Cold Springs - Arapaho Roosevelt NF (CO)
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $27From, per site
- Sites
- 4340 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cold Springs Campground is located on the Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest, north of Blackhawk on the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway/Highway 119, in north central Colorado. Visitors enjoy the area for its scenic and off-road driving, and nearby hiking and fishing opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
The surrounding area has many great hiking trails. There is an easy hiking trail out of the campground for families with small children. In addition, the short, but steep Vista Trail climbs just a quarter-mile but rewards hikers with spectacular views of the vast Mount Evans Wilderness Area and valley below. Scenic driving is available along Highways 119 and 72, known as the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway. Numerous creeks, rivers and lakes in the area provide fishing opportunities. Off-road enthusiasts will find many jeep roads in the vicinity.
Facilities
There are 38 sites in the campground. Sites 1 through 5 are pull-over's with wooden retaining walls. You climb several steps to reach the picnic tables, fire rings and tent pads. These sites are not suitable for RVs with slide-outs. Sites 9 & 11 are pull-over's which also will not accommodate large RVs or slide-outs. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring or grate. The maximum vehicle length that can be accommodated is 40 feet. Most sites are shaded and the interior roads are gravel. Water hydrants, tent pads, vault toilets and trash service are provided. There is a playground for small children.
Natural Features
The campground is located in a mountainside aspen and lodgepole pine forest, at an elevation of 9,200 feet.
Nearby Attractions
The historic mining town of Central City is nearby. Popular events held in the town include Lou Bunch Day and the Central City Opera and Jazz festivals. Golden Gate Canyon State Park is just seven miles away. The scenic park offers over 35 miles of hiking trails. Mountain biking and horseback riding are allowed on some trails. Every stream and pond in the park is open to fishing. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 529-0578.
Charges & Cancellations
Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov or by calling the call center at 1-877-444-6777 PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
What the agency tells you
No RV water connections are available.
This is bear country! For bear and human safety, keep a clean campsite and do not place food or other attractants in your tent. For more information about visiting bear country, contact Colorado Parks and Wildlife at http://wildlife.state.co.us
Sites 1-5, 9 and 10 will not accommodate RVs with slide-outs
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Utility hookups are not available
The campground has limited first-come, first-served sites
https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp for more information on the Arapaho and Roosevelt 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.
You must stay on the site you reserved. This is a busy place and site swapping is not allowed.
All campsites must be occupied within 26 hours of the beginning of the reservation. If not present the site will be rented by first come first serve basis.
EXTRA VEHICLE FEES: One vehicle is included in your reservation. Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On. One vehicle consists of one camper being towed by vehicle, or any other vehicle towed behind camper. One van or one truck with camper attached counts as one vehicle. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at your site.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Tents must fit on tent pads provided. RVs, trailers or other vehicles must fit on the parking spur. Driving or parking off road is not permitted. The parking length ranges from 25 to 50 feet.
Pets must be on a hand-held leash.
Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
Check-Out is at 12 P.M. Check-In is at 2 P.M.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 43 · 3 tent-only, 5 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…are gravel. Water hydrants, tent pads, vault toilets and trash service are provided. There is a…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and the interior roads are gravel. Water hydrants, tent pads, vault toilets and trash service are…”
- Playground
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Scenic drives
- Night sky · 515th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 11 days ago, 12 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 40 of the 43 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
“Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $27 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.
“Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov or by calling the call center at 1-877-444-6777 PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.” · this campground’s own 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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
43 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 35 mapped sitesAll 43 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 38 of the 43 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. 40 of the 43 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| COLD | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 119 ft | 1,720 ft | 223 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 119 ft | 1,743 ft | 334 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 139 ft | 1,764 ft | 438 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 004 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 146 ft | 1,760 ft | 320 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 169 ft | 1,724 ft | 186 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 68 ft | 1,480 ft | 113 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 007 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 71 ft | 1,445 ft | 183 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 008 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 110 ft | 1,455 ft | 275 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 009 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 100 ft | 1,476 ft | 381 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 010 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 96 ft | 1,491 ft | 435 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 011 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 107 ft | 1,564 ft | 321 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 012 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 68 ft | 1,472 ft | 92 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 1,453 ft | 129 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 014 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 68 ft | 1,434 ft | 186 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 015 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 87 ft | 1,399 ft | 272 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 016 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 87 ft | 1,349 ft | 282 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 017 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 126 ft | 1,302 ft | 352 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 198 ft | 1,411 ft | 303 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 019 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 75 ft | 1,577 ft | 107 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 020 | tent only nonelectric | 147 ft | 1,698 ft | 120 ft | $27 | |
| COLD | 021 | tent only nonelectric | 100 ft | 1,572 ft | 201 ft | $27 | |
| COLD | 022 | tent only nonelectric | 100 ft | 1,506 ft | 181 ft | $27 | |
| COLD | 023 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 75 ft | 1,589 ft | 71 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 98 ft | 1,593 ft | 85 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 025 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 110 ft | 1,540 ft | 162 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 133 ft | 1,422 ft | 242 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 027 | type not stated | 40 ft | 1,286 ft | 380 ft | ||
| COLD | 028 | type not stated | 50 ft | 1,194 ft | 460 ft | ||
| COLD | 029 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 169 ft | 1,142 ft | 366 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 030 | type not stated | 40 ft | 1,098 ft | 269 ft | ||
| COLD | 031 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 153 ft | 1,092 ft | 179 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 032 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 94 ft | 1,137 ft | 47 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 033 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 94 ft | 1,160 ft | 91 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 034 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 123 ft | 1,259 ft | 79 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 035 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 103 ft | 1,257 ft | 212 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 036 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 103 ft | 1,303 ft | 315 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 037 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 113 ft | 1,379 ft | 451 ft | $27 |
| COLD | 038 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 96 ft | 1,457 ft | 398 ft | $27 |
| Walk-in | W1 | walk to | 25 ft | $27 | |||
| Walk-in | W2 | walk to | 25 ft | $27 | |||
| Walk-in | W3 | walk to | 25 ft | $27 | |||
| Walk-in | W4 | walk to | 25 ft | $27 | |||
| Walk-in | W5 | walk to | 25 ft | $27 |
25 of 43 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Pickle GulchArapaho National Forest · 1.5 mi
Columbine CampgroundArapaho National Forest · 3.6 mi
Kelly DahlRoosevelt National Forest · 6.3 mi
Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire LookoutArapaho National Forest · 11 miRainbow Lakes CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 12 miFrom Interstate 25 in Denver, go west on 6th Avenue to State Highway 6, through Clear Creek Canyon. Turn onto State Highway 119, heading toward Black Hawk and Central City. Follow the highway approx. 5 miles north of Black Hawk, to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Black Hawk, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 15°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
Cold Springs - Arapaho Roosevelt NF (CO) is in Colorado’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Joe Neguse (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →