U.S. Forest Service · San Isabel National Forest · CO
Cascade Campground
The agency doesn’t say how you get a siteIts record carries no access type, so treat it as a place to phone before you drive.
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
9,030 ftElevation
136 ftWater · Chalk Creek
8.5 miSW of Buena Vista, CO
30%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 266th darkest of 522 in CO
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Cascade Campground offers 21 sites, each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood is sold on-site. Sites #2- 7 and 11, 12 are "walk-up" first-come, first served. All other sites are reservable. Site #1 is used by the host from mid-May to Labor Day weekend. After that time it is available as a "walk-up", first-come, first-served site. The campground is situated in a dense forest of Douglas fir and aspen at an elevation of 9,000 feet in Chalk Creek Canyon, which gets its name from the soft, white, chalk-like kaolinite canyon walls. Keep reading
Kaolinite is a clay mineral that was deposited by percolating hot springs. Chalk Creek is just across the road from the campground. It flows 27 miles eastward from the Collegiate Peaks before joining the Arkansas River. Chalk Lake is a mile east of the campground. Outside of peak season dates, camp hosts and water may not be available.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood is sold…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Firewood is sold on-site. Sites #2- 7…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
Source: Stated in the agency description
Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Lake, River, Creek
Source: Stated in the agency description
Phone before you drive
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 17, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
Runs itRocky Mountain Recreation CompanyA private concessionaire under permit from U.S. Forest Service (parent: ExplorUS)the operator link
Every line of the receipt · 11
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
Site for overnight camping .$25
Two vehicles or one RV per site is included in the camping fee.
For a third vehicle .$10
Fee for day use if not camping overnight .$10
Fees are payable by cash, check or money order.
Self-servicing fee tube is available.
Sites must be occupied the first night of payment.
Interagency Senior/Access passes valid for 50% discount to the camping fee for one site.
The booking feerecreation.gov
We hold no recreation.gov booking record for this campground, so we can’t say whether a booking fee applies.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near here
Cascade (Colorado)San Isabel National Forest · 0.1 mi
Chalk LakeSan Isabel National Forest · 0.6 mi
Mount PrincetonSan Isabel National Forest · 1.2 miBootlegSan Isabel National Forest · 2.7 miIron CitySan Isabel National Forest · 4.9 miCottonwood Lake - PSICC (Co)San Isabel National Forest · 5.5 mi
Cascade (Colorado)San Isabel National Forest · 0.1 miChalk LakeSan Isabel National Forest · 0.6 miMount PrincetonSan Isabel National Forest · 1.2 miBootlegSan Isabel National Forest · 2.7 miIron CitySan Isabel National Forest · 4.9 miCottonwood Lake - PSICC (Co)San Isabel National Forest · 5.5 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Today58°Sunny
Tonight35°Mostly Clear
Sunday55°Partly Sunny11% rain
Sunday Night35°Slight Chance Rain And Snow Showers16% rain
NWS forecast for Buena Vista, CO
Source: National Weather Service, PUB forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -8°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
80°32°-20°
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.
Measured at: TAYLOR PARK, CO (USC00058184), 21 miles away and 149 ft higher
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
Roadless
Roadless
Roadless
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Oct 3, 2026
Who answers for this land
Cascade 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service’s own recreation database flags it not open and publishes no reason and no date. That’s a flag, not a notice.
Listed not open: USFS EDW Recreation Opportunities, openstatus field: a not-open flag in a database, with no reason and no date published; read there since Sep 9, 2026. A flag, not a notice, so this page doesn’t call it a closure. · Oct 17, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.