Bassam Guard Station
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 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:20 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bassam Guard Station was built in 1911 as one of a network of remote stations to be used by the first forest rangers and guards to monitor grazing sheep and cattle, manage timber harvesting, apprehended poachers, and report fire, road and weather conditions on National Forest lands. This cabin provides visitors with access to many recreation opportunities in the remote back country. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors may wish to take a day trip to the Arkansas River for kayaking, whitewater rafting or fishing. There are many recreational activities on the Salida Ranger District including hiking, biking, horseback riding, and OHV riding on designated forest roads and trails. Or take a trip to the historic ghost town of St. Elmo. An old saloon, county courthouse and many other historic structures remain from the days of its mining glory. The City of Salida and Town of Buena Vista offer visitor’s unique restaurants, shops, and art galleries to enjoy.
Facilities
The 14 x 16 cabin includes a full-sized bed, dresser, a small table with two chairs, a two-burner propane stove for cooking, and a wood-burning stove for heat. A metal campfire ring and picnic table are onsite. The cabin sleeps two adults, and an additional six adults may camp outside in tents or a camper. The bunkhouse and barn are off-limits to the public. Horses may be picketed or corralled outside of the fenced area by the entrance of the cabin site. Portable corrals are permitted, but must be moved every few days to prevent damage to vegetation and soil. Water is available at a hand pump, but guests are advised to bring extra drinking water. Limited cooking and dining utensils are provided. Guests should also bring food, matches, toilet paper, flashlights, bedding, garbage bags, and an ax for chopping firewood. Dead and downed wood may be collected and used in campfires and in the wood-burning stove.
Natural Features
The cabin sits in a stand of Aspens at an approximate elevation of 9,700 feet, south of Bassam Ridge. The cabin is within the Salida Ranger District, spanning 440,000 acres of public lands in central Colorado. The Arkansas River valley is known locally as the "Banana Belt of Colorado" because of the generally mild temperatures and sunny days. Springtime can be deceptive with sporadic spring snowstorms occurring from March to May. During the summer months, days are warm with cool nights. Afternoon thundershowers are common during July and August. The fall months are are generally dry and sunny with cooler morning temperatures.
Nearby Attractions
The cabin is located near the eastern boundary of Browns Canyon National Monument. Explore the monument from the Bassam Park area on foot or mountain bike (trail 1435). Or, for those with high clearance vehicles, take a scenic drive along Aspen Ridge Road (road 185). Note that much of the monument's western side is being managed as a wilderness study area, so motorized vehicles and bicycles are not allowed.
What the agency tells you
Advanced reservations are ALWAYS required. Walk-ups are not available.
Entry to the cabin/gate is by combination lock. Access information is provided in confirmation email from Recreation.gov. Cell phone service in the area is limited or may not be available, so make sure to have this information before you reach the cabin.
Bring drinking water, bedding, an axe to chop firewood, food, flashlights, matches, etc.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Hay must be certified weed-free
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack it in-pack it out' facility
For additional area information call the Salida Ranger ranger district (719) 539-3591 Mon-Fri.
Parking is limited
Click here for more information on the Pike and San Isabel National Forest
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.
No smoking inside of the cabin.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…prevent damage to vegetation and soil. Water is available at a hand pump, but guests are advised to bring…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
Full this Saturdayread 16:20 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:20 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 · 12
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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:20 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BASSAM CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 1,485 ft | $75 |
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
Where it is
Mount PrincetonSan Isabel National Forest · 15 mi
Chalk LakeSan Isabel National Forest · 16 miFrom Salida travel north on Highway 285 to the junction with Highways 24/285 near Johnson's Village. Turn right onto Hwys 24/285, passing through Johnson's Village. Stay on this highway for 5 miles, then watch for a sign on the left for County Road 307 (next to private property with railroad items on display). Turn right onto CR 307 and travel for 1.5 miles to the junction with CR 187. Turn right onto CR 187 and travel south for 7 miles to the intersection with CR 186. Turn left on CR 186 and travel southeast for .10 miles. Watch for a two-track road on the left(186 A). This road will take you to the gated entrance to the cabin. Roads may be slippery and muddy after rain or snow, drive with caution.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Nathrop, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 19°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -4°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Bassam Guard Station 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 →
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 moneyBrittany PettersenU.S. Representative · Colorado’s 7th 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 Bassam Guard Station, San Isabel National Forest, Colorado
Dear Brittany Pettersen, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 7th district. I tried to camp at Bassam Guard Station, San Isabel National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Bassam Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Bassam Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Bassam Guard Station. 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 Bassam Guard Station (San Isabel 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 Bassam Guard Station, San Isabel National Forest, Colorado
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Bassam Guard Station, San Isabel National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Bassam Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Bassam Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Bassam Guard Station. 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 Bassam Guard Station (San Isabel 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 Bassam Guard Station, San Isabel National Forest, Colorado
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Bassam Guard Station, San Isabel National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Bassam Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Bassam Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Bassam Guard Station. 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 Bassam Guard Station (San Isabel National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com