★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic landFee
Flathead County
Drive-up · public land · Flathead County, MT · 48.41777, -114.57619
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 — a fee site. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
This is normally a fee campground near Whitefish, Montana, however it is free during off-season. Some nice campsites on the shore of Tally Lake. Beautiful wooded setting along lake. Peaceful and secluded. Vault toilets, picnic tables, and fire rings. Other campers likely, but reasonably spaced. No cell service. Enough room for one or two vehicles per site. Reasonably convenient to town of Whitefish. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 4 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 3,378 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
- FFuel9 mi
- GGrocery9 mi
- @Mail9 mi
- WWater10 mi
- LLaundry11 mi
- +Urgent care11 mi
- HHardware11 mi
- OOutfitter11 mi
- MMechanic11 mi
- EVEV fast charger11 mi
- RxPharmacy16 mi
- ShShower27 mi
- DDump28 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 9 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
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
Elevation
3,378 ft
Ground slope
11.5% · noticeable
Nearest rail line
~4.9 mi · main line
County
Flathead County, MT
Coordinates
48.41777, -114.57619
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Flathead County · Flathead National Forest · MT (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureTally Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Logan Creek (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townLupfer · ~5.4 mi
- Nearest rail line~4.9 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelOlney Gas Pumps · ~9.0 mi
- Propane / LPGAmeriGas · ~19.0 mi
- Dump station~28.5 mi
- GroceriesOlney Store · ~9.0 mi
- PharmacyBig Sky I.V Care · ~16.1 mi
- Hospital / clinicKahler Chiropractic Health Center · ~10.9 mi
- HardwareACE Nelson's Hardware · ~11.0 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
Yes
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 charger11.4 mi straight-line E — TOWN PUMP WF#2 STA 1, Whitefish, 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 · 16 within 100 · 64 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)16.7 mi — Kalispell, MT - Tesla Supercharger, Kalispell
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)10.9 mi — City of Whitefish Parking Garage (at a hospital) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2025-06-06 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — 22 - Tesla Destination, Whitefish, 10.8 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas 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 204514 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Flathead County · Flathead National Forest · MT — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletTally Lake Group Picnic · ~0.4 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletTally Lake Swim · ~0.4 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletTally Lake Picnic · ~0.4 mi SW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletTally Lake Boat · ~0.5 mi SW · USFS
Coming out here — Flathead County · Flathead National Forest · MT
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Tally Lake as a perennial lake or pond, under 0.1 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 11.5% — noticeable. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (10 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.
- Rail line mapped ~4.9 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. The atlas also records Amtrak service on it. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in it.
- 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.
- Tally Lake North Beach Site 8~0.1 mi
- Tally Lake North Beach Site 9~0.2 mi
- Tally Lake North Site 7~0.3 mi
- Tally Lake North Beach Site 6~0.4 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 Hand Creek at 5,030 ft, about 14 miles away. It sits about 1,652 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 4 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
Finding water out here →Reading a forest MVUM →Cold-weather camping →Reading your camp page →All field notes →