Colton Guard Station
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 16 of the next 16 nights read 16:27 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Colton Guard Station is located in the Colton Hollow area, approximately 5 miles west of U.S. Highway 191. It is near Vernal, Utah, in the Ashley National Forest. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the complex in 1933 as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal instituted during the Great Depression. It was a residence for rangers who patrolled the forest on horseback prior to the age of modern vehicles. The Ashley National Forest Vernal Ranger District has chosen to rent this guard station to the public so that guests can enjoy a RUSTIC experience similar to that of the first rangers. Keep reading
Colton Guard Station is open for reservations all months of the year, except November, April and May. The cabin can be accessed by vehicle throughout warmer months and during the winter, access is by snowmobile, cross-country ski or snowshoe travel. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Call the District Office at (435) 789-1181 three business days prior to a reserved visit to confirm door lock combination. District Office is closed Saturday and Sunday. Lock combination is REQUIRED to enter guard station.
Recreation
In summer months, numerous hiking, biking, horseback riding and off-road vehicle trails crisscross the area. In winter months, endless snowmobiling, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing opportunities are right out the front door.
Facilities
A cabin and bunkhouse are located within the complex. The cabin can sleep three people on one twin-size bunk and one twin bed. No linens, bedding or pillows are provided. The bunkhouse behind the cabin can sleep up to eight additional people, on several provided twin mattresses. Tent camping is allowed outside. The maximum capacity for overnight guests is 10 people. From mid-June to mid-September, the cabin has running water in the sink. The kitchen has basic amenities including a sink, propane range, table and four chairs. The cabin has a wood-burning stove for heat. A campfire ring is located outside. Solar lights are provided, however, due to varying weather conditions, they are not reliable. Please be prepared with battery powered lanterns or flashlights. Very limited cookware is provided, guests are required to bring their own cooking supplies. The cabin remains locked; call the Vernal Ranger District office, at (435) 789-1181, three business days prior to arrival, to confirm the combination lock code. COMBINATION CODE REQUIRED to enter cabin. (Some combination locks used have off-set entry lines. If code is not working, try off-setting entry line). From mid-September to mid-June (winter), most amenities are shut off. There is NO WATER and NO INDOOR TOILET. The operable amenities include the propane range, wood-burning stove and outdoor vault toilet. Due to antiquated septic and water systems, guests are STRONGLY ENCOUAGED to use the outdoor vault toilet verses the indoor toilet for solid waste. There is NO WORKING SHOWER OR HOT WATER.
Natural Features
The complex sits in Colton Hollow, at an elevation of 8,500 feet. Aspens and pines surround the site, offering nice shade. Wildlife and summer wildflowers are abundant in the area.
Nearby Attractions
Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area is known not only for its beautiful red cliffs, but also for its world-class fishing for lake, brown and rainbow trout. Boating, water skiing, jet skiing, canoeing, kayaking, swimming and scuba diving are popular activities on the reservoir, which can be accessed within 30 miles. The Ashley-Karst National Geologic Recreation Area offers dramatic canyons, densely forested backcountry areas, and vast networks of caves.
What the agency tells you
Colton Guard Station has been WINTERIZED for the year. Please BRING WATER with you from now until the water system is open again (end of May 2027). If you need water, water is still available at the Iron Springs Campground. The bunkhouse is currently NOT available as it needs maintenance repairs. The cabin is secured with a combination lock, which is provided upon reservation; call the District Office at (435) 789-1181 three business days prior to your reservation to confirm the code. This code is REQUIRED to enter guard station. The District office is closed on Saturday and Sunday. USE YOUR OWN DISCRETION WHEN PARKING/DRIVING ON SNOWY OR MUDDY ROADS. THE FOREST SERVICE DOES NOT PROVIDE RESCUE SERVICES. Please call the non emergency dispatch number 435-789-4222 if needing help.
Wheeled vehicle traffic is allowed access to Colton Guard Station from approximately June 1 to October 31; snowmobile, cross-country ski or snowshoe travel is required from approximately December 1 to Mar 31.
Off-road vehicles are allowed only on authorized roads, trails and routes as identified on the Ashley National Forest Vernal Ranger District Travel Map
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Due to varying weather conditions, the solar lights are not reliable. Please be prepared with a battery powered lantern and flash lights.
Click here for more information on the Ashley National Forest, or call (435) 789-1181
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…(winter), most amenities are shut off. There is NO WATER and NO INDOOR TOILET. The operable amenities…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Cross Country Skiing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
- Skiing
- Sledding
- Snowmobile
- Snowshoeing
- Stargazing
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:27 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:43 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Thu, Oct 22. read 16:27 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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
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 · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:43 UTC
- Green River Float-in CampsitesFlaming Gorge National Recreation Area · 20 mi · 10 of 34 site-nights open
- Paradise Guard StationAshley Karst National Recreation And Geologic Area National Recreation Area · 21 mi · 1 of 2 site-nights open
- Red Springs CampgroundAshley National Forest · 24 mi · 1 of 1 site-night open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:27 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| COLGS | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 1,130 ft | 158 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Iron Springs Group AshleyAshley National Forest · 3.2 miKane HollowAshley National Forest · 3.2 miRange Study AreaAshley National Forest · 4.0 mi
Grizzly Ridge YurtAshley National Forest · 5.3 mi
Kaler Hollow CampgroundAshley National Forest · 5.6 miGrizzly Ridge MeadowAshley National Forest · 6.2 miFollow the mileage indications below and look for signs when traveling to Colton Guard Station. Leave with plenty of time to arrive at the guard station before dark.
From Vernal, travel north on U.S. Highway 191/Vernal Avenue for approximately 20 miles. Turn left (west) on Forest Road 020. A paved parking lot with a restroom is located at the intersection. Continue northwest on the paved Forest Road 020 for approximately two miles. Turn left (southwest) at Forest Road 019 and continue for less than a mile, reaching an intersection (Forest roads 028 and 019). Turn left, continuing south on Forest Road 019. Continue approximately 1.75 miles, where the road turns sharply to the right (west). Follow the hairpin turn down into a ravine to Colton Guard Station.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Maeser, UT
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
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
Colton Guard Station is in Utah’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Mike Kennedy (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyMike KennedyU.S. Representative · Utah’s 3rd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn R. CurtisU.S. Senator · Utah
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMike LeeU.S. Senator · Utah
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Colton Guard Station, Ashley National Forest, Utah
Dear Mike Kennedy, I’m a constituent in Utah’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Colton Guard Station, Ashley National Forest, Utah, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Colton Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Colton Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Colton Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Colton Guard Station (Ashley National Forest, Utah) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Colton Guard Station, Ashley National Forest, Utah
Dear John R. Curtis, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Colton Guard Station, Ashley National Forest, Utah, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Colton Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Colton Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Colton Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Colton Guard Station (Ashley National Forest, Utah) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Colton Guard Station, Ashley National Forest, Utah
Dear Mike Lee, I’m a constituent in Utah. I tried to camp at Colton Guard Station, Ashley National Forest, Utah, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Colton Guard Station are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Colton Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Colton Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Colton Guard Station (Ashley National Forest, Utah) via campanac.com