Blue Bay

Blue Bay Campground is on a first come first serve basis, but they have plenty of spots and we were able to call ahead and confirm there were still openings for the night we stayed. There were a handful of sites that were closed for maintenance, but there were still plenty of open spots regardless. We paid $30 for one night, and stayed at site 2 in a van. Many sites backed right up to the water, all sites have a table and a fire pit, some have water spigots and spots to plug in as well. Relatively clean bathroom facilities with free showers, and ice is available to buy at the office. It appears there is normally a very small camp store as well, but we were not around during normal store hours to check it out. If we weren’t on a schedule we definitely would’ve stuck around for a few more nights!

At least 20 lake front dry tent sites, second row back from the lake is tent sites or small rigs with power. There are swimming docks, a boat launch, sunning lawn and a newly added concession stand. The water shallow for a long distance of beautiful colorful rocks (like Lake McDonald) and perfect for swimming of all ages. Camp crowd was quiet and well behaved perhaps because no alcohol is allowed? Great stop on the way to Glacier National Park. Why not 5 stars? Bathrooms and campsites were dirty, potable water is hard to get.

I came on a Thursday before a holiday weekend and loved it so much I changed my plans to extend.

• Very clean,
• Dog friendly,
• Free showers (hot in the morning!), firewood, wifi near the day use areas,
• Unparalleled lake access. I was about 10’ from one of the cleanest and clearest lakes in the populated world. Just awesome,
• Cool to meet and talk to locals and CSKT members,
• If you boat or fish this is apparently the place to be,
• Towns and stores not too far away (but they feel far away).

I came to regret that last night because it was a holiday weekend. I don’t think it would have been that big a deal if it was a normal weekend.

• There were two huge family reunions going on, people were LOUD, kids were screaming all night (both play-screaming and unhappy baby-screaming).
• Sites are small and packed tightly together, so the screaming was very very close and nobody seemed to care about quiet hours.
• Some adults were way more, uh, boisterous than you would expect from an alcohol free campground. I’ll leave it at that
• People gamed the “first come first served” system pretty badly. At first the campground seemed to be vigilant about this, I saw them take down an empty tent that Grandma had set up to save a spot. As I kept watching, it got worse and one staff member appeared to be in on it (I asked to move to a vacant quieter site and she said “oh, someone’s coming for that one later”).
• Facilities got WAY dirtier over the weekend.

All of that said, I’ll still give this five stars because I truly believe it was an outlying experience. The first night or two were incredible. Just pick your timing.

(Note: Prices have gone up as of 2022. Their site and this site say $20 a night but it is $30 a night.)