Montana's Best Lakes and Waterfronts

Montana's lakes are among the most beautiful in North America — glacially carved, crystal-clear, and surrounded by dramatic mountain terrain. The state has no ocean coast but compensates with an extraordinary freshwater landscape.

Flathead Lake
The largest natural freshwater lake in the western United States (measuring by surface area west of the Mississippi), Flathead Lake is 28 miles long, 15 miles wide, and up to 370 feet deep. The water is extraordinarily clear — you can see 30+ feet to the bottom in quiet coves. Wild horse Island State Park (accessible by boat) has bighorn sheep and ospreys. The Mission Mountains on the east shore provide a dramatic backdrop. The lake's west shore is lined with orchards (Flathead cherries are regionally famous).

Lake McDonald (Glacier National Park)
The largest lake in Glacier National Park — 10 miles long, 472 feet deep, with the multicolored flat rocks at the inlet (Glacier's famous "painted rocks," colored by iron and manganese) visible below the surface. The lake is fed by glacial meltwater and, from the western shore, gives the iconic foreground for views up into the Garden Wall and the park's high peaks.

Seeley Lake Chain (Seeley-Swan Valley)
A series of lakes in the remote Seeley-Swan Valley between the Mission Mountains and the Bob Marshall Wilderness — Seeley Lake, Salmon Lake, Placid Lake. The valley is a major loon nesting area; the mournful call of common loons at dawn on these dark-water lakes is quintessential Montana.

Fort Peck Reservoir (Northeast Montana)
The largest reservoir by capacity in the US, Fort Peck Reservoir was created by the Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River — the second-largest earthen dam in the world (completed 1940). The reservoir has 1,520 miles of shoreline across the high prairie. The Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge surrounds it, with one of the last wild populations of black-footed ferrets.