U.S. Forest Service · Routt National Forest · CO
Cold Springs 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.
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
10,250 ftElevation
117 ftWater · Stillwater Reservoir Number 1
26.2 miN of Dotsero, CO
23%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 115th darkest of 522 in CO
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
ABOUT: Cold Springs Campground is located approximately 16.5 miles outside of Yampa, Colorado with views of the Flat Tops Wilderness. This is a small, very popular campground with 5 campsites. The area accesses some great fishing and hiking, with a nearby boat launch at the Yamcolo Reservoir as well as 2 other reservoirs nearby. AMENITIES: 1 vault toilet, potable water, and each campsite has a picnic table and fire grate. No electric or showers. HIKING: This is a prime area as the campground is close to the Stillwater and Smith Lake Trailheads on Forest Service Rd 900. Keep reading
Paper trail guides for hiking as well as other information are available at the Yampa Ranger Station in downtown Yampa. DIRECTIONS: From downtown Yampa, take County Road 7 just behind the local General Store, (Montgomery’s Grocery) for approximately 6 miles. The paved road turns into gravel where it becomes Forest Service Road 900. Cold Springs Campground is 16 miles on the right side after passing Bear Lake and Horseshoe Campgrounds.
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…2 other reservoirs nearby. AMENITIES: 1 vault toilet, potable water, and each campsite has a picnic…”
- Showers
- None at this campground
- “No electric or showers.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…nearby. AMENITIES: 1 vault toilet, potable water, and each campsite has a picnic table and fire…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026
Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026
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.
Every line of the receipt · 3
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.
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: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Coordinate40.03087, -107.11943
The mapSee it on the map
The driveDirections ↗
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗
Where it is
Also near hereHorseshoe CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 0.4 mi
Bear Lake CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 2.6 miHorse ThiefWhite River National Forest · 6.8 miTrappers Lake / Horse Thief CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 6.8 miTrappers Lake / Bucks CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 6.9 miTrappers Lake / Cutthroat CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 7.0 mi
Bear Lake CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 2.6 miHorse ThiefWhite River National Forest · 6.8 miTrappers Lake / Horse Thief CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 6.8 miTrappers Lake / Bucks CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 6.9 miTrappers Lake / Cutthroat CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 7.0 miSource: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Today44°Sunny
Tonight25°Clear
Saturday48°Sunny
Saturday Night28°Mostly Clear
NWS forecast for Yampa, CO
Source: National Weather Service, GJT forecast office · Oct 16, 2026
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.
Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026
Who answers for this land
Cold Springs 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 →
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
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.
Nearest place of any size: Yampa, CO, 13.7 mi SW. Straight line.