Dawson Cabin
1Heads up1 fire 16 mi away
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:42 UTC
- Sites
- 1In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Dawson Cabin provides campers with a rustic, remote getaway in the beautiful Clear Creek Canyon. The Clear Creek Historical District offers visitors a taste of mining history from the mid-19th Century, when people came far and wide looking for gold, silver and other precious minerals. By the 1890s, about 50,000 residents lived in the valley, in search of great fortune. Keep reading
Recreation
Off-road vehicle trails and hiking trails are nearby. Some hiking trails lead into the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, which is named for the numerous 14,000 ft. peaks named after colleges, such as Yale, Harvard and Princeton. Collegiate Peaks is the headwaters for the Arkansas, Gunnison, and Roaring Fork Rivers. The landscape is composed of alpine tundra, high lake basins and glacial river valleys.
Facilities
The cabin comfortably fits up to four guests, but two additional guests may fit. Camping outside is permitted as well. Furnishings include a wood burning stove and an indoor picnic table. Guests should bring cots to sleep on, or at least bring a pad to sleep on the floor. No water or electricity is available. Guests should bring plenty of water. Creek water may be boiled and treated for consumption. Other items to pack include bedding, food, lanterns, matches, cooking utensils, dish soap and a first aid kit. ( Click here for more cabin details. )
Natural Features
Dawson Cabin is nestled at the base of Ervin Peak in Clear Creek Canyon, at an elevation of about 9,600 feet. It is on the outskirts of the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness in the Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains. Clear Creek passes near the cabin. The cabin is located in the Leadville Ranger District, which is home to the Sawatch Range, the highest mountain range in Colorado. These rugged, glaciated mountains form the crest of the Continental Divide. Mount Elbert, at 14,443 feet, is Colorado's highest peak and one of ten "fourteeners" located in the District.
Nearby Attractions
The historic town of Winfield is about 5 miles farther up the valley. The nearest place for pay phones and a grocery store is in Buena Vista, about a 45 minute drive. Visitors can head to Clear Creek Reservoir, about 5 miles east, for fishing and boating. Fish species include brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, and tiger muskie. A few miles further is the Arkansas River, where whitewater rafting is a big hit.
What the agency tells you
Advanced reservations are ALWAYS required. Walk-ups are not available.
Please contact ranger district prior to arrival for updated restrictions and weather conditions
No water available; bring enough for drinking, cooking and washing
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack in-pack out' facility
Dogs allowed
No cell phone coverage; nearest pay phone is 20 miles southeast in Buena Vista
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. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…electricity is available. Guests should bring plenty of water. Creek water may be boiled and treated for…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Wilderness access
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 33 km away
- Peak color
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:42 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 11
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Dawson Cabin closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 3
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- DexterSan Isabel National Forest · 6.2 mi · 4 sites
- Deer Creek CampgroundPike National Forest · 55 mi · 4 sites
- Buffalo Pass CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 57 mi · walk-up
recreation.gov availability, read 16:42 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
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.
| DAWSON CABIN | Dawson Cabin | cabin nonelectric | 1,363 ft | $50 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Crescent Mining CampSan Isabel National Forest · 3.4 miParry PeakSan Isabel National Forest · 5.2 miTwin Peaks CampgroundSan Isabel National Forest · 5.7 miTwin Peaks (CO)San Isabel National Forest · 5.7 miWhitestar CampgroundSan Isabel National Forest · 5.9 mi
White StarSan Isabel National Forest · 5.9 miFrom Buena Vista, Colorado, go about 15 miles north on Highway 24 towards Leadville. Turn left on County Road 390 at Clear Creek Reservoir. Go about 6 miles west on County Road 390, then turn right (north) onto the cabin driveway. The cabin is about 100 yards from the County Road.
From Leadville, Colorado, go about 18 miles south on Highway 24 towards Buena Vista. Turn right on County Road 390 toward Clear Creek Reservoir. Go about 6 miles west on County Rpad 390, then turn right (north) onto the cabin driveway. The cabin is about 100 yards from the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Twin Lakes, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 26°F, day 53°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 5°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
Dawson Cabin 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 →