Ansel Watrous
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 29 of the next 30 nights read 16:39 UTC
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 17All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ansel Watrous Campground is located on the Cache la Poudre River, 22 miles northwest of Fort Collins, Colo., along Highway 14. Visitors enjoy the area for its great rafting, fishing and hiking opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
The Cache la Poudre River offers whitewater rafting and fishing. Anglers cast for brown, cutthroat and rainbow trout, among other species of fish. Hiking, biking and horseback riding trails are in the surrounding area, including the 4-mile Young Gulch Trail. Other popular activities enjoyed by visitors to the campground include birding and wildlife viewing.
Facilities
The campground offers accessible single-family sites, each equipped with a 12-by-15 tent pad, a picnic table and a campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Dead and downed firewood may be gathered in the forest or purchased from the campground host.
Natural Features
The canyon's vegetation varies from dense forests to open meadows and the campground is surrounded by steep mountains. The campground is situated among Ponderosa pines on the banks of the Cache la Poudre River, Colorado's first river designated as a National Wild and Scenic River. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 529-0578.
Charges & Cancellations
A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. Late cancellations are subject to additional fees. Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov or by calling the call center at 1-877-444-6777 PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
What the agency tells you
The campground's lower loop is not accessible to trailers longer than 20 feet, due to a hairpin switchback near the campground entrance. The parking length ranges from 25 to 45 feet in upper loop. RVs, trailers or other vehicles must fit on the parking spur. Driving or parking off road is not permitted.
Drinking water is available at the campground until Sept. 28th each year.
All sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis before and after the reservation season
Everything else this campground posts · 10
https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp for more information on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests
No RV water connections are available. Come with your RV/trailer water tank filled. Filling at campground hydrants cross-contaminates the system and is not allowed.
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.
Sites 8, 9, 10, 14 will only fit one vehicle. Two vehicles may fit on the other sites if you're tent camping.
ONLY 8 people are allowed on each site. Check in with the host prior to setting up camp. Tents must fit on the pads provided. All campsites with a tent pad have a bear locker.
All campsites must be occupied within 26 hours of the beginning of the reservation. If not present the site will be rented by first come first serve basis.
EXTRA VEHICLE FEES: One vehicle is included in your reservation. Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On. One vehicle consists of one camper being towed by vehicle, or any other vehicle towed behind camper. One van or one truck with camper attached counts as one vehicle. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at your site.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
Check-Out is at 12 P.M. Check-In is at 2 P.M.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 17 · 1 tent-only, 3 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 4 of 17
- Accessible sites
- 13
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…table and a campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Dead and downed…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…ring with grill. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Dead and downed firewood may be…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Meadow
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Mountain biking
- Rafting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 458th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 2 days ago, 28 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 16:39 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 15:58 UTC. See them
OpenBookedClosed
Every one of the 7 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 5 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:39 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 14
What you actually pay
“Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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.
“A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation.” · this campground’s own 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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 15:58 UTC
- Rocky Mountain National Park Moraine Park CampgroundRocky Mountain National Park · 26 mi · 2 of 472 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:39 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
17 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 17 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 14 of the 17 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.
| LOWER | 011 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | yes | 71 ft | 123 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| LOWER | 012 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | yes | 64 ft | 143 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| LOWER | 013 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | yes | 64 ft | 161 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| LOWER | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 107 ft | 80 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 | |
| LOWER | 015 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | yes | 64 ft | 55 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| LOWER | 016 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | yes | 64 ft | 57 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| LOWER | 017 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | yes | 85 ft | 59 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| UPPER | 001 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 145 ft | 42 ft | $20 |
| UPPER | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 100 ft | 68 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| UPPER | 003 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 80 ft | 68 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| UPPER | 004 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 60 ft | 74 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| UPPER | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 60 ft | 64 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| UPPER | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 62 ft | 65 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| UPPER | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 62 ft | 89 ftCache la Poudre River | $20 |
| UPPER | 008 | walk to | 81 ft | 69 ftCache la Poudre River | |||
| UPPER | 009 | walk to | 67 ft | 70 ftCache la Poudre River | |||
| UPPER | 010 | walk to | 67 ft | 52 ftCache la Poudre River |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Stove PrairieRoosevelt National Forest · 2.5 miNarrows Campground: Upper and LowerRoosevelt National Forest · 4.3 mi
Narrows (CO)Roosevelt National Forest · 4.4 mi
Dutch George CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 5.2 mi
Mountain ParkRoosevelt National Forest · 6.3 mi
Kelly Flats CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 7.0 miFrom Fort Collins, take Highway 14 northwest for 13 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Laporte, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 18°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
Ansel Watrous is in Colorado’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Joe Neguse (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyJoe NeguseU.S. Representative · Colorado’s 2nd 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
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Ansel Watrous, Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado
Dear Joe Neguse, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 2nd district. I tried to camp at Ansel Watrous, Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 17 sites at Ansel Watrous are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 7 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ansel Watrous keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ansel Watrous. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Ansel Watrous (Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Ansel Watrous, Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Ansel Watrous, Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 17 sites at Ansel Watrous are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 7 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ansel Watrous keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ansel Watrous. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Ansel Watrous (Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Ansel Watrous, Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Ansel Watrous, Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 17 sites at Ansel Watrous are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 7 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ansel Watrous keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ansel Watrous. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Ansel Watrous (Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com