Cove Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 4All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cove Campground is a small, primitive campground ideal for anglers and rock climbers, nestled in the Eleven Mile Canyon along the South Platte River. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing for rainbow, brown and cutthroat trout is one of the most popular activities for campers. Birding and nature photography are also ideal pastimes. Rock climbers enjoy the solid walls of the canyon. Hikers can head to the nearby Overlook Trail for breathtaking views of Eleven Mile Canyon and Eleven Mile Reservoir. Occasionally, Golden Eagles can be viewed nesting in the nearby granite cliffs and crags. Springtime brings higher chances of seeing Bald Eagles.
Facilities
Cove Campground offers four reservable campsites. Drinking water from a hand pump, picnic tables, vault toilets and campfire rings are available.
Natural Features
Cove sits along the river and is one of the closest campground to the Eleven Mile Reservoir, which spans 3,405 surface acres and 5 miles in length. Eleven Mile Canyon was cut by the South Platte River and is bordered by polished gray granite cliffs.
Nearby Attractions
Visit the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, one of the richest and most diverse fossil deposits in the world. Petrified redwood stumps up to 14 feet wide and thousands of detailed fossils of insects and plants reveal the story of a very different, prehistoric Colorado. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
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
Alert for Reservation Holders: There is a one-time fee of $11.00 to enter Eleven Mile Canyon Recreation Area in which your campground is located. You will only have to pay this fee once for the duration of your stay. There is an Annual Pass available for purchase. The fee for the 2026 calendar year is $100.00.
Two vehicles or one RV per site is included in the camping fee. This campground has no overflow parking available for a third vehicle.
Reservations are available up to 5 days prior to arrival date. Sites not reserved 5 days before become ‘walk-up’ and are available on a ‘first come - first serve’ basis.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Dogs must be on a leash or tethered at all times. Pets must also not be left alone while you sightsee.
Be bear aware; keep all food out of site 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
No RV hookups are available
For more information on Pike and San Isabel National Forests, click here
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing organisms by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Firewood is available to purchase on site, depending on any fire ban. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
ATV's and off road vehicles are prohibited in the campgrounds and Eleven Mile Canyon
The use, sale, and possession of all forms of cannabis in the United States is illegal under federal law on federal lands.
Shooting of any type is prohibited in the campground and Eleven Mile Canyon
Check-out time is 12:00pm. Check-in time is 2:00pm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 4 · 1 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…water from a hand pump, picnic tables, vault toilets and campfire rings are available. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 4 of 4 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Climbing
- Night sky · 420th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 9 days ago, 15 km away
- Peak color
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $24 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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
4 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 4 mapped sitesAll 4 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 4 of the 4 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. 4 of the 4 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Spillway CampgroundPike National Forest · 0.5 mi
Springer GulchPike National Forest · 2.2 mi
Riverside (CO)Pike National Forest · 2.5 mi
Riverside CampgroundPike National Forest · 5.7 mi
Blue MountainPike National Forest · 6.4 mi
Pulver Mountain Group SitePike National Forest · 8.0 miFrom Lake George turn off of Highway 24 onto County Road 96. Follow the road for about one mile and turn right into Eleven Mile Canyon. Cove Campground is located approximately 8 miles into the canyon on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Guffey, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 26°F, day 57°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -1°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
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
Cove Campground 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 →