Cow Creek South
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $21–$42Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 4443 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cow Creek South Campground is located on the northeast shore of Green Mountain Reservoir in White River National Forest, offering an ideal setting for visitors seeking a multitude of recreational activities both on water and on land. fast Recreation Encompassing a landscape of rivers, mountains, trails and forest roads, the White River National Forest is one of the top recreation forests in the nation. Located on the shores of Green Mountain reservoir, Cow Creek Campground is a popular spot for boating, canoeing, fishing, water skiing and windsurfing. Keep reading
Anglers will find populations of rainbow and brown trout, as well as kokanee salmon when casting their lines out into the water. Spring Creek is a popular off-roading area located at the northern end of the Gore Mountain Range. A network of roads open to off-road vehicle use meanders through lodgepole pine and spruce/fir forests. Viewpoints of surrounding mountains open up along these roads.
Facilities
Cow Creek South Campground has 44 standard sites suitable for tents, trailers and RVs. Vault toilets are provided. All motorized watercraft must be inspected for Aquatic Nuisance Species and must launch from a monitored launch ramp. The Heeney Marina below the Town of Heeney on the west shore is open during daylight hours throughout the season. Other ramps are available as reservoir water levels allow.
Natural Features
In the heart of the Rocky Mountains, the 2.3 million-acre White River National Forest is a place of serenity and adventure, boasting eight wilderness areas, four defined seasons and ten peaks surpassing 14,000 feet in elevation. The White River National Forest was established in 1891 as the White River Plateau Timber Reserve; the second such reserve to be named in the United States. In 1905, the newly formed Forest Service was given authority of the reserve. Long before this designation, the area was home to the Ute Indians who followed herds of elk and bison on their seasonal migrations. Wildlife in the area abounds. Bighorn sheep navigate rocky ridges and bull elk bugle at dusk. Scenic rivers sustain populations of cutthroat, rainbow and brown trout. Alpine regions provide habitat for pika and ptarmigan. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (801) 226-3564.
Nearby Attractions
Take some time to visit Rocky Mountain National Park to learn about the diverse landscape and history of the area through interpretive programs and exhibits. In the summer visitors may want to traverse Trail Ridge Road from one side of the park to the other, reaching alpine vistas boasting elevations of more than 12,000 feet.
Charges & Cancellations
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
What the agency tells you
Please Note: One RV with tow per single site or one vehicle per tent site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground.
No drinking water available at this campground
Off-road vehicles are allowed on established roads only
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Site access is difficult when road is wet
All food, beverages, trash and scented items must be properly stored when not attended. Bear-proof food lockers are provided at each site and bear-proof trash receptacles are provided at the campground.
Prevent the spread of invasive species by inspecting and cleaning packs, equipment, and tires before using lake or trails
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (ELEVEN) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
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.
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.
Any accepted senior passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
Click here for more information about White River National Forest
Campers must occupy the site the first night at a campsite. This prevents booking the site for Fri-Sun and showing up on Saturday.
Campers may leave the site for 24 hours and must occupy the site otherwise. This allows a camper to say go for an overnight backpack trip in the woods for one night and come back to their campsite the next day.
Check in time is 2:00pm and Check out time is 11:00am It is imperative that you are clear from the site at 11:00am on your check out day so the host can come prepare the site for the next event. Please don't be the group that makes the incoming group have to wait.
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.WhiteRiver.Dillon@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 44
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 90 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…suitable for tents, trailers and RVs. Vault toilets are provided. All motorized watercraft must be…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 363rd darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 31 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 43 of the 44 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $21–$42 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.
“Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
44 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 43 mapped sitesAll 44 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 44 of the 44 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. 43 of the 44 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| COW CREEK | 001 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 393 ft | 154 ft | 2,013 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 154 ft | 146 ft | 2,133 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 003 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 78 ft | 131 ft | 2,216 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 004 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 78 ft | 125 ft | 2,205 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 102 ft | 142 ft | 2,140 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 67 ft | 152 ft | 2,050 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 67 ft | 160 ft | 1,990 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 40 ft | 127 ft | 1,916 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 40 ft | 113 ft | 1,876 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 124 ft | 117 ft | 1,753 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 137 ft | 123 ft | 1,561 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 137 ft | 91 ft | 1,444 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 013 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 115 ft | 108 ft | 1,262 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 115 ft | 118 ft | 1,175 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 147 ft | 130 ft | 1,079 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 107 ft | 122 ft | 1,032 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 017 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 82 ft | 122 ft | 976 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 82 ft | 125 ft | 893 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 019 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 113 ft | 61 ft | 787 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 020 | type not stated | 40 ft | 121 ft | 665 ft | ||
| COW CREEK | 021 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 91 ft | 187 ft | 1,008 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 022 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 74 ft | 164 ft | 1,085 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 023 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 74 ft | 133 ft | 1,148 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 78 ft | 143 ft | 1,175 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 025 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 95 ft | 253 ft | 1,154 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 95 ft | 157 ft | 1,242 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 027 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 33 ft | 134 ft | 1,308 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 028 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 33 ft | 129 ft | 1,324 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 029 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 107 ft | 132 ft | 1,291 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 030 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 152 ft | 135 ft | 1,190 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 031 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 88 ft | 137 ft | 1,097 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 032 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 88 ft | 136 ft | 1,048 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 033 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 142 ft | 398 ft | 301 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 034 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 57 ft | 539 ft | 164 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 035 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 57 ft | 554 ft | 135 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 036 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 629 ft | 73 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 037 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 682 ft | 20 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 038 | standard nonelectric | 96 ft | 604 ft | 258 ft | $21–$42 | |
| COW CREEK | 039 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 96 ft | 604 ft | 185 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 040 | standard nonelectric | 86 ft | 455 ft | 359 ft | $21–$42 | |
| COW CREEK | 041 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 86 ft | 498 ft | 283 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 042 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 80 ft | 364 ft | 393 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 043 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 80 ft | 429 ft | 317 ft | $21–$42 |
| COW CREEK | 044 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 131 ft | 303 ft | 410 ft | $21–$42 |
25 of 44 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cow Creek North (CO)White River National Forest · 0.6 mi
Willows Campground (CO)White River National Forest · 1.8 mi
Elliott Creek Campground (CO)White River National Forest · 2.6 miMcDonald Flats CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 2.9 miCataract Creek CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 3.2 mi
Prairie Point Campground (CO)White River National Forest · 3.5 miFrom Silverthorne, Colorado on Interstate 70 take exit 205 and go 22.4 miles north on Colorado Highway 9. The campground is near the mid-point of Green Mountain Reservoir. The entrance is on the left just before mile marker 124.
From Kremmling, Colorado, turn off Highway 40 onto Colorado Highway 9 South and go 15.1 miles. The campground is near the mid-point of Green Mountain Reservoir. The entrance is on the right, just beyond mile marker 124.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Heeney, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 57°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 0°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
Cow Creek South 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 →