Campsite Review: Holland Lake Campground is east of Montana Highway 83, fifty-five miles south of Big Fork, and twenty miles north of Seeley Lake. It is operated by the Forest Service and is on the north side of Holland Lake. From Montana Highway 83 turn east on Holland Lake Road for almost three miles.
We really like Holland Lake Campground, but we did not like site #40. See below for reasons and discussion.
Here is our post discussing when we stayed at Holland Lake Campground. Stunning Big Sky
Details
Website: Holland Lake Campground
Address: Holland Lake Lodge Rd, Condon, MT 59826
Link to Google Map for the area: Holland Lake Campground
Phone Number/Reservations:(877) 444-6777 email and chat also available
Dates stayed: Sept 2-4, 2020
Comfort: Temperatures were nice. A little windy at midday.
Elevation: 4300′
Season: Middle of May to October
Price Paid: $10 per night, plus “transaction” fee. Here is a link to the article I wrote on how I get such a low price. FoxRVTravel-Snippet: America The Beautiful Pass
Our Site: #40
Hook-ups: None
Dump station: Yes
Restrooms: Yes, flush toilets in Bay Loop
Shower: No
Laundry: No
Potable Water: Yes
Water to fill your RV storage tank: No
Cell service: Verizon – No Service / AT&T – No Service
Observations
Campsite Review: Holland Lake Campground insider info:
Holland Lake is great, but at least half of the campground has a dust problem caused by road traffic and there is zero cell service.
If you get a site away from the road like the one pictured below, with a short walk to the lake, Holland Lake Campground would be great. Earlier in the year, we heard rumors of mosquito issues, but we saw very few. We did have a nat problem, they were so small that they came straight through the screens. Finally, I turned off all the lights except one and used a vacuum to suck them all up.
Campsites 18, 21, 23, & 24 are all good campsites. Numbers 30, 32, 34, & 36 are probably good sites, all were occupied except the one pictured below and it is difficult to tell how large they are when they are being used. All these sites are lakefront with a short walk to the lake. The sites above are all back-in sites and identified on the recreation.gov website as being 48 feet long. They are not all 48 feet long. The closer you get to site #30 the more activity you will have due to the entrance and path to the lake.
Starting from the east the lakefront campsites are numbered 24, 23, 21, 18, 30, 32, 34, & 36. Sites furthest east would be better due to better lake access than the western sites.
The satellite view does a good job of showing the layout of the loops. The area just south of the west end is marshy, limiting access to the lake. Recreation.gov’s satellite view is distorted enough to make it seem pointed but it quite round. Recreation.gov campground layout is nearly worthless.
Bonus
Kayaking on Holland Lake was great, there were a few fishing boats with small motors but the lack of a sufficient launch site limits the size of the boats.
Caution
Due to the completely incorrect information at the Recreation.gov website we picked the worst location in the entire campground and dust was a huge issue. Of course, the road could be fixed by the time we come back (unlikely) and that would solve the issue. As for the reservation system you can use this info to pick a good spot. Do not rely on the Recreation.gov website for any accurate information.
Recreation.gov website is incorrect to the point that we were unable to pick a good campsite.
Layout & Satellite Views
The following campground layout pictures are drawings from the Forest Service website and are more correct but insufficient mostly because they don’t identify the site numbers.
In the Larch Loop pictured below, the campsites vary in size and shape, the biggest problem is they are nearly roadside with dust problems. The Larch Loop still sports a pit toilet. The biggest advantage of the Larch Loop is that the sites are further apart but don’t have as easy access to the lake.
That is a great tip.
Short but very accurate info… Thank you for sharing this one.