Campsite Review: Tally Lake Campground is at the north corner of the Tally Lake. Tally Lake is at about the halfway point on Tally Lake Road. You get there from the north by turning south on Tally Lake Road from Star Meadow Road. Or you could get there from the southeast by turning west on Tally Lake Road from Farm to Market Road. The easy way, requiring only four miles of gravel road is from the north.
All of these roads are National Forest roads and that is where the confusion sets in because Tally Lake Road is either NF 913 or also NF 113 depending on your location. Do not follow your GPS which will take you down Old Tally Lake Road — this road is closed before you get to the campground. Old Tally Lake Road is closed but now serves as a hiking or bicycle trail that connects to the north spur. The north spur is on the extension that used to be Old Tally Lake road, but can only be accessed from the south.
The layout for the campground is two circles and a spur that goes north, far away from the main campground. If you can get a spot on the spur, the dust will not be as big a problem. The spur is not on some maps. There is a group camping option near the pavilion. On some maps, the group camp is labeled loop C.
We enjoyed our stay at Tally Lake, except for the dust from the gravel roads. We don’t recommend campsites but to make it short, there are too many problems here (dust) to ever come back, unless they pave the access road in both directions and all the roads inside the campground.
Here is our blog post about our stay at Tally Lake. Montana Remote
Details
Website: Tally Lake Campground Reservations: Recreation.gov
Address: NF 913, Whitefish, Montana 59937
Link to Google Map for the area: Tally Lake Campground
Phone Number/Reservations: 1-877-444-6777
Dates stayed: August 19-24, 2020
Comfort: Temperatures were nice in the evening and at night. In the direct sun, the temperatures were hot during the day.
Elevation: 3350′
Season: Mid May – September
Price Paid: $9 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: #30
Hook-ups: None
Dump station: No
Restrooms: Pit toilets
Shower: Bring your own
Laundry: Are you kidding?
Potable Water: Yes
Water to fill your RV storage tank: No
Cell service: Verizon – no service / AT&T – no service
Observations
Campsite Review: Tally Lake insider info:
Pictures on recreation.gov website are old and don’t show the wear and tear the campground has endured over the years. The telescope is gone and the signs are weathered away. Nature is in the process of retaking this campground.
I don’t evaluate pull-through campsites because nearly all of them have a turn inside the site. Which is fine for trailers but not for my RV. Some of the pull-through sites at Tally Lake would have fit our RV just fine.
We did not use the dump station which is on the road to the boat launch and day-use area.
Caution
Traffic on the road south of the campground and on the roads inside the campground was a constant problem creating dust.
The campground diagram photograph, taken from the signpost, is not to scale, the campsites along the lake to the north are much further away than scale allows.
The turn around at the end of Loop B was overgrown and is no longer quite wide enough for our RV. Of course, we did it with lots of extra maneuvering, but I wouldn’t want to do it again.
Campsites
Campsites #12 and #13 are also large and are right next to the grassy play area, from there you can easily walk to the beach. Bushes are encroaching on the edges of these sites making them smaller than represented on recreation.gov
Site #14 is long enough but narrow.
Our campsite #30 was one of the biggest and widest campsites in all the loops.
The very first campsite #34 on the spur is waterfront. Dust from the access road would also be a problem in campsite #34. Campsite #34 also has a steep approach and departure that may not be suitable for all RVs.
Other campsites on the spur are well above the water. Campsite #39 is at the very north end of the spur just before a second group site.
Campsite #40 is next to the boat dock in the main campground. Trees and bushes have made campsite 40 much smaller than could accommodate a small RV but would be ok for a small trailer.
Layout & Satellite Views
