U.S. Forest Service · San Isabel National Forest · CO

Angel of Shavano

ReservableOut of season; the next season isn't published.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
A night
$25From, per site
Sites
41 on recreation.gov
Drawn from the record · 9,170 ft · 25% tree cover · North Fork South Arkansas River within reach · Bortle 2 sky
9,170 ftElevation
618 ftWater · North Fork South Arkansas River
11.3 miNW of Salida, CO
25%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 252nd darkest of 522 in CO

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices

In the agency’s own words

This location is available on a first-come, first-served basis only. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cellular service. Keep reading

Facilities

Parking for two vehicles or one small RV are allowed at each site; sites are better suited for tent camping.

Natural Features

The Angel of Shavano Campground is ideally suited for tent camping. The campsites are wooded with aspen and spruce trees along the north fork of the south Arkansas River. The Angel of Shavano Trailhead for the Colorado Trail #1776 is across the road from the campground. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.

What the agency tells you

Rule

Two vehicles or one RV/Trailer and tow vehicle per site is included in the camping fee. $10.00 for a third vehicle. Campsites are better suited for tent camping.

Rule

Firewood is available for sale at Host site for $10.00/bundle.

Tents and rigs

Sites
4
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
River
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026

No reading yet, book on recreation.gov

recreation.gov lists 1 of the 4 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.

Booking windowOut of seasonOut of season, no booking. The last reservable season the agency published ended September 22, 2024, and it hasn't published the next one.recreation.gov
A night$25plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$58DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itRocky Mountain Recreation CompanyA private concessionaire under permit from U.S. Forest Service (parent: ExplorUS)the operator link
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 12

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night$25
ScanPay 1$25
These are next season’s rates, May 14, 2027 to Sep 18, 2027. The campground is between seasons now.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$33
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$58

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $25 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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 · 5

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

4 sites · the site map

All 4 sites

1 of 4 sites located
Standard1
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
Up to

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 4 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

Scan and PayScanPay 2type not stated
Scan and PayScanPay 3type not stated
Scan and PayScanPay 4type not stated
Scan and PayStandardstandard nonelectric618 ft$25

OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Coordinate38.58447, -106.22043
The phoneN/A
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Getting there

From the junction of Highways 50/285 in Poncha Springs, travel west on Highway 50 for 6 miles. As you approach the town of Maysville, watch for County Road 240 on the right. Turn onto County Road 240 and travel for 3 miles to the campground. The group campground is located on the left side of the road. Continue past the group area to the main entrance for Angel of Shavano Campground.

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight34°Mostly Clear
Saturday58°Sunny
Saturday Night37°Mostly Clear1% rain
Sunday55°Mostly Sunny4% rain

NWS forecast for Maysville, CO

Typical weather

Typical October night 25°F, day 54°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night -8°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

80°32°-20°

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.

Measured at: TAYLOR PARK, CO (USC00058184), 26 miles away and at about the same elevation

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

What threatens this place

Roadless
Hancock Pass33,203 acres · 7 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Old Monarch Pass19,531 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Canyon Creek12,602 acres · 10 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Oct 3, 2026

Who answers for this land

Brittany Pettersen, official portrait

Angel of Shavano 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service’s own recreation database flags it not open and publishes no reason and no date. That’s a flag, not a notice: the number below is the only way to be sure.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Maysville, CO, 2.3 mi N (a census designated place). Straight line.