Alpine Ranger Station
1Heads up1 fire 20 mi away
Reservable everywhere but bookable nowhere.Ask the agency →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1None on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Alpine Ranger Station is situated on the Alpine Plateau at 9,600 feet, in a beautiful alpine valley surrounded by aspen, spruce and fir forest. With inspiring views and multiple nearby recreation opportunities, the Ranger Station is just the place for a quiet and historic retreat, with a few modern amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Surrounded by miles of National Forest, visitors to the Alpine Ranger Station can enjoy a multitude of outdoor activities. There are several hiking and mountain biking trails nearby, as well as opportunities for OHV use, including ATV and motorcycle routes. Also, the ranger station has a horse barn and small corral, offering the opportunity for horseback riding. The Uncompahgre Wilderness is adjacent to the Ranger Station and a trailhead to Uncompahgre Peak (a popular 14'er) is only a mile away.
Facilities
Visitors can expect to experience two semi-rustic cabins with some modern amenities. The main cabin has a semi-modernized kitchen with a propane cooking stove, refrigerator, and sink. There is a separate bathhouse located a few feet away from the main cabin with a vault toilet. Other amenities include: solar electric lighting and a pot belly wood stove. The main cabin can accommodate up to four people, featuring two bunk beds with four twin-size mattresses. The other cabin has a queen bed on the ground level and a loft. Basic kitchen supplies - pots/pans/silverware - are provided. Cleaning supplies are provided, and guests are required to clean before they leave. Guests should bring their own bedding and towels. Plan to pack it in, pack it out. Please take your trash with you when you leave.
Natural Features
The Ranger Station is located near the end of Forest Service Road 868, adjacent to Blue Creek and Soldier Creek. This beautiful area offers many scenic viewing opportunities, including the Cannibal Plateau and the Uncompahgre Wilderness, and is close to many hiking and fishing opportunities.
Nearby Attractions
The small town of Lake City is located about an hour drive from the cabins, it has two small grocery stores, a gas station, and a few restaurants.
What the agency tells you
Water is not available, visitors must bring their own water for all uses.
There is not a landline phone at the Alpine Ranger Station and cellphone service may not be available, depending upon your provider.
Click here for more information on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing organisms by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Non-smoking facility
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- PIT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
Nothing on the booking system
recreation.gov lists none of the 1 campsites the agency files here. Whatever these sites are, a reservation isn’t how you get one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Every line of the receipt · 9
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 4
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
| ALPINE RANGER STATION | Cabin | type not stated | 360 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Jackson Guard StationUncompahgre National Forest · 7.6 miSilver Jack Campground (CO)Uncompahgre National Forest · 8.3 miBeaver Lake (CO)Uncompahgre National Forest · 8.7 miBig CimarronUncompahgre National Forest · 9.0 miFrom Gunnison: Take US-50 west for approximately 35 miles. Turn left on Co. Rd 66 to FSR 867. Follow FSR 867 for approximately 20 miles to its junction with FSR 868. Turn right - Alpine Ranger Station will be 5 miles ahead on the right-hand side, a locked gate is at the entrance. County road 66 and FSR 867 are gravel roads with switchbacks that may be difficult to travel on when they are wet.
From Lake City: From the Lake City Community school travel north on state highway 149 for approximately 11.1 miles. Just after a sign that says "National Forest Access Big Blue" turn left onto Forest Service Road 867 (listed as Alpine Road on Google Maps). Remain on FSR 867 until the junction with FSR 868, from there contiue straight on FSR 868. The cabin will be approximately 5 miles ahead on the right-hand side, a locked gate is at the entrance. County road 66, FSR 867, and FSR 868 are gravel roads with switchbacks that may be difficult to travel on when they are wet.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lake City, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 1°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Alpine Ranger Station is in Colorado’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Jeff Hurd (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record marks Alpine Ranger Station reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its campsites. The draft asks why, and what it would take to fix it.
- The member who votes the moneyJeff HurdU.S. Representative · Colorado’s 3rd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn W. HickenlooperU.S. Senator · Colorado
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMichael F. BennetU.S. Senator · Colorado
Read the draft, or change the wording
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Alpine Ranger Station is reservable and not bookable
Dear Jeff Hurd, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 3rd district. Alpine Ranger Station, Uncompahgre National Forest, Colorado is a federal campground the U.S. Forest Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 1 campsites, in any month asked. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why isn’t Alpine Ranger Station on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Alpine Ranger Station (Uncompahgre National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Alpine Ranger Station is reservable and not bookable
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. Alpine Ranger Station, Uncompahgre National Forest, Colorado is a federal campground the U.S. Forest Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 1 campsites, in any month asked. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why isn’t Alpine Ranger Station on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Alpine Ranger Station (Uncompahgre National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Alpine Ranger Station is reservable and not bookable
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. Alpine Ranger Station, Uncompahgre National Forest, Colorado is a federal campground the U.S. Forest Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 1 campsites, in any month asked. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why isn’t Alpine Ranger Station on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Alpine Ranger Station (Uncompahgre National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com