Kintla Lake Campground

Kintla Lake Campground is a small, 13-site frontcountry campground on Kintla Lake in Glacier’s North Fork, and the park’s most remote frontcountry camp. It suits tent campers looking for a quiet base beside a motor-free lake, rather than a quick roadside stop. From Polebridge it’s about 14 miles along a slow, narrow dirt road; the campground is roughly 40 miles from the park’s West Entrance. RVs and trailers are prohibited. Sites are first-come, first-served, and the park says this remote campground rarely fills, though there are only 13.

This is a simple camp: sites have picnic tables and fire rings, with seasonal vault toilets, potable water, food lockers and trash collection. The regular season is in summer; weather-dependent primitive camping sometimes extends into fall, when water is off. Plan to bring drinking water then. No camp store is listed for the campground, so pick up food before the drive in. One campsite, number 13, is listed as wheelchair accessible, while the pit toilets are not fully accessible.

Kintla’s clear water and forested mountain setting make the shore the main attraction. Canoes and kayaks fit the quiet feel: motorcraft aren’t allowed on the lake, and watercraft need an aquatic-invasive-species inspection before launch. Polebridge Ranger Station is the nearest inspection point. Trout fishing and nearby day hikes give campers reasons to stay beyond the evening, but the long, slow road is the real tradeoff for reaching this corner of the park.