Collegiate Peaks
1Heads up1 fire 30 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $25From, per site
- Sites
- 56All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Collegiate Peaks Campground is located 11 miles west of Buena Vista, Colorado, along Middle Cottonwood Creek near the top of Cottonwood Pass. The campground offers well-spaced campsites and scenic views of the surrounding mountains. Visitors enjoy fishing and exploring local trails. A commercial hot springs inn and spa is located about 5 miles east of the campground. "First come, first served" does not necessarily mean that the site will be available when you get there. Someone may get there before you. This is a popular campground and is normally full starting on Friday, sometimes as early as Thursday, so plan accordingly. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking and fishing are among the most popular activities. The Denny Creek Trailhead is less than a mile away and it take hikers through Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area to destinations such as Kroenke Lake and Mt. Yale. The Ptarmigan Lake Trailhead is less than 3 miles from the campground and boasts views of vivid wildflowers. Middle Cottonwood Creek is small but fairly well-stocked with brook trout. Determined anglers can often pull rainbow and cutthroat trout from the beaver ponds west of the campground.
Facilities
The campground offers several single-family sites on three loops. Each site is equipped with a picnic table, campfire ring and grill. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Sites# 1, and 18-30 are first come-first served, also called "Walk-up" sites. All other sites are reservable. Site #2 is used by the host from mid-May through September. After that time it is available as a "walk-up", first-come, first-served site.
Natural Features
The campground sits at an elevation of 9,800 feet, tucked in a dense stand of mixed conifers and aspen. Some sites sit alongside the creek while others are tucked back in the woods. Afternoon thunderstorms are common during summer months. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
Nearby Attractions
Cottonwood Pass is a high mountain pass across the Continental Divide in the Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains. The road reaches the divide at an elevation of 12,126 feet. The Collegiate Peaks Wilderness offers challenging trails and prime backcountry fishing lakes. The Town of Buena Vista is only a short drive away where visitors can enjoy distinctive restaurants, unique shops, incredible art galleries and a large selection of antique shops. The area boasts more than 100 miles of Arkansas River to raft, fish, float or kayak in, as well as fifteen 14,000 ft mountains. Visitors can choose from recreational activities like hiking, biking, ATV/UTV riding, kayaking, rafting, fishing, horseback riding, zipping and swimming.
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
Please disinfect waders and boots when fishing in beaver ponds; this will help protect endangered toads from the spread of chytrid fungus
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
Everything else this campground posts · 7
No hookups available
Click here for more information on Pike and San Isabel National Forests
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.
If reservations are not available, some campsites are first come-first served, also called "Walk-up" sites. First-come, first-served sites must be occupied the SAME NIGHT they are paid for. Due to the remote nature of campgrounds, calling to check availability prior to arrival is not possible.
About 15 minutes from the Collegiate Peaks campground is Cottonwood Lake Campground, a first come-first served, no reservation facility which is located on County Road 344. It is a very popular site for campers, as well as anglers. Campsites fill up quickly on weekends. Camping and campfires are restricted in on County Rd 344 to developed campgrounds only. Starting at about 1 mile west of Cottonwood Lake campground dispersed, primitive camping is allowed.
Two vehicles or one RV/Trailer and tow vehicle per site is included in the camping fee. $10.00 for a third vehicle.
Firewood is available for sale at host site for $10.00/bundle.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 56
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 52 of 53 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…a picnic table, campfire ring and grill. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Sites# 1, and…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…ring and grill. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Sites# 1, and 18-30 are first…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Lake, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Night sky · 254th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $25 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
56 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 56 mapped sitesAll 56 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 7 of the 56 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. 56 of the 56 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.
| COLL | 001 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 275 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 002 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 26 ft | 260 ft | $25 | |
| COLL | 003 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 366 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 004 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 347 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 005 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 369 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 006 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 309 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 007 | standard nonelectric | 66 ft | 298 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 008 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 205 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 009 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 226 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 010 | standard nonelectric | 67 ft | 198 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 011 | standard nonelectric | 67 ft | 225 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 012 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 199 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 013 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 215 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 014 | standard nonelectric | 103 ft | 199 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 015 | standard nonelectric | 79 ft | 170 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 016 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 146 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 151 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 018 | standard nonelectric | 67 ft | 21 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 019 | standard nonelectric | 67 ft | 46 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 020 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 165 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 021 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 161 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 022 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 206 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 023 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 230 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 024 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 325 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 025 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 344 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 026 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 344 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 027 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 380 ft | 3,155 ft | $25 | |
| COLL | 028 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 360 ft | 3,136 ft | $25 | |
| COLL | 029 | standard nonelectric | 109 ft | 216 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | 3,032 ft | $25 | |
| COLL | 030 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 246 ft | 3,134 ft | $25 | |
| COLL | 031 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 248 ft | 3,111 ft | $25 | |
| COLL | 032 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 199 ft | 3,259 ft | $25 | |
| COLL | 033 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 185 ft | 3,248 ft | $25 | |
| COLL | 034 | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 187 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 035 | standard nonelectric | 87 ft | 339 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 036 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 519 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | 037 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 497 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 038 | standard nonelectric | 6 ft | 431 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 039 | standard nonelectric | 6 ft | 437 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | 040 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 481 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | A | standard nonelectric | 109 ft | 160 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | B | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 190 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | C | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 215 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | D | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 201 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | E | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 148 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | F | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 160 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | G | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 114 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | H | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | 90 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | I | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | 87 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | J | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 131 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | K | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 117 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | L | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 123 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | M | standard nonelectric | 89 ft | 252 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | N | standard nonelectric | 125 ft | 265 ftMiddle Cottonwood Creek | $25 | ||
| COLL | O | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 132 ft | $25 | ||
| COLL | P | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 152 ft | $25 |
25 of 56 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cascade (Colorado)San Isabel National Forest · 8.0 mi
Chalk LakeSan Isabel National Forest · 8.2 miFrom Buena Vista, Colorado, take Highway 306. At the stoplight, go west for 11 miles toward Cottonwood Pass. Campground is located on the left-hand side of the road. Highway 306 is paved on east side of Cottonwood Pass.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Buena Vista, CO
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.
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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Collegiate Peaks 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 →