June 9, 2026 Flathead Lake to Bowman Lake MT

We left our beautiful lakeside campsite at Finley Point State Park after one last chat with the nice neighbors Dave and Martha and their two grandkids. They were from Whitehall, MT and the grandkids wee from Salmon, ID. Nice folks.

We headed north on the east side of Flathead Lake which is a small 2 lane road and more scenic than the west side which is RT93. We stopped in Big Fork, MT at the Pocketstone Cafe. Breakfast sandwich for Deb and Montana Mush (oatmeal) for Milo.

Next stop Walmart to resupply while Milo made a few phone calls (dentist, brothers).

Our end destination today is Bowman Lake which is actually in Glacier Park but in the remote northwest corner. It rained off and on today and is expected to tomorrow as well. The road to Bowman is 21 miles to the interesting “town” of Polebridge (they made a bridge out of poles way back when). You have to stop at the Polebrifge Mercantile and get a Huckleberry Bearclaw, which we did, and then headed up the muddy, pohole filled road to Bowman Lake. It’s 21 miles of awful road over beautiful terrain. Today was grader day so a few miles were a muddy mess like we had back in Vermont. Where the grading stopped it was nasty potholes so 20 mph was about all you could do. Then out of nowhere it turns to smooth paved road and then back to potholes again. All in the intermittent rain.

When we made the turn to Bowman Lake there was a pleasant National Park Ranger to greet us. This must be a lonely job way up here. From there it was a 6 mile rough 1 to 1-½ lane wide dirt potholed road to the campground where we found about 26 empty campsites (out of 30 or so). No camp host so put your money ($12.50 with the pass) in the envelope and drop it int the box. We signed up for two nights.

It cleared briefly so we went down to the lakeshore and got the classic Bowman Lake pictures, then it started raining again so back to the van to read for the afternoon. It’s nice not to have internet!

We ate the Subway sub we bought earlier for dinner (no dishes!) and then off to bed.

P.S. Deb bought bear spray today…