Difficult Campground
1Heads up1 fire 19 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $33From, per site
- Sites
- 4847 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located 5 miles southeast of Aspen, Colorado, Difficult Campground sits on the banks of the Roaring Fork River on the western slope of the Colorado Rockies. Campsites are nestled in a mixed forest of aspen, cottonwood, pine, fir, scrub oak, and spruce, and several are at the river's edge, offering an ideal setting for guests seeking recreation and relaxation. Keep reading
Recreation
Renowned for its fly fishing, the Roaring Fork River sustains populations of large rainbow, brown, cutthroat and brook trout. The nearby peaks and soothing sounds from the river offer anglers a perfect backdrop for an afternoon of fishing. Whitewater adventure seekers may want to raft portions of the Roaring Fork, as it is navigable by small craft throughout most of its length to its confluence with the Colorado. Hikers can access trails near the campground.
Facilities
Difficult Group site has one site available for reservation: There is no electric hook ups but potable water is available at a spigots inside the main campground. Group Site: facilities include: hardened parking for campers/RV's and passenger vehicles. The site has 1 group size fire ring, 1 pedestal grill, 1 food locker, and 5 picnic tables.
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 8 wilderness areas, 4 defined seasons, and 10 peaks surpassing 14,000 feet in elevation. 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. These species, along with many others, depend on surrounding undeveloped wilderness, clean streams, and diverse forests to live. The Roaring Fork River flows by the campground, a tributary of the mighty Colorado. Deep, swift and clear, the Roaring Fork rises in the Sawatch Range on the west side of the Continental Divide and drains an area of the Colorado Western Slope called the Roaring Fork Valley.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby town of Aspen is a popular destination for visitors to the area. From downhill skiing and world-class fly fishing, to dining and resorts, there is a multitude of outdoor and indoor opportunites in this mountain town. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (801) 226-3564.
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
Dogs must be always on leash within the two sites and anywhere in this area. 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.
All food, beverage and trash must be always attended by an adult, this requires someone within 100 feet of the attractants. Otherwise, all attractants shall be stored in a locked vehicle/camper or food lockers. Those camping must adhere to the food storage rule as well and store all attractants in a locked vehicle unless attending the food, garbage, etc.
Bears are present in Difficult Campground daily. It is very important that you store your food, garbage, drinks - all attractants in the food locker, locked car, or locked camper/RV. Please follow the food storage regulations. The following campgrounds: Willows, Lincoln Gulch and Lost Man; along the Independence Pass Highway have been experiencing bear activity and we ask that you follow the same regulations when visiting these sites.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
All garbage shall be removed from the site and deposited in the appropriate receptacle by check out time.
Off Highway Vehicle Use in not allowed at group or any other site in campground
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.
Fires are restricted to the metal fire rings or pedestal grill, no other open burning is allowed.
Tent camping is allowed on flat, gravel areas shown inside the designated area.
RV's and campers must be parked on the hardened gravel surface.
RV's and campers cannot hook up to water via the spigots, spigot is for self-fill jugs only.
Check with the Ranger District or American Land and Leisure prior to our event to investigate fire restrictions. In the event of fire restrictions, you may only be able to use propane cooking facilities.
Quite hours are from 10pm to 6am, please respect other visitors to the area and the neighboring campsites. Sound travels in the mountains, don't be that rowdy party that disturbs others.
VENDOR AND EVENT REQUIREMENTS Renters of these sites may hire vendors to support their use such as catering, flowers, music, ceremony efficient, photography, chair rental, etc. These vendors are not required to obtain a separate permit to provide these services. However, the party who rented Windy Point via Recreation.gov is responsible for all actions and/or damage taken by the vendors. The vendor must follow all site rules. All vendors shall adhere to check-in/out times for set up and especially retrieval of their equipment. In event the vendor does not retrieve their equipment, the renter is responsible to remove the equipment by noon on checkout day.
Vendor Requirements -Commercial Filming and Still Photography: purpose is for a pre-paid film/photography service to document the event only. The products are only available to the client who reserved the group site and their guests. No re-sale is allowed. -Food and Drink Catering: purpose is for a prep-paid food/beverage service provided by the client who booked the group site for the sole service to their guests of the event. No other service shall be offered to other recreation visitors. -Music: Music shall be 80 decibels or less as to not disturb other forest users. Music and the overall event shall adhere to the posted quite hours of 10pm to 6am, the event must shut down between those hours. -Chair and Seating: Additional pre-paid seating may be provided by the client who booked the event site. All seating shall be placed on hardened surfaces. Even numbers shall meet posted site limitations. -Event Tents: Appropriately sized tents shall only be placed on/over gravel, hardened areas such as the parking area, concrete pad, or gravel gathering area at Forest Loop. No tents allowed on grass, in the woods etc. -Flowers and other decorations: A pre-paid vendor hired by the client who booked the group site is allowable. All decorations shall be removed immediately post event and not be allowed to bow away or be strewn about the site. Decorations shall bot be affixed to natural features such as trees, rocks, or other vegetation. -Release or throwing of animals, vegetation, or any other materials: Ariel release of any/all items such as but not limited to doves, other birds, butterflies, balloons, rice, petals, flowers, fireworks, reveal features, or any other item is prohibited. These users are not considered nominal and are prohibited. This is a natural environment, and all celebratory its shall reflect the setting.
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.WhiteRiver.Aspen@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 48 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…There is no electric hook ups but potable water is available at a spigots inside the main…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 5 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 325th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 8.1 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 47 of the 48 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 rate for this season, $33 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
48 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 47 mapped sitesAll 48 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. 47 of the 48 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.
| DIFF | 001 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 80 ft | 596 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 23 ft | 658 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 003 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 23 ft | 658 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 004 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 10 ft | 672 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 005 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 10 ft | 662 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 006 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 42 ft | 666 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 007 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 55 ft | 641 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 008 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 23 ft | 656 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 23 ft | 654 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 010 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 47 ft | 677 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 011 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 50 ft | 741 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 012 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 41 ft | 781 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 013 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 14 ft | 792 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 014 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 14 ft | 785 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 015 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 84 ft | 774 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 016 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 25 ft | 759 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 017 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 25 ft | 741 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 64 ft | 767 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 019 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 753 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 020 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 12 ft | 712 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 021 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 12 ft | 713 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 022 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 665 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 023 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 75 ft | 592 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 024 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 18 ft | 478 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 18 ft | 487 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 026 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 115 ft | 373 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 027 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 41 ft | 418 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 028 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 41 ft | 418 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 029 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 69 ft | 435 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 030 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 76 ft | 509 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 031 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 76 ft | 503 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 032 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 15 ft | 419 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 033 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 15 ft | 409 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 034 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 18 ft | 302 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 035 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 18 ft | 291 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 036 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 101 ft | 175 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 037 | type not stated | 60 ft | 148 ft | ||
| DIFF | 038 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 101 ft | 167 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 039 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 12 ft | 205 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 040 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 12 ft | 214 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 041 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 12 ft | 280 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 042 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 12 ft | 283 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 043 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 65 ft | 335 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 044 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 52 ft | 427 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 045 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 52 ft | 455 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 046 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 63 ft | 447 ft | $33 |
| DIFF | 047 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 124 ft | 569 ft | $33 |
| GRP | 001 | group standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 545 ft | 106 ft | $120 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 48 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Silver Queen CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 7.0 miLost Man CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 8.0 mi665 Difficult Campground Rd. Aspen CO 816511
Take Highway 82 for 5 miles southeast of Aspen, Colorado. Look for USFS Difficult Campground sign on the right, past Mile Marker 45.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Aspen, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 10°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
Difficult Campground is in Colorado’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Jeff Hurd (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →