Tally Lake Campground

Tally Lake Campground has 40 sites nestled under the trees next to its namesake lake. Getting here is a bit of a dusty drive. There are two routes in, one involves 4 miles down a very dusty dirt road. The other is nine miles on the dirt road but seems a little less dusty. Pick your poison. It is worth the drive, but I wouldn’t do it for just one night.

According to the website 40% of the sites are first come/first serve and the rest are reservable. If you’re coming without reservations, I’d suggest taking a look at availability a day or so before you arrive and writing down which sites are FC/FS that day. It seems to change and we had NO cell service in the campground. There are three “loops”, A loop, B loop and the Beach Access/Boat Ramp which has one campsite #40. There are also several sites (34-38) and a group site (#39) in the North Shore area about a mile away which have stunning lake views.

The campground roads and sites are dirt/gravel and a bit dusty (are you sensing a theme?). The sites are well-spaced with lots of vegetation between sites. They are a mixed bag size-wise, but several sites (especially the pull-throughs) are large enough for any sized rig. Each site has a picnic table and firepit. There are water spigots (not threaded) around the campground as well as vault toilets and garbage cans. Plastic bottle and aluminum can recycling near the entrance. No dump station. This is bear country so you are required to keep food items secured.

The camp host was very friendly and helpful. Note: when we arrived on the afternoon of 6/28 pickings were slim for open FC/FS sites. Several of the reserved sites were tagged for arrivals later in the week so we asked the campground host if we could use one that wouldn’t be occupied until after our planned departure. It paid to ask since we were able to get a choice site with plenty of shade during a record-breaking heat wave.

There are several hiking trails and the lake is open to motorized boats and individual watercraft. We did the Tally Lake Overlook Trail, a 2-mile loop trail through the trees. Very nice views of the lake and fairly shady. Dogs are not allowed on the swim beach near the day use area but there are plenty of out of the way places around the lake where you can play with your furry friend in the water.

We had NO Verizon cell service.

We visited Montana with no plans or reservations, which worked out great for us in this case. Kalispell was FULL when we arrived, and two campgrounds we drove through were so close together and packed, it was a nightmare. Tally lake was amazing! The spots were far apart, you felt isolated in the woods despite having neighbors. We were across from a vault toilet, the spot was perfectly level and great! The lake is wonderful, and lots of locals swim there. We bought a thermacell and a screened tent after the first night, which made all the difference, as there are a TON of mosquitoes.

We took our chances on a first come first serve spot and were rewarded with the best campsite possible! The overall campground is in excellent condition with plenty of big deep spots for all sizes of rigs.

The lake is so beautiful and very refreshing on a hot day. On weekends the locals descend on the beach. They save 40% of spaces for 1st come so I would take the chance mid-week for sure but not on the weekends during peak season.

They also rent kayaks & SUPs there. The hosts were super helpful and very friendly.

We can’t wait to come back. There is a 9 mi gravel road in good condition to get there and absolutely no cell signal the entire drive. About 30 min from Whitefish and 45 from Kalispell.

Seemed like a decent campground, lots of potable water, dump station, right on the lake. Nice beach with a great, grassy picnic area close by. Tally lake is a beautiful lake, with good fishing.

We went in August of 2018. It was eight or nine miles of dirt road to get to it, extremely dusty. We got there right at dusk. The mosquitoes were absolutely horrible.

Really big campground, and it was completely full minutes after we arrived, but there was lots of brush so it felt quite private. It was noisy, however.

We left before even having breakfast the next morning because the mosquitoes were so awful. We ended up setting up in a pullout down the highway a ways, and cooking breakfast there.

If they got the mosquitoes under control, we might consider going back.