Woods Bay, MT

Woods Bay is a Lake County census-designated place on the eastern shore of northern Flathead Lake, with 676 residents in the 2020 census. Montana Highway 35 runs along the shoreline, about five miles south of Bigfork and 28 miles north of Polson. The community is a string of lake homes, docks, forested slopes, and the Woods Bay embayment, with no conventional downtown or commercial strip to organize the map. There are few signs of a town center here; the shoreline, road, and shared facilities do the organizing from season to season.

The road follows the shore rather than cutting inland to a town core. Bigfork is the practical nearby center for many errands, schools, and services, while Woods Bay keeps a small local layer through a community center, fire department, water-and-sewer district, and neighborhood associations. Fishing, boating, and swimming are part of the setting. Woods Bay is best read as an east-shore neighborhood with a lake address and Bigfork connections.