes kokanee salmon, a variety of trout and northern pike. Visitors also enjoy boating, water skiing and other water recreation on the 1,326 acres of Tally Lake. This campground also offers Kayak, Paddleboard and Canoe rentals.
Facilities
The campground offers 39 campsites for tent and RV camping, 17 being first come, first serve. It provides access to a boat ramp, an open air pavilion with private volleyball net, beaches and picnic areas and public volleyball net. Campsites are equipped with tables and campfire rings with grills. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. As well as a dump station with a water fill station. Water spigots throughout the campground are not for filling your RV, only your jugs of drinking water. An on-site host is available to answer questions and provide additional information.
Natural Features
The campground is nestled in the highlands of northwestern Montana, adjacent to Tally Lake, which is the deepest natural lake in Montana. It sits in a mature forest of Western Larch and Douglas fir trees.
Nearby Attractions
The popular Whitefish Lake is about 20 miles from the campground. Visitors to the area also enjoy the Forest Service Summit Nature Center at Whitefish Mountain Resort, located about 25 miles away and accessed by the resort chairlift or the Danny On hiking trail.
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 · 7
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.
There is now a 10 day stay limit on all Group sites, starting in 2022.
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.
Click here for more information on the Flathead National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 41 · 2 group, 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- 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. As well as a dump…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…grills. Accessible vault toilets and drinking water are provided. As well as a dump station with a…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- 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
- Lake, Beach
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 427th darkest of 501 in MT
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 40 of the 41 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 · 17
What you actually pay
“Although 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 (Pavilion - G1): 1 - 50 people - $175/night 51 - 100 people - $350/night Group Site 39: 1 - 25 people - $150/night There is an extra vehicle charge when you exceed the 100 people. ie. non-campin…” · 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.
“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
41 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 40 mapped sitesAll 41 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 41 of the 41 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. 39 of the 41 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| TALLY | 039 | group standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 101 ft | 74 ftTally Lake | 2,677 ft | $150 | |
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 001 | type not stated | 174 ft | 889 ft | ||||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 64 ft | 152 ft | 797 ft | $22 | |
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 64 ft | 215 ft | 779 ft | $22 | |
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 43 ft | 182 ft | 585 ft | $22 | |
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 49 ft | 134 ft | 651 ft | $22 | |
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 43 ft | 139 ft | 602 ft | $22 | |
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 118 ft | 182 ft | 472 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 267 ft | 365 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 236 ft | 347 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 340 ft | 281 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 317 ft | 233 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 98 ft | 380 ft | 149 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 170 ft | 372 ftTally Lake | 298 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 532 ft | 369 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 545 ft | 402 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 465 ft | 473 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 68 ft | 513 ft | 531 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 444 ft | 570 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 464 ft | 748 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 020 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 501 ft | 787 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 021 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 454 ft | 855 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 022 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 486 ft | 925 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 023 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 421 ft | 936 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 024 | standard nonelectric | 103 ft | 1,016 ft | 1,098 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 025 | standard nonelectric | 103 ft | 952 ftTally Lake | 1,090 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 026 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 761 ftTally Lake | 984 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 027 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 751 ftTally Lake | 954 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 028 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 647 ftTally Lake | 941 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 029 | standard nonelectric | 87 ft | 559 ftTally Lake | 903 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 030 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 629 ftTally Lake | 888 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 031 | standard nonelectric | 98 ft | 461 ftTally Lake | 864 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 032 | standard nonelectric | 132 ft | 352 ftTally Lake | 724 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 033 | standard nonelectric | 116 ft | 483 ftTally Lake | 764 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 034 | standard nonelectric | 106 ft | 166 ftTally Lake | 2,423 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 035 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 172 ftTally Lake | 2,528 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 036 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 139 ftTally Lake | 2,542 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 037 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 109 ftTally Lake | 2,555 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 038 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 79 ftTally Lake | 2,577 ft | $22 | ||
| TALLY LAKE CAMPGROUND | 040 | standard nonelectric | 229 ft | 176 ftTally Lake | 623 ft | $22 | ||
| TALY | G001 | group shelter nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 572 ft | 312 ft | 708 ft |
25 of 41 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Star Meadows Guard StationFlathead National Forest · 6.1 miSylvia Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 12 miUpper Stillwater Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 14 miAshley Lake South CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 14 miAshley Lake North CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 14 miMoose Lake CampgroundFlathead National Forest · 17 miFrom Whitefish, Montana, take US Rt. 93 north for 4 miles until you reach Twin Bridges Rd., turn left onto Twin Bridges Rd. and travel 1.4 miles to the Tally Lake campground sign. Turn right after the sign, staying on Twin Bridges Rd., and proceed 1 mile to another campground sign at Farm to Market. Turn left onto Farm to Market and go 2 miles to Tally Lake Rd., turn right onto Tally Lake Rd. (dirt) and go 9 miles to campground sign. Turn right 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 Whitefish, MT
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 12°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
Tally 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 →