Burning Bear Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $26From, per site
- Sites
- 13All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located on the Pike and San Isabel National Forest at an elevation of 9,813 feet, Burning Bear Campground offers cooler temperatures during the hot Colorado summer months. Along the Guanella Pass Scenic Byway, this campground is near prime spots for wildlife viewing, scenic driving, landscape photography, hiking and roads open to off-highway vehicles. Keep reading
Recreation
Numerous hiking trail opportunities are available along Geneva Road. Mount Evans Wilderness is directly behind the campground allowing for access to the Abyss Trail (sometimes referred to as the Scott Gomer Trail). Although Mount Evans Wilderness is closed to mountain biking, Burning Bear Trail across the road from the campground is a wonderful trail for mountain biking and hiking alike.
Facilities
Burning Bear Campground has 13 sites to accommodate RV, trailer and tent camping. Drinking water, vault toilets, picnic tables and grills are provided. Parking aprons are dirt and the campground road may be rough.
Natural Features
The campground is nestled in a beautiful valley on the way to Guanella Pass. Although somewhat open, a scattering of ponderosa pines provides some privacy to campers. Mount Bierstadt (elevation 14,060 feet) is north on the Guanella Pass road – a Scenic and Historic Byway, and one of the most popular scenic drives on the Pike and San Isabel National Forest. The Guanella Pass road is a great place to watch for bighorn sheep, elk, deer, moose, marmot, pika, and bear Nearby Attractions Mount Bierstadt summit is approximately 7 miles north of the campground and offers amazing views of the valley below. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (303) 647-2366.
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
Limited water available; no water hookups....ALERT: a/o 8/3/2026 the hand pump is down and will not be available for the remainder of this season (2026). Please bring all water necessary for your the duration of your stay to include drinking water, dishwashing, personal washing up, putting the campfire out, etc.
Expect rough road conditions and erosion: potholes and wash-boarding
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Horse corrals near the campground are not for public use
This is a high elevation facility, please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
Facility has first-come, first-serve sites
No fireworks or firearms allowed
Click here for more information on 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 13 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and tent camping. Drinking water, vault toilets, picnic tables and grills are provided. Parking…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…RV, trailer and tent camping. Drinking water, vault toilets, picnic tables and grills are…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- Biking
- Fishing
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 456th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 29 km away
- Peak color
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:43 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $26 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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:43 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
13 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 13 mapped sitesAll 13 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 13 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop 1 | 01 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 22 ft | 1,184 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 02 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 22 ft | 1,174 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 03 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 63 ft | 1,034 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 04 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 11 ft | 991 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 05 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 11 ft | 998 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 06 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 55 ft | 949 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 07 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 47 ft | 963 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 08 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 47 ft | 997 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 09 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 15 ft | 1,109 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 10 | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 15 ft | 1,115 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 11 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | 1,202 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 12 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 72 ft | 1,241 ft | $26 |
| Loop 1 | 13 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 85 ft | 1,242 ft | $26 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Timberline CampgroundPike National Forest · 6.3 mi
Guanella PassArapaho National Forest · 6.8 miKenosha EastPike National Forest · 7.3 miTravel from Denver south on US Highway 285 toward Fairplay to the town of Grant. Turn north on Park County Road 62, towards Guanella Pass. Burning Bear Campground is 5 miles north on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Montezuma, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 50°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 12°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
Burning Bear Campground 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 →