It’s a short drive from Thompson Falls to Lakeside and as we drove Hwy 200 to Plains we soaked in the beautiful scenery, the farmland, and the rivers. As we headed north on Highway 28 we spotted a motor home identical to ours. We rarely, if ever, actually never, see the same rig as ours so it was quite exciting. They waved as they passed us and continued on to Flathead Lake and on north never to be seen again!!
We turned off at Flathead Lake State Park while our twin rig continued north. Oh well. Flathead Lake State Park has 6 units (Wayfarers, Yellow Bay, Finley Point, Big Arm, Wild Horse Island, and West Shore). It was a holiday weekend and we had tried for months to get a site at any of the units and lucked in to West Shore Campground and absolutely loved it there. The only negatives were a bit of noise at times from Highway 93 and nowhere convenient to hook or unhook. The kiosk man told us to drive down to the boat launch and unhook. That’s what we did but we would NOT recommend that to anyone. We were lucky to be able to make the turns and had there been more cars there we would never have made it. He should have told us to go to the upper level boat launch parking lot where we might have had a chance. Maybe that’s what he was trying to tell us but all we heard was for us to head to the boat launch. Whew! It was tough but we did it.
There are two loops, A and B, and our site was in B loop and our site has a water view. We loved our site and thought the sites provided excellent site privacy and there was also quite a bit of space between sites. We could hardly see our neighbors and never heard them. It was quiet and peaceful for our entire stay.
Campground: Flathead Lake State Park – West Shore Campground
Location: Lakeside, Montana (5 miles south of Lakeside)
Site: B4 (back-in)
Cost: $39
Services: E (50AMP)
Comments: A fabulous state park with great sites, great views, nice hiking trails, and easy access to the lake. Our tent pad made an excellent location for our chairs and tables when we were not sitting around the campfire. AND it gave us great views of nature, the lake, and the forest. We would definitely stay here again.
Many of the other sites could fit large motor homes and some were back-ins and some were pull thrus. The road into and out of the park/campground is very narrow and a bit hilly but the great sites make up for the inconvenience. We thought the pull thru site B8 was the best site in the campground. The tent sites at B13 and B14 were walk ins (as were T1, T2, and T3). B13 and B14 required walking up a hill and both sites had fantastic views of the lake. T1 was right on the lake. T2 and T3 were a downhill hike and then uphill to use the facilities. The park offers great tent camping too!
The scenery is beautiful and we spent our days both hiking and sitting around soaking in the beauty.
The hiking trails were right by our site for easy access. There was a trail map at the trailhead and there were additional signs and maps at every turn. We love when the trails are marked such that you don’t really need to carry a map with you while hiking. The trails weren’t real long but you can spend a few hours hiking around getting some elevation gain (and some steep descents).
After hiking around quite a bit we headed down to the Shoreline trail and sat on a log on the edge of the water and enjoyed ourselves.
What a fantastic state park and we wish we would have discovered this campground years ago!!! We will be back!!!
PS – To hook up the tow vehicle we ended up leaving the park separately and headed north and about a quarter mile north on highway 93 is a large cell phone lot (turnoff) which had plenty of room for us to hookup. Note to self for next time!!
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