Columbine Campground
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $26From, per site
- Sites
- 4746 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Columbine Campground is located just off the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway/Highway 119, west of Denver, in north central Colorado. This campground is popular with off-road enthusiasts and many jeep roads can be reached from the campground. Keep reading
Recreation
Many hiking and biking trails are found nearby. Scenic driving is available along Highways 119 and 72, which is also 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
This campground has 46 sites on two loops. Five of these sites are suitable for tents only; the others are suitable for both RV and/or tents. Each site has a picnic table and campfire ring. Other amenities include vault toilets, water spigots and trash service. Bundled firewood is for sale by the onsite campground manager. RV units are not permitted to fill tanks from the water spigots. All of the sites are non-electric.
Natural Features
The campground's two loops are situated in a grove of aspen and lodgepole pine, at an elevation of 9,200 feet.
Nearby Attractions
The historic mining town of Central City is nearby. Popular events there include Lou Bunch Day and the Central City Opera and Jazz festivals. Golden Gate Canyon State Park is a short drive from the campground. This 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
A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. Late cancellations are subject to additional fees. 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
RV water connections are not available. Utility hookups are not 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
Limited first-come, first-served sites are available during and outside the reservation season
Everything else this campground posts · 10
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.
RVs, trailers or other vehicles must fit on the parking spur. The parking length ranges from 25 to 55 feet. Driving or parking off road is not permitted.
Pets must be on a handheld leash at all times.
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
- 47 · 5 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 55 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…campfire ring. Other amenities include vault toilets, water spigots and trash service. Bundled firewood…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Other amenities include vault toilets, water spigots and trash service. Bundled firewood is for sale by…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- 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 · 506th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 15 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 46 of the 47 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, $26 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.
“A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation.” · 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
47 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 46 mapped sitesAll 47 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 47 of the 47 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. 46 of the 47 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.
| COLU | 001 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 120 ft | 482 ft | 306 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 84 ft | 565 ft | 188 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 003 | type not stated | 621 ft | 110 ft | |||
| COLU | 004 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 62 ft | 678 ft | 61 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 005 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 62 ft | 711 ft | 40 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 70 ft | 710 ft | 108 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 007 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 43 ft | 659 ft | 168 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 008 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 43 ft | 632 ft | 211 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 009 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 79 ft | 555 ft | 274 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 25 ft | 474 ft | 229 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 25 ft | 462 ft | 204 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 012 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 59 ft | 397 ft | 159 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 013 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 48 ft | 363 ft | 110 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 014 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 48 ft | 386 ft | 66 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 53 ft | 447 ft | 69 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 016 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 53 ft | 496 ft | 121 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 12 ft | 550 ft | 193 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 12 ft | 543 ft | 194 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 019 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 57 ft | 611 ft | 271 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 020 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 36 ft | 664 ft | 265 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 36 ft | 700 ft | 258 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 022 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 37 ft | 721 ft | 225 ft | $26 |
| COLU | 023 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 84 ft | 642 ft | 197 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 024 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 103 ft | 698 ft | 247 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 106 ft | 784 ft | 141 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 026 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 109 ft | 682 ft | 54 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 027 | walk to | 58 ft | 808 ft | 148 ft | $26 | |
| Mariposa | 028 | walk to | 65 ft | 843 ft | 213 ft | $26 | |
| Mariposa | 029 | walk to | 52 ft | 777 ft | 153 ft | $26 | |
| Mariposa | 030 | walk to | 47 ft | 727 ft | 142 ft | $26 | |
| Mariposa | 031 | walk to | 47 ft | 693 ft | 102 ft | $26 | |
| Mariposa | 032 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 22 ft | 540 ft | 149 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 033 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 22 ft | 521 ft | 162 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 034 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 56 ft | 415 ft | 64 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 035 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 56 ft | 377 ft | 36 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 036 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 90 ft | 399 ft | 127 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 037 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 25 ft | 413 ft | 216 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 038 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 25 ft | 436 ft | 230 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 039 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 51 ft | 460 ft | 292 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 040 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 17 ft | 508 ft | 306 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 041 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 17 ft | 515 ft | 315 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 042 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 613 ft | 284 ft | $26 | |
| Mariposa | 043 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 46 ft | 653 ft | 300 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 044 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | 727 ft | 306 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 045 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 706 ft | 301 ft | $26 | |
| Mariposa | 046 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 22 ft | 707 ft | 286 ft | $26 |
| Mariposa | 047 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 685 ft | 296 ft | $26 |
25 of 47 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Pickle GulchArapaho National Forest · 2.5 mi
Cold Springs - Arapaho Roosevelt NF (CO)Arapaho National Forest · 3.6 miCold Springs CampgroundArapaho National Forest · 3.6 mi
Kelly DahlRoosevelt National Forest · 8.6 mi
Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire LookoutArapaho National Forest · 9.9 mi
West Chicago CreekArapaho National Forest · 11 miFrom the town of Central City, follow Gilpin County Route 3 west to NFSR 176.1.
NFSR 176.1 access is a rough section of dirt road. County Route 3 is a rough section of gravel and dirt road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Central, 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
Columbine Campground 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 →