Big Meadows Reservoir Campground (South Central CO)
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $29–$58Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 47All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Big Meadows is located in the San Juan Mountains in south-central Colorado, about 11 miles west of South Fork. The campground is lightly wooded with spruce trees, creating a beautiful meadow atmosphere. The Rio Grande National Forest spans 1.86 million acres in south-central Colorado. The Continental Divide runs for 236 miles along most of the forest's western border, presenting a myriad of ecosystems from alpine desert to dense wilderness. Keep reading
Recreation
An accessible fishing pier, located on the north shore of the reservoir, allows anglers to cast for rainbow, brown and brook trout. Hunting, boating and hiking are also popular pastimes. Hikers and horseback riders will enjoy the 6-mile Archuleta Trail. The trail accesses the Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado's largest wilderness, which boasts the headwaters of dozens of major streams and rivers that feed into the Rio Grande and San Juan rivers.
Facilities
Each site has a campfire ring and picnic tables. Drinking water is available. The nearest dump station is 13 miles away, and a boat ramp is located on the north shore of the reservoir.
Natural Features
The campground meanders up a mountainside above Big Meadows Reservoir in a series of loops. As a sub-alpine region, the campground gets more rainfall than the opposite side of the lake, resulting in plentiful wildflowers and aspens surrounding the campsites.
Nearby Attractions
The surrounding area has plenty to keep visitors busy, with attractions like Great Sand Dunes National Park, Native American ruins, remnants of the Spanish Conquistadors and gold rush ghost towns. The Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Ranges are laced with trails for avid hikers. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (805) 434-1996.
What the agency tells you
PMC & Recreation.gov policy states we will keep your reserved site until check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. If you haven't occupied it at any time during this period, your reservation is null and void and we will give it to first come first serve folks. Your reservation will be a no show and no refund will be given.
All single campsite reservation fees are good for 6 people and 1 vehicle. The maximum number of people per site is 8 ($10.00 additional charge after 6 people). The maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle). Any extra people/vehicle fees will be charged at the campground ($10/night per person/vehicle).
All double campsite reservation fees are good for 12 people and two vehicles. The maximum number of people per double site is 16 ($10.00 additional charge after 12 people). The maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for over 2 vehicles). Any extra people/vehicle fees will be charged at the campground ($10/night per person/vehicle).
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Water hookups not available. Please fill your trailer prior to arriving. Trailers are not allowed to fill at any hydrants as it might contaminate the entire water system.
The camp host at this location cannot modify your reservation. Before your check-in date, you may cancel or modify your reservation online. After your check-out date, you have a 7 day period to request a refund online.
Electric hookups are not available
This campground has first-come, first-served sites available but not guaranteed
The 14 day stay limit is strictly enforced. Camping for a period longer than 14 days during any 30-consecutive day period is prohibited. If you have booked back-to-back reservations, you will be asked to cancel all days after the first 14.
Weather conditions can change rapidly; please check prior to arrival
Click here for more information on the Rio Grande National Forest
Check out the forest's campground description for specific information to Fish Your 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.
The Rio Grande National Forest continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation and evaluate potential impacts and adjustments to reservations and our reservation policies through Recreation.gov. Reservation holders will be notified via email and/or cell phone text messages if there are any changes affecting their reservation. In the event of delayed openings of some, part or all of the campgrounds and cabins to ensure safe social distancing, you will receive a full refund for your reservation. Please remember to review current recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and focus on recreating safely while protecting yourself, Forest Service employees and our volunteers.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 47 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Accessible sites
- 44
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…has a campfire ring and picnic tables. Drinking water is available. The nearest dump station is 13 miles…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Meadow
- Boating
- Fishing
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 73rd darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 32 km away
- Peak 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 · 18
What you actually pay
“The maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle).” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $29–$58 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking, plus the agency’s published $2 weekend rate on Friday and Saturday. 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
47 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 47 mapped sitesAll 47 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. 47 of the 47 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.
| HOST SITE | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 103 ft | 160 ft | $29–$58 | |
| HOST SITE | 033 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 121 ft | 404 ft | $29–$58 | |
| HOST SITE | 034 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 69 ft | 296 ft | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 001 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | yes | 15 ft | 202 ft | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 002 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 15 ft | 202 ft | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 003 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 115 ft | 327 ftBig Meadows Reservoir | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 004 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 17 ft | 330 ftBig Meadows Reservoir | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 17 ft | 343 ftBig Meadows Reservoir | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 006 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 49 ft | 363 ftBig Meadows Reservoir | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 49 ft | 411 ftBig Meadows Reservoir | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 008 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 13 ft | 363 ft | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 009 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 33 ft | 330 ft | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 010 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 13 ft | 363 ft | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 76 ft | 187 ft | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 012 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 53 ft | 127 ft | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | 013 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | yes | 53 ft | 74 ft | $29–$58 |
| LOWER LOOP | GSA | group tent only area nonelectric | 20 ft | 422 ft | 245 ft | $99 | |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 015 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 103 ft | 121 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 016 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 94 ft | 41 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 017 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | yes | 94 ft | 31 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 97 ft | 123 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 019 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | yes | 105 ft | 229 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 105 ft | 192 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 021 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 192 ft | under 10 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 022 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 56 ft | 249 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 023 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 56 ft | 291 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 024 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | yes | 68 ft | 358 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 025 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | yes | 147 ft | 476 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 026 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 124 ft | 622 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 027 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 16 ft | 716 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 028 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 16 ft | 727 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 029 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 119 ft | 816 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 030 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | yes | 45 ft | 723 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 031 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 188 ft | 769 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 032 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | yes | 176 ft | 579 ft | $29–$58 |
| MIDDLE LOOP | 035 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | yes | 69 ft | 229 ft | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 037 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | yes | 103 ft | 335 ft | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 038 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 103 ft | 403 ft | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 039 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 108 ft | 473 ft | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 040 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 191 ft | 618 ft | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 041 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | yes | 21 ft | 812 ft | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 042 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | yes | 21 ft | 814 ft | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 043 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 80 ft | 996 ftSouth Fork Rio Grande | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 044 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 80 ft | 918 ftSouth Fork Rio Grande | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 045 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | yes | 169 ft | 724 ftSouth Fork Rio Grande | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 046 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | yes | 171 ft | 595 ftSouth Fork Rio Grande | $29–$58 |
| UPPER LOOP | 047 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 169 ft | 761 ftSouth Fork Rio Grande | $29–$58 |
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 47 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
From South Fork, Colorado, take Highway 160 for 13 miles west, turn onto Forest Road 410 SW, and go 1.8 miles to Big Meadows Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for South Fork, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 23°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -1°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 Meadows Reservoir Campground (South Central 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 →