Whitefish Lake wakes to a timetable. A freight train can pass the state-park campground before first light; on summer mornings inspectors work the ramps at City Beach and the state park; by afternoon the southern lake carries swimmers, rentals, ski boats and families over water averaging about sixty-three degrees at the surface. Downtown is close enough to walk from City Beach, and close enough to drink from the lake: a deep southeast intake supplements Whitefish's Haskill Creek supply. Follow the shore and the volume changes. Les Mason's cobble beach is the quieter stop. Farther northwest, a 672-acre private conservation easement protects more than a mile of shoreline and habitat used by elk, moose, wolves and grizzlies, without turning the land into a public park. Through all of it, monthly monitoring since 2007 has held the same clear-water record—about twenty-three feet of average visibility, low nutrients, no declining clarity trend. Whitefish is the rare resort lake that publishes its vital signs.
curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
The facts
- Surface area 13.4 km² usgs-3dhp · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Nearest town Whitefish · 5.6 km osm-overpass · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird species (within 25 mi) 190 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Bird diversity index 0.88 ebird-api-v2 · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Median home value $705,475 census-acs-2024-b25077 · block-group-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Water clarity Glass-clear sentinel-2-l2a · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Night sky Dark skies viirs-black-marble-vnp46a4 · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Surroundings Resort — a shoreline built for visitors curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
- Water origin Natural lake curator · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
In more detail
- Climate
- strongly four-season; cold winters (~24°F mean), mild summers (~62°F); ~20 in precip/yr noaa-normals-1991-2020-descriptor · lake-level · as of Jun 2, 2026
- Public access
- Whitefish Lake State Park (Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Region 1) is a 10-acre park at 1615 W Lakeshore Dr with a public boat launch, swimming area, day-use facilities, and 25 campsites; FWP requires watercraft inspection before launching. The City of Whitefish separately operates City Beach at 30 Lakeside Blvd — a 2-acre municipal park with a public swimming beach and a staffed public boat launch (May 1 to Sept 30). Fees/permits: FWP day-use/camping fees; City Beach daily launch fee or season pass. Sources: fwp.mt.gov/whitefish-lake (fetched 2026-07-19); cityofwhitefish.gov City Beach page. curator · lake-level · as of Jul 19, 2026
- Property tax
- 0.58% ACS effective-rate proxy (2024 ACS 5-year; Flathead County anchor: $3,120 median real-estate taxes paid ÷ $535,500 median owner-occupied home value; Montana proxy 0.72%, -0.13 percentage points). census-acs-2024-property-tax · county-level · as of Dec 31, 2024
Where it’s heading
Rising hand-rated for v0.1 · lake-level · as of Sep 3, 2026
Rising: Flathead County ranked #1 in Montana for population growth 2020-2025 (+10.6%, 104,353->115,429); Whitefish's median home value has roughly doubled since pre-pandemic to $1.1M+; and the growth is documented and active — a 715-unit development pipeline (July 2025), a national-destination luxury turn, short-term-rental proliferation (404 licensed + ~331 unregistered), and a workforce-housing crisis (the city projects 930-1,500 units needed by 2035; the 5-1 rejection of the 318-unit Arim Mountain Gateway is itself a growth-pressure artifact). Documented in-migration + pipeline, not merely a high price level. (The declining lake level — five of ten lowest years in a decade — is a hydrology signal, not a place-desirability trajectory.)