Cayton Campground
1Heads up1 fire 25 mi away
- Right now
- Shut for nowOutside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $30–$41Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 27All of them booked ahead
- Season
- – September 30Closes September 30. No opening date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cayton Campground is located along the San Juan Skyway (Colorado Highway 145) and the Dolores River. Visitors enjoy the area for its great fishing, hiking and scenic driving opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
The Dolores River is a popular fishing destination that can often be crowded on summer weekends. Anglers will find rainbow, brown and cutthroat trout. The area boasts some excellent trails. The Colorado Trail follows the ridge across Bolam Pass. The Lizard Head and Cross Mountain Trails near Lizard Head Pass lead to alpine basins surrounded by 14,000-foot peaks. The Barlow Creek Road continues past the campground and crosses Bolam Pass with spectacular views. Road conditions near the pass often limit travel to four-wheel drive vehicles. The route eventually connects with the Hermosa Park Road, behind Durango Mountain Resort, and leads to U.S. Highway 550.
Facilities
The campground offers 27 single-family campsites, many of which are situated along the river. Eighteen sites offer electric hookups. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets, drinking water and a dump station are provided.
Natural Features
The campground is situated near the banks of the Dolores River, in a grassy meadow surrounded by fir and aspen trees. At an elevation of 9,400 feet, campers should expect cool evenings.
Nearby Attractions
The Priest Gulch Trailhead, 11 miles southwest of Rico, leads to the alpine country west of the campground. The Bear Creek Trail, 14 miles south of Rico, heads southeast into the La Plata Mountains. Other nearby trails include the Calico National Recreation Trail and the Rico-Silverton Trail. Highway 145, which runs between the campground and Telluride, offers some of the most majestic scenery along the San Juan Skyway, including views of the " 14ers ," which are peaks over 14,000 feet. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
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
Sites 5, 6, 10 and 25 meet established accessibility standards; all sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis
Click here for more information on the San Juan 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.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
There is a dump station (fee to use is $15.00) on site. It is provided as a convenience, it is not free.
First Come First Served (FCFS) Campsites are also available at this campground
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 27
- Hookups
- 19 electric
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 24 of 27 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets, drinking water and a dump station are provided.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…table and campfire ring. Vault toilets, drinking water and a dump station are provided. Natural Features…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 53rd darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 25 km away
- Patchy 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $30–$41 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
27 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 27 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 16 of the 27 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 27 of the 27 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop A | 10 | standard electric | 70 ft | 30 amp | $41 | |||
| Loop A | 11 | standard electric | 48 ft | 30 amp | 140 ft | 59 ft | 347 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 12 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 44 ft | 78 ft | 211 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 13 | standard electric | 43 ft | 30 amp | 20 ft | 93 ft | 161 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 14 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 20 ft | 106 ft | 168 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 15 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 97 ft | 86 ft | 95 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 16 | standard electric | 70 ft | 30 amp | $41 | |||
| Loop A | 17 | standard electric | 70 ft | 30 amp | $41 | |||
| Loop A | 18 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 44 ft | 110 ft | 65 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 19 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 36 ft | 153 ft | 43 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 2 | standard electric | 70 ft | 30 amp | 88 ft | 165 ft | 220 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 20 | standard electric | 65 ft | 30 amp | 36 ft | 189 ft | 52 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 3 | standard electric | 70 ft | 30 amp | $41 | |||
| Loop A | 4 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 171 ft | 94 ft | 542 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 5 | standard electric | 70 ft | 30 amp | $41 | |||
| Loop A | 6 | standard electric | 42 ft | 30 amp | 263 ft | 121 ft | 783 ft | $41 |
| Loop A | 7 | standard electric | 70 ft | 30 amp | $41 | |||
| Loop A | 8 | standard electric | 70 ft | 30 amp | $41 | |||
| Loop A | 9 | standard electric | 70 ft | 30 amp | $41 | |||
| Loop B | 1 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 687 ft | 513 ftBarlow Creek | 739 ft | $30 | |
| Loop B | 21 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 235 ft | 513 ft | 444 ft | $30 | |
| Loop B | 22 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 116 ft | 360 ft | 483 ft | $30 | |
| Loop B | 23 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 39 ft | 298 ft | 550 ft | $30 | |
| Loop B | 24 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 39 ft | 263 ft | 524 ft | $30 | |
| Loop B | 25 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $30 | ||||
| Loop B | 26 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $30 | ||||
| Loop B | 27 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | $30 |
25 of 27 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Matterhorn CabinUncompahgre National Forest · 7.2 mi
MatterhornUncompahgre National Forest · 7.3 miWoods LakeUncompahgre National Forest · 9.0 miSunshine Campground - Norwood RDUncompahgre National Forest · 9.4 miSunshineUncompahgre National Forest · 9.5 miFrom Rico, travel northeast on Colorado Highway 145 for 6 miles. Turn right (east) on Forest Road 578 (Barlow Creek Road). The campground entrance is a half-mile further.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Rico, CO
Typical weather
Typical September night 34°F, day 68°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical September night 34°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
Cayton 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 →