★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Flathead County
Drive-up · public land · Flathead County, MT · 48.18469, -113.99544
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
A primitive campsite just off of the dirt road to the Strawberry Lake Trailhead hike, near Kalispell Montana. A nice place to relax for a few nights. Some cell service. Fire ring, and hitching post. Enough room for one or two vehicles. Enjoyable hiking in the area. Wooded setting, with some mild traffic on the adjacent dirt road. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 6 October 2018. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Flathead County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 3,936 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Flathead CountyNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Flathead County · Flathead National Forest · MT
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel8 mi
- GGrocery8 mi
- HHardware8 mi
- LLaundry9 mi
- @Mail9 mi
- ShShower10 mi
- MMechanic13 mi
- +Urgent care13 mi
- OOutfitter13 mi
- EVEV fast charger14 mi
- RxPharmacy14 mi
- WWater15 mi
- DDump25 mi
- PPropane40 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 8 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Flathead County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
3,936 ft
Ground slope
4.4% · gentle
County
Flathead County, MT
Coordinates
48.18469, -113.99544
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Flathead County · Flathead National Forest · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureEcho Creek · ~0.5 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townJessup · ~6.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelConoco · ~8.3 mi
- Propane / LPGAmeriGas · ~13.8 mi
- Dump station~25.1 mi
- GroceriesWoody's Country Store · ~8.4 mi
- PharmacySmith's Drive Through Pharmacy · ~14.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicEvergreen Clinic · ~13.2 mi
- HardwareLinkUs Enterprises · ~13.2 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
Had a signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Flathead County · Flathead National Forest · MT — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger13.5 mi straight-line W — CLARK HYUNDAI SERVICECUSTOMER, Kalispell, MT · ChargePoint Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach8 within 25 mi · 8 within 50 · 18 within 100 · 38 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)15.7 mi — Kalispell, MT - Tesla Supercharger, Kalispell
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)14.3 mi — Wonderstone at Glacier - Tesla Destination, Columbia Falls, MT · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 3 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
- Also listed, not counted aboveLevel 2, restricted access — Mountain Lake Lodge, Bigfork, 12.7 mi · J1772 · hours: 8am-9pm daily; for guest use only · AFDC lists it “Free”
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 227212 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Flathead County · Flathead National Forest · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletCamp Misery Trailhead · ~2.7 mi SE · USFS
- RestroomFederal restroom · ~5.4 mi W · FWS
- Vault / pit toiletLid Creek Campground · ~8.1 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletDoris Creek · ~8.4 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — Flathead County · Flathead National Forest · MT
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Echo Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.5 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 4.4% — gentle. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Flathead County elsewhere
Other camps near Flathead County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- 5390 Krause-27~0.2 mi
- Krause -13A~0.3 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — MT #206~1.0 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — MT #202~1.0 mi
The unit that manages Flathead County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Flathead County are set by Flathead National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Noisy Basin at 6,070 ft, about 3 miles away. It sits about 2,134 ft higher than this camp, so treat it as a guide rather than a reading for this spot. We do not repeat a depth here, because any number we stored would be stale by the time you read it — the station publishes today's.
How we know this — Flathead County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Flathead County, MT). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 6 October 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Flathead County
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Flathead County
Water on public land →Reading a forest MVUM →Cold-weather camping →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →