The 18 Best Swimming Holes in Montana

Lake Elmo State Park packs a 64 acre swimming reservoir into the northeast side of Billings, giving the city an in town lake to swim in. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks sanctions swimming at three beach front areas along the shoreline, with a boat launch, fishing pier, and a flat 1.4 mile trail looping the water.

It is a grassy, developed urban park rather than a wild swimming hole, and that is the point: easy access, real facilities, and open daily 5am to 10pm year round. No lifeguard service is documented, so keep watch over kids at the beaches.

City Beach is Whitefish's public swim beach on the south shore of Whitefish Lake, a short walk from downtown, which makes it the easiest place to swim in town by a wide margin. The entry is sandy and gradually sloping, which a local guide notes is safer for children, and locals describe the lake water as clean, cold, and clear.

Cold is the operative word at this swimming hole. This is a glacial lake, and even at the warmest stretch from mid-July through mid-August the water runs roughly 65 to 72 degrees, with most swimmers staying in only 15 to 20 minutes. That is also peak crowd season, and the big free lot typically fills by around 10am on warm weekends, so go early.

Locals call Glen Lake Rotary Park 'Bozeman Beach,' and it's exactly what it sounds like: a purpose-built sand beach on a small lake just 2 miles from downtown Bozeman. The lake is a flooded former gravel pit that the city turned into a legitimate swimming hole, complete with a diving dock, beach volleyball, picnic shelters, and mountain views across the valley.

It's built for easy family swims, with a gradual sandy entry and room for paddleboards alongside the swimmers, and the city has even hosted swim races and triathlons on the water. Parking is free and the walk from the lot to the beach takes a minute or two, which is about as low-effort as swimming gets in Montana.

Holter Lake Campground gives you a ready-made lake to swim in rather than a hunt for a swimming hole. This BLM-run campground and day-use area sits on Holter Lake, a Missouri River reservoir about 40 to 45 miles north of Helena, with a designated swim beach right next to the boat launch and courtesy dock.

The swimming is calm and lake-like, no river current to fight, and descriptions characterize the shoreline as sandy with clear water suited to swimming, sunbathing, and picnicking. The setting is classic Missouri River canyon country, downstream of the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness with the Sleeping Giant in view.

Lake Como Beach is the Forest Service's developed swim beach on a big irrigation reservoir in the Bitterroot National Forest, between Darby and Hamilton. It's more organized beach than backcountry swimming hole, sandy shoreline, picnic tables, and forested Bitterroot Mountain slopes ringing about 8 miles of shoreline, and it's one of the busiest recreation sites in the region every summer.

Timing matters here. Because the lake stores irrigation water, it's fullest from spring through late July, then draws down through August, so the beach is at its best early in the season. Parking is limited, and visitors recommend arriving early on summer weekends.

Running Eagle Falls, also called Trick Falls, sits in the Two Medicine area of Glacier National Park, named for Pitamakan, the Blackfeet woman warrior. The short, wheelchair-accessible nature trail leads to a footbridge over the Dry Fork of Two Medicine Creek, and right there is a small beach where visitors wade, skip rocks, and let kids splash in ankle-deep water. Be honest with your expectations: this is a wading spot, not a deep swimming hole, and the glacial snowmelt is cold enough to numb your feet within minutes.

The falls themselves are the draw, a two-tiered cascade carved into a limestone overhang that changes character through the season, at its best during spring runoff into early July before the upper tier dries up. This is active wildlife country with moose, deer, and bears around, so carry bear spray and keep kids from wandering. The access road is only open roughly late May through mid-October.

Log Gulch is a BLM recreation site on Holter Lake, the roughly 4,800-acre Missouri River reservoir in the canyon country north of Helena, and it is a solid lake to swim in for this stretch of Montana. Rather than a hidden spot, you get an official designated swimming beach with an enclosed swim area, open Memorial Day through Labor Day, backed by a 70-site campground, boat launch, and shady poplar and ash trees.

The enclosed swim area makes supervising kids easier than open shoreline, though there is no lifeguard, so the watching is on you. This is real Montana canyon country: prairie rattlesnakes and ticks are around, there is no cell service on site, and the weather can turn fast. Come prepared and it is a great base for a lake weekend.

Seeley Lake Campground sits on the western shore of its namesake glacial lake in the Lolo National Forest, tucked between the Swan Range and the Mission Mountains. The day-use area next to the campground has two designated beaches with a roped-off swim area, which makes this an official Forest Service swimming hole rather than a scramble-down-the-bank situation.

It is a genuinely easy lake to swim in: shallow shore entry, dogs kept off the swim beach, and no fee or reservation needed for day use. Add old-growth larch trees shading the grounds, some over 500 years old, and it is a classic Montana summer cool-off spot for families.

Apgar Beach sits at the foot of Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park's largest lake, right beside Apgar Village and about a mile from the west entrance. As swimming holes go it's unusually convenient, within walking distance of the visitor center, campground, and village stores, and the Park Service has set up a 300-foot no-wake zone along this shore specifically to protect swimmers and beach users.

Just know what you're signing up for. Glacier's lakes stay cold enough to cause hypothermia even in summer, so a swim here is a brisk, memorable dip rather than a long afternoon float. The site has deep history too, as a Kootenai gathering place once known as Ya Kit Haqwitnamki, The Place Where They Dance.

River Point Campground sits on a point of land where Seeley Lake's west shore meets the Clearwater River, surrounded by mature western larch, some of it over 500 years old. The day-use beach next to the campground has a roped-off swimming area with calm lake water, and campers call it a nice little swimming beach to cool off, which is about the right expectation.

For a campground swimming hole it is well set up. Day use of the beach is free with no reservation needed, several campsites have direct water frontage, and bald eagles and osprey reportedly fish the area in the early morning and evening while you swim.

Nimrod Hot Springs is that rare geothermal spot that works better as a swimming hole than a soak. The pool is deeper and larger than most Montana hot springs, with crystal-clear turquoise water fed by a rock cascade off the canyon wall, and it comes with cliff-jumping spots at multiple heights and even a submerged cave passage, which sources say only strong, experienced swimmers should attempt.

It sits along the Clark Fork River near Bearmouth, a flat half-mile walk from a fishing access pullout off I-90, on private land where the owning family has informally tolerated public access. It is free, undeveloped, and completely on your own terms, which also means no lifeguard, no facilities, and little to no cell service in the canyon.

Kobayashi Beach is a free BLM day-use area on the north shore of Ennis Lake, about 9 miles north of Ennis in Montana's Madison Valley. Swimming is one of the officially designated uses here, and the lake's big selling point is warmth: the shallow water reportedly hits around 85 degrees in summer, which is rare for Montana.

Manage your expectations on amenities, though. Visitor reports conflict on whether there's a restroom or a real parking lot, and swimmer's itch is a known issue in Ennis Lake, so this is more casual, no-frills lake to swim in than polished beach. For a free dip in genuinely warm water with Madison Valley views, it does the job.

Dickey Lake is an 800-acre lake in the Kootenai National Forest near Trego, about 20 miles south of Eureka, and the South Dickey Lake day use area was built specifically as its swimming beach. A grassy lawn slopes gently down to the water, which makes getting in about as easy as forest swimming holes get.

The water itself is a striking blue-green, and visitor photos show it running clear. The lake also draws anglers after kokanee salmon and trout, plus boaters and water skiers, so expect some motor traffic out beyond the swim area. You can also swim from the shoreline at North Dickey Lake Campground if you're staying there.

Tally Lake sits deep in the Flathead National Forest, 15 to 20 miles west of Whitefish, and it's one of Montana's deepest natural lakes. The swimming happens at the day-use beach by Tally Lake Campground, a big open grassy area with a buoy-marked swim zone and a changing area, and it's a well-loved local swimming hole with a wilder feel than the bigger Flathead Valley lakes.

Fair warning: the water runs cold, especially early in the season. Surface temperatures warm up on late-summer afternoons, but with that much depth below you, it never stops being refreshing. Entry points are rocky, so water shoes are a good idea, and the last few miles in are rough, dusty Forest Service gravel.

Crystal Lake is a small 45-acre mountain lake at 5,700 feet in the Big Snowy Mountains, an isolated island range rising out of the Montana prairie south of Lewistown. It sits in a limestone basin below Mt. Harlow, with a developed Forest Service campground on shore and side trails to Crystal Cascades, a roughly 100-foot waterfall, and the Snowy Mountain Ice Caves. Swimming is an official, popular use here, and it is very much a family scene.

The lake is shallow, maxing out around 15 feet, and campers describe the water as peaceful and clear, clear enough to spot stocked trout. Timing matters at this swimming hole: the basin slowly drains through its porous limestone, so levels drop all season, and by fall it can be little more than a large shallow pond. Come early to mid summer for the best swimming, and note the final stretch of road is narrow, steep, and single-lane with drop-offs.

Lion Lake is a 35-acre lake in the Flathead National Forest, about a mile from the town of Hungry Horse and just off US Highway 2, which makes it one of the easiest lakes to swim in on the way to Glacier. Two Forest Service picnic sites, North and South Lion Lake, both list swimming as an official activity, and there's a sandy beach on the north shore.

The swimming here is calm and low-key. Visitors describe quiet freshwater with kids wading along the shoreline, more of a gentle family swimming hole than anything dramatic. There are no fees at either picnic site, and Glacier National Park is only about 15 miles further up the highway.

Swan Lake Swimming Site is a Forest Service beach on Swan Lake in the Flathead National Forest, about 9 miles from Bigfork and right by the little town of Swan Lake. It's one of the easiest places to swim in the area, a proper designated beach rather than a rough swimming hole, on a natural freshwater lake that Recreation.gov describes as surrounded by Rocky Mountain peaks.

The setup suits general day-use swimming and wading more than anything adventurous. The beach shares its entrance off MT-83 with the adjacent campground, boat ramp, and dock, so it's a simple park-and-swim kind of day.

The Logan unit of Thompson Chain of Lakes State Park sits on the north shore of Middle Thompson Lake, about halfway between Libby and Kalispell on Highway 2. The draw is the water itself, which campground reviewers describe as gin clear and cool, with a small designated swimming area and a dock right near the campsites.

Fair warning from visitors: the swim area is genuinely small, and there is not much shoreline access away from the dock unless you bring a boat. That makes this less a destination swimming hole and more a dependable place for campers to take a quick, refreshing dip between fishing sessions on a 3,000-acre chain of lakes.