Whitefish Lake State Park

Other than the trains that pass by sometimes more than once an hour, 100 feet from our site, this is a great spot. Site 14 is one of the closest to the tracks. The noise would wake the dead. The trains can be heard from all the sites, but shockingly loud from 13 and 14. No dump station, but a free one in town at Cenex corner of 13th and 93. Pay showers are $3 for six minutes. Tokens at the office. Ice and firewood also for sale. The other downside to site 14 is that it’s on the road to the boat ramp and so has more traffic than sites on the loop. It is 45 minutes from here to West Glacier, so pretty convenient for visiting the Park.

TRAINs will mentioned by everyone reviewing this park. 20-30 trains a day, about 100 feet to the tracks, and the tracks are actually above the campground about 100 feet.

Utilities are very limited. Some sites have water, some do not. No electricitiy at sites. State Park does NOT have a dump site. Free dump site is behind the gas station on the corner where Safeway/Walgreens are about 3 miles away.

Camp hosts did not have access to the voice mails coming in. If they leave you a message you must talk to them, and not leave voice mail.

Bathrooms are acceptable, showers available.

Beautiful site, just lack of utilities, and extreme noise from the trains. Close to town to bike (2 miles!). 20 minutes to Big Mountain, 45 minutes to West Glacier.

Limited cell service, much better on the beach though.

First, yeah, the trains are *loud* when they come thru, but honestly, it hasn’t really bothered us. We were in the 1-11 loop which is farthest away, tho the campground is pretty small. Maybe 20 sites?

Best things about it are the stunning Whitefish Lake and access to town (more like 5 mins I’d say). Lake would be great to paddleboard or kayak (we haven’t because it’s Oct and 40 degrees out) and town is very cute with shops, breweries and a library. Kalispell is only 25 mins or so away with larger stores if needed. The Whitefish Trail is just up the road with easy short loops for kids or longer hikes/bikes for the more ambitious.

Montana Coffee Traders on Central is great. McKenzie River Pizza easy with a large group and/or kids. The gas station across from Safeway on Hwy 93 has propane fill and a free dump behind the convenience store. Note, no dump at the CG, but easy access to water spigots, clean bathrooms and pay showers.

The Whitefish State Park is about 10 minutes outside of downtown Whitefish and is located on Whitefish Lake. It has a nice swim beach and a boat launch. There are also showers which cost $3 for 6 minutes. The campground hosts were welcoming. Those are the positives.

The main negative is the train tracks that are right along the edge of the campground. On the Friday evening that we stayed there the trains came through approximately 3 times an hour and were loud enough in the campsites along the tracks that you could not carry on a conversation while the trains were passing. We walked through the campground to see if the spots away from the tracks were any better, and the noise was still loud even in the sites further form the tracks. Several trains came through in the middle of the night. We got in with no reservation on a prime weekend because the trains were loud enough that someone with a reservation abandoned their site just before sundown.

The campsites are fairly close together with little privacy, but they were clean with good fire rings and picnic tables.

The bathrooms and showers were clean with running hot water and there was access to a water spigot to fill water containers.