Alvarado Campground
1Heads up1 fire 27 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $30–$60Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 5150 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Alvarado Campground, located at an elevation of 9,000 ft., is a prime location for accessing easy to challenging hikes in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. The variety of trails lead to high elevation lakes, picturesque waterfalls, and a number of stunning scenic overlooks. Alvarado is designed for a range of campers, with facilities for tent, RV and equestrian campers. Pike-San Isabel National Forests include over a million acres of wilderness and over half of Colorado's mountain peaks that reach above 14,000 feet. Keep reading
Recreation
Near the campground are several trailheads that provide visitors with a variety of recreational opportunities. All trails are open for horseback riding and hiking. The Rainbow Trail is a premier ATV and motorcycle trail. The non-motorized Comanche and Venable Trails lead into the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness where waterfalls and alpine lakes may be enjoyed.
Facilities
Alvarado is divided into three unique areas. The lower level accommodates tents and RVs, the upper level is designed for walk-in tent campers, and part of the middle section caters to equestrian campers. There are no corrals but there is space to put portable corrals for horses. Parking aprons are dirt and gravel. Tent pads and lantern posts are located in the lower campsites only.
Natural Features
Alvarado is perched on the side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains among sweet smelling ponderosa pine, aspen, lodgepole and gambel oak trees. Some sites offer views of the Wet Mountain Valley below while others sit beside Alvarado Creek. The campground is within reach of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness, which spans 226,455 acres with 60 alpine lakes, 400 miles of streams and over 400 miles of trails to explore. Large aspen stands visible in the area today are a result of fires set in the early 1900's to clear pasture land, expose minerals and produce charcoal. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (719) 489-2034.
Nearby Attractions
Explore the Frontier Pathways Scenic and Historic Byway that takes drivers through the Wet Mountains and provides spectacular views of 22 peaks, all within the San Isabel National Forest.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a campsite. Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. No-Shows A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite. Refunds Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Refunds will not be issued after the 7 days has ended. Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive. In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.
What the agency tells you
This Campground has a limit of 8 people; either 2 tents and 2 vehicles OR 1 RV in each campsite.
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
Hay brought to this facility must be certified weed-free
Everything else this campground posts · 9
No electric hookups available
This facility has first-come, first-served sites
Click here for more information on Pike and San Isabel National Forests
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.
Due to the remoteness of the campground, real time information is not available. For more information call the San Carlos Ranger District at (719) 269-8500.
Two vehicles included in the camping fee. $10 for additional vehicles.
Firewood is available for sale at host site for $10.00/bundle.
Water is available in this location via a handpump and/or water spigot. Please DO NOT attach your RV hoses to the water systems we provide. These are made available to you to fill your water jugs/buckets and take back to your site to use. If you need to fill your RV water tanks, please fill your tank before you come to the campground. Thank you!
There is No Dump Station in this campground. The nearest location is at a campground nearby that is not run by ExplorUS.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 51 · 5 walk-in, 3 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, Creek
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Night sky · 246th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 50 of the 51 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you 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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 16
What you actually pay
“Extra Vehicle $8.00” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $30–$60 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a cam…” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
51 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 50 mapped sitesAll 51 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 51 of the 51 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 50 of the 51 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| ALVARADO | 01 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 53 ft | 104 ft | 431 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 02 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 53 ft | 119 ft | 385 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 03 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 59 ft | 173 ft | 376 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 04 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 55 ft | 211 ft | 329 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 05 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 55 ft | 253 ft | 326 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 06 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 64 ft | 317 ft | 356 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 07 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 116 ft | 436 ft | 334 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 08 | type not stated | 35 ft | 483 ft | 309 ft | ||
| ALVARADO | 09 | rv nonelectric | 40 ft | 100 ft | 537 ft | 274 ft | $30 |
| ALVARADO | 10 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 28 ft | 421 ft | 219 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 11 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 28 ft | 446 ft | 201 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 12 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 61 ft | 308 ft | 201 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 13 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 61 ft | 262 ft | 211 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 14 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 76 ft | 162 ft | 100 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 15 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 76 ft | 92 ft | 37 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 16 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 100 ft | 586 ft | 214 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 17 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 100 ft | 694 ft | 299 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 18 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 100 ft | 782 ft | 341 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 19 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 130 ft | 603 ft | 106 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 20 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | 374 ft | 94 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 21 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | 365 ft | 82 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 22 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 76 ft | 263 ft | 185 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 23 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 76 ft | 221 ft | 173 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 24 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 31 ft | 385 ft | 207 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 25 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 31 ft | 415 ft | 211 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 26 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 39 ft | 573 ft | 163 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 27 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 39 ft | 610 ft | 174 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 28 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 662 ft | 199 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 29 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 130 ft | 731 ft | 236 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 30 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 154 ft | 128 ft | 214 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 31 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 25 ft | 29 ft | 210 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 32 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 25 ft | 35 ft | 201 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 33 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 69 ft | 105 ft | 132 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 34 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 26 ft | 162 ft | 75 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 35 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 26 ft | 173 ft | 62 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 36 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 83 ft | 367 ft | 132 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 37 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 83 ft | 448 ft | 214 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 38 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 131 ft | 612 ft | 393 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 39 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 131 ft | 482 ft | 293 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 40 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 69 ft | 123 ft | 579 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 41 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 39 ft | 58 ft | 609 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 42 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 30 ft | 148 ft | 689 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 43 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 236 ft | 384 ft | 786 ft | $30–$60 |
| ALVARADO | 44 | walk to | 39 ft | 44 ft | 645 ft | $30 | |
| ALVARADO | 45 | walk to | 73 ft | 68 ft | 691 ft | $30 | |
| ALVARADO | 46 | walk to | 42 ft | 115 ft | 743 ft | $30 | |
| ALVARADO | 47 | walk to | 90 ft | 83 ft | 824 ft | $30 | |
| ALVARADO | 48 | walk to | 30 ft | 150 ft | 720 ft | $30 | |
| ALVARADO | E1 | equestrian nonelectric | 45 ft | 316 ft | 214 ft | 321 ft | $30 |
| ALVARADO | E2 | equestrian nonelectric | 45 ft | 115 ft | 388 ft | 703 ft | $30 |
| ALVARADO | E3 | equestrian nonelectric | 45 ft | 115 ft | 273 ft | 648 ft | $30 |
25 of 51 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Duncan CabinRio Grande National Forest · 14 mi
Medano Pass Primitive Road CampsitesGreat Sand Dunes National Preserve · 19 mi
Backpacking Campsites in the Dunes or ForestGreat Sand Dunes National Park · 21 miCoaldale CampgroundSan Isabel National Forest · 22 miFrom Westcliffe, CO, take State Route 69 south 3 miles to the campground sign (County Road 140). Turn right and go 1.8 miles to the stop sign. Continue straight through the stop sign for 2.8 miles until you hit another stop sign (RD 141). Turn left onto RD 141 and continue 2.1 miles to campground. (Note: RD 141 becomes dirt/gravel after 0.4 miles.)
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Westcliffe, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 11°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
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
Alvarado Campground is in Colorado’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Brittany Pettersen (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →