Bear Lake Campground (CO)
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $25From, per site
- Sites
- 13All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Bear Lake Campground is located in the beautiful San Isabel National Forest at an elevation of 10,480 ft. Views of the nearby Culebra Range Mountains with aspen and spruce forests offer campers a genuine Colorado experience. Keep reading
Recreation
Indian Trail #1300 begins at the north end of the campground providing direct access to a 23 mile multi-user trail system available for all-terrain vehicle, motorcycle, bicycle, foot and horse. A quieter well marked trail system between Bear Lake and Blue Lake is open to foot and horse traffic.
Facilities
This rustic campground has 14 campsites, each with a table and fire ring. An on-site camp host offers firewood bundles for sale. Vault toilets and drinking water are available. No electric or septic hook-ups are available.
Natural Features
A tributary of the Cuchara River runs through the campground. Bear Lake is 1/8 mile from the campground, and Blue Lake is one mile away. Both of these small lakes are stocked several times during the summer providing for good fishing. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (719) 489-2034.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby mountain town of Cuchara offers shopping and visitor information. The town of La Veta offers a grocery store, gas stations, and shops. The Spanish Peaks Wilderness, 15 miles from the campground, is a popular hiking destination.
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
Due to a high wind storm back in 2022, many trees here were blown down. In the Spring of 2024 the USFS cleared the down trees. Today Bear Lake Campground has less trees than before, but the grass is starting to comeback along with the flowers. Also note that because there are fewer trees in this campground it can be "very windy" at times. Please be prepared for this when you camp here.
This Campground has a limit of 8 people; either 2 tents and 2 vehicles OR 1 RV in each campsite.
Check in: 2 pm, Check out: 12 pm (noon)
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Caution: bears frequent the area. Be aware; keep a clean camp; Forest Service regulations require food and cooking utensils be stored in secure containers or locked in vehicles.
First-come, first-served campsites are available.
No horse sites are available.
Click here (http://www.fs.usda.gov/psicc) to visit the National Forest website.
Due to the remoteness of the campground, real time information for the campground is not available. Contact the San Carlos Ranger District office for further information at (719) 269-8500.
Don't Move Firewood: Help protect our forests! Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Moving firewood is illegal in some states. Visit dontmovefirewood.org to learn more.
Two vehicles included in the camping fee. $10 for additional vehicles.
Firewood is available for sale at host site for $10.00/bundle.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 36 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 1 of 12 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…host offers firewood bundles for sale. Vault toilets and drinking water are available. No electric or…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…bundles for sale. Vault toilets and drinking water are available. No electric or septic hook-ups are…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Biking
- Fishing
- Night sky · 84th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 8 days ago, 8.3 km away
- Patchy color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 13
What you actually pay
“Extra Vehicle Fee $10.00” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
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.
“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
14 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 13 mapped sitesAll 14 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 12 of the 14 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 001 | type not stated | 18 ft | 236 ft | ||
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 002 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 74 ft | 115 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 003 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 74 ft | 62 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 004 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 26 ft | 52 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 005 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 26 ft | 69 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 006 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 57 ft | 180 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 007 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 57 ft | 209 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 008 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 16 ft | 275 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 009 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 16 ft | 260 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 010 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 89 ft | 180 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 30 ft | 92 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 30 ft | 81 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 013 - HOST | host pad | 26 ft | 47 ft | 42 ft | $25 |
| BEAR LAKE CAMPGROUND (CO) | 014 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 82 ft | 39 ft | $25 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Blue Lake Campground - San Isabel NF (CO)San Isabel National Forest · 0.8 mi
Purgatoire CampgroundSan Isabel National Forest · 5.3 miCordova PassSan Isabel National Forest · 6.5 miZapata Falls CampgroundSan Luis Valley Field Office · 31 mi
Zapata Falls CampgroundSan Luis Valley Field Office · 33 mi
Pinon Flats CampgroundGreat Sand Dunes National Park · 35 miFrom Colorado Highway 12 south of the Town of Cuchara, take FSR 422 5 miles west to the campground.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Stonewall Gap, CO
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
Bear Lake Campground (CO) 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 →