Kintla Lake Tent Camping Trip

mike007 · Post by **mike007** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:16 am

We (myself, my brother, 7 year old daughter, and 11 year old son) are planning on going to Glacier sometime in mid-July this summer. After looking at the campgrounds... Kintla looks the most appealing because of the solitude factor (without being backcountry camping). The text on the website mentions that the campground is hardly ever filled because of the condition of the road you have to take to get there.

Is this really the case? Or is it usually filled? We will be traveling from Norman, Oklahoma. I realize that it is a first-come, first-served basis. I just want to allow for the proper time if we end up needing to backtrack to a different campground because Kintla is full.

Any experiences tent-camping at Kintla Lake would be greatly appreciated... Or if any of you have reccomendations for other campgrounds. We are going for the beautiful scenery, wildlife, and would like to fish.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Mike

daveparker · Post by **daveparker** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:31 am

Hi Mike,

Welcome, in all the times I have been to Kintla, I have never seen the campground full and I have been there early in the morning and late in the afternoon, it is a rough road to get there, which does deter some of the pavement camping crowd, so I would not anticipate much problem getting a site up there..

Dave

mike007 · Post by **mike007** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:34 am

When they say "the road is bad"... what exactly does that mean? Does it require a 4-wheel drive vehicle? Is the dirt road riddled with potholes? Is it dangerous?

Rose · Post by **Rose** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:57 am

Hi Mike:

We went to Kintla Lake on our last trip to Glacier in 2005. The road is gravel, and I guess we lucked out as it had just been graded when we were there in late June/first week of July. It was still rough in places and you go around a curve and the chances of meeting someone????? well... you don't know until you are in the middle of the curve. We drug the bottom of the car a couple of times, both coming and going.

Best advice I can give (and I was riding) is to approach curves or hills slowly and be over... way over... on your side of the road. This is the only photo that I have of the road in and out of Kintla.

daveparker · Post by **daveparker** » Tue May 08, 2007 11:12 am

mike007 wrote:When they say "the road is bad"... what exactly does that mean? Does it require a 4-wheel drive vehicle? Is the dirt road riddled with potholes? Is it dangerous?

Very little maintenance is done on the outlying roads, but of course that is normal for many roads in Montana, as I live here, my difinition of bad and that of someone else, is probably entirely different!

The road to Kintla is gravel often times with ruts and pot holes, I don't recommend over 15 mph on these roads, but they don't require a 4 wheel drive, however, if your driving a rental car, make sure and check your contract, often times they will not want you to travel the backroads around this area.

Dave

Talusman · Post by **Talusman** » Tue May 08, 2007 11:52 am

Mike, I'm in the OKC area and I am up there every year. Email me and I will give you my number. david.dixon@oscn.net Good to here there are other Okies on the chat page

kyled · Post by **kyled** » Tue May 08, 2007 12:01 pm

Mike,

You can look at fill times for campgrounds on the Glacier Park website, which will confirm that Kintla is rarely filled. However, the two times I was there it was full (Memorial Weekend 2005, 4th of July weekend 2006). In case it does fill up the Bowman Lake campground has a lot more sites and is not terrribly far away. I also think there are some Forest Service campgrounds in the viscinity (along the road to Polebridge) as a last resort for a night.

As far as the road goes I thought it was better than average for a non-paved road in a mountainous area (this road is not actually in the mountains).

Tara · Post by **Tara** » Tue May 08, 2007 12:56 pm

Mike,
We LOVE the campground at Kintla...the road was slow but not terrible when we were there...I don't remember scraping the bottom. If you are looking for beauty and solitute, Kintla is perfect! You may even get to hear wolves!