Big Creek Lakes Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 5824 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
The popular Big Creek Lakes Campground offers a peaceful, scenic setting in the heart of the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado. The campground is located in Routt National Forest at an elevation of 9,000-ft., and is adjacent to Big Creek Lake, where fishing, boating and hiking are available. Trails and one corral are available for the Equestrians. Keep reading
Recreation
This campground offers boating and fishing on Colorado's second largest natural lake, hiking in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness and ATV trails nearby. There are also ample opportunities for viewing wildlife, including moose. Fishing for trout, muskie, grayling and Kokanee salmon is available in the lake. Anglers also have access to a creek. Non-motorized boats are allowed on the upper section of the lake and motorized boats are permitted on the lower section.
Facilities
This facility has a campground and day use area. There are 24 reservable campsites and 30 first-come, first-served campsites, all of which are near Big Creek Lake. Two boat ramps are provided for the convenience of boaters and anglers. A campground host (When available) is on-site for visitor assistance and one horse corral, located near site 17, is provided on a first come first served availability.
Natural Features
Big Creek lies among Lodgepole pine and fir trees. Some previously forested areas of the campground have been thinned due to pests and now provide more sun. The campground offers beautiful views of the surrounding wilderness. The wetlands around the lake are prime moose territory. Black bear, bobcat, coyote, elk, mule deer and moose are just some of the many animals that inhabit these rich and diverse lands. The Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland, encompass nearly 3 million acres from central and northeastern Wyoming to north-central Colorado.
Nearby Attractions
The closest town is Walden, Colorado, about 35 miles from the campsite. Many more outdoor recreation opportunities exist in the surrounding national forests and grasslands, including hiking, biking, camping, horseback riding, OHV riding, fishing, hunting, sightseeing and winter sports.
What the agency tells you
Trash collection and vault toilets available all season
Maximum of two vehicles allowed per site
Cell phone reception is limited and may not be available; the nearest telephone is 26 miles away
Everything else this campground posts · 5
This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
There is a possibility of snow during the summer months
Campground host on-site from mid-June to Mid-Sept.
Click here for more information on the Medicine Bow-Routt 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 58
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- 9
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 50th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 24 of the 58 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 · 14
What you actually pay
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.
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
The sites
60 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 23 mapped sites3 sites share one published coordinate and are left out of the rankings.
All 60 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. 58 of the 60 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.
| BIG | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 206 ft | 256 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 003 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 130 ft | 187 ft | $20 |
| BIG | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 109 ft | 240 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 233 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 007 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 171 ft | 223 ft | $20 |
| BIG | 009 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 47 ft | 448 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 010 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 41 ft | 451 ft | $20 |
| BIG | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 41 ft | 474 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 012 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 111 ft | 497 ft | $20 |
| BIG | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 34 ft | 504 ft | $20 |
| BIG | 015 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 34 ft | 524 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 017 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 261 ft | 491 ft | $20 |
| BIG | 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 185 ftSouth Fork Big Creek | $20 | ||
| BIG | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $20 | |||
| BIG | 026 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 498 ft | 643 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 029 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 185 ftSouth Fork Big Creek | $20 | ||
| BIG | 033 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 77 ft | 891 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 034 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 77 ft | 867 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 043 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 23 ft | 193 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 044 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 23 ft | 190 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 045 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 350 ft | 143 ft | $20 | |
| BIG | 046 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 422 ft | 339 ft | $20 |
| BIG | 051 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 185 ftSouth Fork Big Creek | $20 | |
| BIG | 053 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 298 ft | 186 ftSouth Fork Big Creek | $20 |
| MANAGEMENT | 0013 | type not stated | 523 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0016 | type not stated | 478 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0018 | type not stated | 472 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0019 | type not stated | 414 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0020 | type not stated | 271 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0021 | type not stated | 256 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0022 | type not stated | 275 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0023 | type not stated | $20 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT | 0024 | type not stated | $20 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT | 0025 | type not stated | 598 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0026 | type not stated | $20 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT | 0027 | type not stated | 603 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0028 | type not stated | 644 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0029 | type not stated | $20 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT | 0030 | type not stated | 746 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0031 | type not stated | 857 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0032 | type not stated | 870 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0033 | type not stated | 901 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0035 | type not stated | 839 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0036 | type not stated | 767 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0037 | type not stated | 695 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0038 | type not stated | 639 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0039 | type not stated | 674 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 004 | type not stated | 210 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0040 | type not stated | 649 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0041 | type not stated | 725 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0042 | type not stated | 563 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0047 | type not stated | 399 ft | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0048 | type not stated | 425 ftSouth Fork Big Creek | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0049 | type not stated | 345 ftSouth Fork Big Creek | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0050 | type not stated | 285 ftSouth Fork Big Creek | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0052 | type not stated | 128 ftSouth Fork Big Creek | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 0054 | type not stated | 188 ftSouth Fork Big Creek | $20 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 008 | type not stated | $20 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT | Host Site | host pad | $20 | ||||
| MANAGEMENT | XXX | unnamed record | $20 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night: 1 it names a host pad and 1 it types MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
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.
25 of 60 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Blackhall LookoutMedicine Bow National Forest · 7.7 mi
Seedhouse Group Site - Medicine-Bow Routt NF (CO)Routt National Forest · 13 mi
Six Mile Campground (WY)Medicine Bow National Forest · 13 miSix Mile CampgroundMedicine Bow National Forest · 13 mi
Seedhouse Guard StationRoutt National Forest · 14 mi
Seedhouse CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 14 miFrom Walden, follow Route 125 north for 9 miles into Cowdrey. Turn left (west) onto CR 6W and travel 18 miles to Pearl. Turn onto Forest Road 600 and drive for 6 miles, following signs to campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Encampment, WY
Typical weather
Typical October night 21°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 2°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
Big Creek Lakes Campground 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 →