Black Canyon Of The Gunnison North Rim Campground
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- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 3 of the next 15 nights read 14:11 UTC
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 1413 of them walk-up
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Official NPS North Rim Website The North Rim campground is remote and has 13 sites dispersed among pinyon and juniper trees. Sites available on a first-come, first-served basis. Elevation: 7767 ft (2367.4 m). The ranger station is open intermittently in the summer and closed in the winter. In the summer, maps and newspapers are available on the ranger station porch. The ranger station also has a self-pay station for the park entrance fee and a self-registration kiosk for wilderness permits.
What the agency tells you
The ranger station is open intermittently in the summer and closed in the winter. In the summer, maps and newspapers are available on the ranger station porch.
In the summer months, water fill-up stations are available in the campground and at the ranger station. All of the water on the North Rim is trucked in, so we ask that you use the fill-up stations conservatively and be prepared with your own water. Water is not available during spring, fall, and winter.
To protect vegetation and forest resources, please use designated tent pads and do not tie, hang, or attach anything to trees.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Maximum combined length of RV, car and/or trailer is 22 feet (6.7 m).
Generators are prohibited.
Exploring the inner canyon from the North Rim is a rewarding experience, but requires skill, experience, and preparation to be successful. The inner canyon is also a designated wilderness area and requires a permit to enter. Climbers and hikers can obtain a permit from the self-registration kiosk outside the ranger station.
Black Canyon charges an entrance fee (separate from the camping fee). The ranger station has a self-pay station to pay the fee. You may also pay the entrance fee before arrival. NOTE: the park also honors America the Beautiful-the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands annual or lifetime (interagency) passes (e.g. Senior, Military, 4th Grade, etc.) in lieu of the entrance fee. You must have the pass with you.
All food and other scented items must be stored in "bear boxes" (food storage lockers) located within each campsite.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 14
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 22 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- Yes
Around the campground
- Tree cover
- 42%
- Night sky · 334th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
Fully booked on Sat, Oct 17, all 1 sites takenread 14:11 UTC
recreation.gov lists 13 of the 14 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBookedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on the one midweek night after it that the agency has released as well. read 14:11 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
These counts cover the 14 reservable sites only. This campground also has first-come sites, and recreation.gov publishes no availability for a site you can’t reserve.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
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
recreation.gov availability, read 14:11 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
14 sites
All 14 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. 13 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.
| North Rim Campground Scan and Pay | North Rim Campground Scan and Pay | type not stated | 22 ft | |
| 001 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 002 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 003 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 004 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 005 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 006 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 007 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 008 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 009 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 010 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 011 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 012 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| 013 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Black Canyon Of The Gunnison South Rim CampgroundBlack Canyon of the Gunnison National Park · 2.7 mi
East Portal CampgroundUncompahgre Field Office · 5.2 mi
Cimarron Campground13 mi
Cimarron Campground (CO)13 mi
Cottonwood Grove CampgroundGunnison Gorge National Conservation Area · 15 miSoap CreekGunnison National Forest · 21 miThe North Rim is 11 miles southwest of Crawford, Colorado. From CO Highway 92, turn west on Black Canyon Road approximately 3 miles south of Crawford. Follow the road signs to the park. The last 7 miles of the park access road and the entire North Rim Drive road are unpaved gravel. Typically, the roads are in good condition and passable for most vehicles. In winter and early spring, these roads are unplowed and the North Rim is closed to vehicles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Montrose, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 14°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Black Canyon Of The Gunnison North Rim Campground 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 →