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The map
U.S. Forest Service · Routt National Forest · CO

Chapman Reservoir Campground

First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Get directionsWhat it costs, and the rules
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
Drawn from the record · 9,350 ft · 68% tree cover · Chapman Reservoir within reach · Bortle 2 sky
9,350 ftElevation
604 ftWater · Chapman Reservoir
20.3 miSE of Hayden, CO
68%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 175th darkest of 522 in CO

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

NOTE: This campground stays open until the snow makes it non-reachable. This campground is located outside of Yampa, CO near Dunckley Pass (along the Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway) on Forest Service Road 940 between the towns of Yampa and Meeker. The campground offers 12 campsites with a 22 foot maximum length for trailers. Each site offers a picnic table and a fire grate and has camp hosts on site. Some of the campsites offer a beautiful view of Chapman Reservoir and the Little Flat Tops. (There are also dispersed camping opportunities along Forest Service Road 940 enroute to Chapman. Keep reading

) Note: ATV's are not allowed in the campground, however there is a staging lot outside the campground for trailers and ATV's. This is a perfect place to relax, or take a scenic drive. The activities that you can enjoy here include fishing for trout, hiking and wakeless boating. To access the reservoir, be prepared for a short walk as there is no drive up access. This campground is also popular among hunters during big game season. Stop by the Yampa Ranger Station/Visitor center or the outside kiosk (if after hours) for a brochure of the Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway as it includes information on the area and the drive. This site was approved for a fee change - Click here for more information

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Reservoir
Source: Stated in the agency description

Nothing to book, just show up

One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.

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.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Directions
Every line of the receipt · 7

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 .$20
Exact cash or check only as there is no option for change back if paying cash.
NO CREDIT CARDS accepted.
Payment instructions are found on the kiosk.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
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

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate
Coordinate40.18665, -107.08621

Where it is

Source: 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

This Afternoon57°Sunny
Tonight35°Mostly Clear
Sunday56°Mostly Sunny2% rain
Sunday Night37°Partly Cloudy9% rain

NWS forecast for Phippsburg, CO

Source: National Weather Service, GJT forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 25°F, day 55°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 7°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

90°32°0°

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: SPICER, CO (USC00057848), 39 miles away and 965 ft lower
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Bunker Basin12,800 acres · 6 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Chatfield11,260 acres · 6 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026

Who answers for this land

Jeff Hurd, official portrait

Chapman Reservoir 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.049 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 522 rated federal campgrounds in Colorado · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
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.
Nearest place of any size: Phippsburg, CO, 7.1 mi WSW (a census designated place). Straight line.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026