CAMPANAC.Powered by public lands intelligenceMore Than Just Parks

U.S. Forest Service · Roosevelt National Forest · CO

Dowdy Lake

Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 14:34 UTC

Why it’s closed, and what’s open near here Tell me when it comes back

Right now: Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 14:34 UTC
A night: $20–$47When it reopens, per site
Sites: 62In the agency’s record

Photos · U.S. Forest Service

130 ftLongest rig

8,170 ftElevation

544 ftWater · Dowdy Lake

22.6 miNW of Laporte, CO

30%Tree cover

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices

In the agency’s own words

Dowdy Lake Campground is located 48 miles northwest of Fort Collins, Colo., near the village of Red Feather Lakes. Visitors enjoy the area for its canoeing, fishing and trail opportunities. Keep reading

Recreation

Canoeing and fishing are popular activities on the 115-acre, no-wake Dowdy Lake. Motorized boats are allowed on the lake, but a 10 mph speed limit is enforced. Anglers cast for brown, brook, cutthroat and lake trout. Several additional lakes are in the vicinity. Many hiking, biking and horseback riding trails are in the surrounding area, including the 4-mile Mount Margaret Trail. Several off-road vehicle trails are located within five miles of the campground. Other popular activities include viewing wildlife and visiting the nearby Redfeather Visitor Center.

Facilities

The campground offers 60 accessible single and double family campsites with electric hookups. Ten sites are designated for tent camping only and do not have hookups. Each site contains a tent pad, picnic table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. Dead and downed firewood may be gathered in the forest or purchased in bundles from the campground host.

Natural Features

The campground is situated in a ponderosa pine forest on the shore of Dowdy Lake, at an elevation of 8,200 feet. Afternoon thunderstorms can be expected during spring and summer months. Due to the mountain pine beetle infestation and removal of hazardous trees, some sites have reduced shade. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 529-0578.

Nearby Attractions

The small village of Red Feather Lakes is nearby, offering limited dining options, gift shops, general stores, a library, post office and a golf course.

Charges & Cancellations

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.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

What the agency tells you

Rule

Drinking water is available until Sept. 30. No RV water connections are available. Come with your RV/trailer water tank filled. Filling at campground hydrants cross-contaminates the system and is not allowed.

Rule

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

Rule

Dowdy Lake is a no-wake lake

Everything else this campground posts · 9

Rule

Campsite fee includes use of the day-use area

Rule

Extra parking is not available

Rule

https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp for more information on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests

Rule

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.

Rule

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.

Rule

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.

Rule

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.

Rule

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.

Rule

Check-Out is at 12 P.M. Check-In is at 2 P.M.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Source: recreation.gov facility notices, quoted verbatim · Sep 9, 2026

Tents and rigs

Sites: 62 · 10 tent-only
Hookups: 52 electric
Longest rig: 130 ft
Accessible sites: 55
Pets: Allowed
Shade: Every site

Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets: Vault Toilets; “…table and campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided.…”
Drinking water: Yes; “…campfire ring with grill. Vault toilets, drinking water and trash collection are provided. Dead and downed…”
Store: Nearby
Firewood: Sold here
Camp host: On site; recreation.gov lists “Host”
Stay limit: 14 nights; recreation.gov facility rule maxStay

Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026

Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water: Lake; Biking; Birding; Boating; Canoeing; Fishing; Hiking; Kayaking; Mountain biking; Wildlife viewing
Night sky · 397th darkest of 522 in CO: Bortle 3

Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate · Sep 8, 2026

Nothing to book until it reopensread 14:34 UTC

recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend

OpenBookedClosed

Max stay14 nightsthe facility record

A night, when it reopens$20–$47plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule

If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservation; this campground publishes its own terms toorecreation.gov’s schedule

Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record

What’s open near here

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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.

Every line of the receipt · 13

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service

A night, when it reopens$20–$47

Standard Electric$20

Tent Only Nonelectric$20

Standard Electric-Dbl$47

Rates for the season the campground is in now, Sep 20, 2026 to Dec 31, 2026.

The booking feerecreation.gov

Reservation fee, booked online$8

One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.

Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.

What this campground addsits own record

Extra vehicle$8

“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

If your plans changerecreation.gov

Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10

Cancellation fee$10

Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night

No-show$20 + your first night

“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.” · 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

Sign price: recreation.gov facility rate schedule, quoted as the agency publishes it · Oct 1, 2026

Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026

What this campground adds: The U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record and notices for this campground, quoted verbatim. An extra-vehicle charge is set locally and appears on no national schedule, so it’s never assumed. · Sep 9, 2026

This campground’s own terms: recreation.gov facility cancellation policy for this campground, quoted verbatim. Recreation.gov states that policies listed for specific locations supersede its site-wide policies. · Sep 9, 2026

Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026

The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Why this page can’t say why

recreation.gov lists every site at Dowdy Lake 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.

Closure: U.S. Forest Service status record · Oct 17, 2026

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 150 miles · 4

The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.

Deer Creek CampgroundPike National Forest · 89 mi · 4 sites
Friend Park CampgroundMedicine Bow National Forest · 101 mi · 11 sites
Osprey (CO)Pike National Forest · 102 mi · 13 sites
OuzelPike National Forest · 104 mi · 13 sites

Open near here: Agency-published status, in the CAMPANAC campground index · Oct 17, 2026

recreation.gov availability, read 14:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

62 sites · which ones have room · the site map

The sites, ranked

from 62 mapped sites

74 ftbetween you and the next site, typically

Most roomLoop D 032 159 ftLoop E 057 141 ftLoop E 051 124 ftLoop E 052 124 ftLoop E 047 122 ft

Least roomLoop A 001 29 ftLoop A 002 29 ftLoop A 011 29 ft

Source: Derived by CAMPANAC from recreation.gov per-site coordinates (nearest-neighbor distance) · Oct 12, 2026

All 62 sites

62 of 62 sites located

Tent only10RV / electric52

001 002 003 004 011 012 013 014 005 006 007 008 009 010 015 016 017 018 019 020 021 022 023 024 025 026 027 028 029 030 031 032 033 034 035 036 037 038 039 040 041 042 043 044 045 046 047 048 049 050 051 052 053 054 055 056 057 058 059 060 061 062

Aerial · Esri World Imagery

Sites: recreation.gov (RIDB), coordinates as published · Aug 23, 2026

Imagery: Esri World Imagery

SleepsTakes aUp to

Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 62 of the 62 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. 62 of the 62 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.


A	001	standard electric	64 ft	20/30 amp		29 ft	354 ft	313 ft	$20–$47
A	002	standard electric	84 ft	20/30 amp		29 ft	336 ft	284 ft	$20–$47
A	003	standard electric	56 ft	20/30 amp	yes	52 ft	307 ft	233 ft	$20–$47
A	004	standard electric	48 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	74 ft	270 ft	124 ft	$20–$47
A	011	standard electric	43 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	29 ft	309 ft	69 ft	$20–$47
A	012	standard electric	36 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	29 ft	281 ft	51 ft	$20–$47
A	013	standard electric	43 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	50 ft	240 ft	37 ft	$20–$47
A	014	standard electric	35 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	69 ft	239 ft	59 ft	$20–$47
B	005	standard electric	75 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	38 ft	509 ft	264 ft	$20–$47
B	006	standard electric	50 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	33 ft	546 ft	289 ft	$20–$47
B	007	standard electric	65 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	33 ft	514 ft	259 ft	$20–$47
B	008	standard electric	48 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	61 ft	583 ft	316 ft	$20–$47
B	009	standard electric	130 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	61 ft	589 ft	319 ft	$20–$47
B	010	standard electric	73 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	73 ft	536 ft	271 ft	$20–$47
C	015	standard electric	41 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	49 ft	385 ft	128 ft	$20–$47
C	016	standard electric	74 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	49 ft	361 ft	94 ft	$20–$47
C	017	standard electric	60 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	91 ft	289 ft	80 ft	$20–$47
C	018	tent only nonelectric			yes	47 ft	247 ft	56 ft	$20
C	019	tent only nonelectric				47 ft	277 ft	59 ft	$20
C	020	tent only nonelectric				49 ft	228 ft	95 ft	$20
C	021	tent only nonelectric				70 ft	184 ft	162 ft	$20
C	022	tent only nonelectric			yes	69 ft	191 ft	200 ft	$20
C	023	tent only nonelectric			yes	42 ft	150 ft	230 ft	$20
C	024	tent only nonelectric			yes	38 ft	151 ft	211 ft	$20
C	025	tent only nonelectric			yes	42 ft	110 ft	259 ft	$20
C	026	tent only nonelectric				38 ft	116 ft	243 ft	$20
C	027	tent only nonelectric			yes	42 ft	138 ft	222 ft	$20
C	028	standard electric	60 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	44 ft	117 ft	320 ft	$20–$47
C	029	standard electric	25 ft	20/30 amp		112 ft	136 ft	256 ft	$20–$47
C	030	standard electric	50 ft	20/30 amp	yes	44 ft	89 ft	363 ft	$20–$47
D	031	standard electric	44 ft	20/30 amp	yes	99 ft	367 ft	177 ft	$20–$47
D	032	standard electric	48 ft	20/30 amp	yes	160 ft	366 ft	111 ft	$20–$47
D	033	standard electric	28 ft	20/30 amp	yes	113 ft	186 ft	179 ft	$20–$47
D	034	standard electric	53 ft	20/30 amp	yes	86 ft	173 ft	98 ft	$20–$47
D	035	standard electric	60 ft	20/30 amp	yes	80 ft	197 ft	81 ft	$20–$47
D	036	standard electric	33 ft	20/30 amp	yes	91 ft	282 ft	94 ft	$20–$47
D	037	standard electric	66 ft	20/30 amp	yes	80 ft	199 ft	143 ft	$20–$47
E	038	standard electric	47 ft	20/30 amp	yes	75 ft	149 ft	495 ft	$20–$47
E	039	standard electric	53 ft	20/30 amp	yes	75 ft	80 ft	463 ft	$20–$47
E	040	standard electric	32 ft	20/30 amp	yes	63 ft	189 ft	323 ft	$20–$47
E	041	standard electric	53 ft	20/30 amp	yes	63 ft	127 ft	322 ft	$20–$47
E	042	standard electric	48 ft	20/30 amp	yes	111 ft	221 ft	213 ft	$20–$47
E	043	standard electric	38 ft	20/30 amp	yes	111 ft	239 ft	106 ft	$20–$47
E	044	standard electric	31 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	86 ft	228 ft	86 ft	$20–$47
E	045	standard electric	47 ft	20/30 amp	yes	86 ft	173 ft	166 ft	$20–$47
E	046	standard electric	48 ft	20/30 amp	yes	108 ft	135 ft	274 ft	$20–$47
E	047	standard electric	52 ft	20/30 amp	yes	122 ft	247 ft	154 ft	$20–$47
E	048	standard electric	30 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	79 ft	436 ft	219 ft	$20–$47
E	049	standard electric	33 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	74 ft	473 ft	175 ft	$20–$47
E	050	standard electric	37 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	74 ft	455 ft	125 ft	$20–$47
E	051	standard electric	44 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	124 ft	203 ft	136 ft	$20–$47
E	052	standard electric	59 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	124 ft	165 ft	236 ft	$20–$47
E	053	standard electric	82 ft	20/30 amp	yes	95 ft	276 ft	321 ft	$20–$47
E	054	standard electric	37 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	114 ft	419 ft	160 ft	$20–$47
E	055	standard electric	23 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	96 ft	488 ft	286 ft	$20–$47
E	056	standard electric	61 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	81 ft	496 ft	361 ft	$20–$47
E	057	standard electric	57 ft	20/30/50 amp	yes	141 ft	355 ft	275 ft	$20–$47
E	058	standard electric	57 ft	20/30 amp	yes	79 ft	488 ft	414 ft	$20–$47
E	059	standard electric	61 ft	20/30 amp	yes	91 ft	360 ft	310 ft	$20–$47
E	060	standard electric	56 ft	20/30 amp	yes	79 ft	463 ft	443 ft	$20–$47
E	061	standard electric	37 ft	20/30 amp	yes	90 ft	451 ft	366 ft	$20–$47
E	062	standard electric	47 ft	20/30 amp	yes	106 ft	428 ft	278 ft	$20–$47

Price: Derived by CAMPANAC: each site takes the per-night rate this campground publishes for the site’s own site type (recreation.gov rate schedule). recreation.gov publishes no per-campsite fee, and a site whose type carries no published rate is left blank rather than called free · Oct 1, 2026

25 of 62 listed

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number

Coordinate40.79651, -105.56551

The mapSee it on the map

The driveDirections ↗

The phone970-295-6700

The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Also near here

Redfeather Ranger StationRoosevelt National Forest · 0.4 mi

West LakeRoosevelt National Forest · 0.6 mi

Bellaire Lake CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 3.3 mi

North Fork Poudre CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 7.7 mi

Kelly Flats CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 9.1 mi

Dutch George CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 9.3 mi

Getting there

From Fort Collins, take Highway 287 north for approximately 24 miles to Livermore. Turn west on County Road 74 and continue about 23 miles to Dowdy Lake Road. Turn right, then another right onto Dowdy Drive and continue to the campground.

Directions: Driving directions as the agency wrote them · Sep 9, 2026

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Today66°Sunny

Tonight39°Mostly Clear

Sunday66°Sunny

Sunday Night38°Mostly Cloudy3% rain

NWS forecast for Red Feather Lakes, CO

Source: National Weather Service, BOU forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 29°F, day 56°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.

90°32°10°

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.

Measured at: RUSTIC 9WSW, CO (USC00057296), 10 miles away and 470 ft lower

Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless

North Lone Pine9,466 acres · 6 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026

Who answers for this land

Dowdy Lake 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from

Right now: recreation.gov lists every site here closed on Friday and Saturday night (read 14:34 UTC). U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so the reason isn’t on this page. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one, and the reservations the record still carries predate the closure. That reading is ours, off the agency’s own booking record.

Sites on recreation.gov: recreation.gov’s own month availability payload for this facility, asked for October 2026 and November 2026. It names 62 of the 62 campsites the agency files here, and every one of them carries an answer either way. A campground nobody has read carries no answer at all, never a no. · Oct 14, 2026

Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026

Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate, taken as the median across the 62 campsites here that carry a reading · Sep 9, 2026

Water: USGS National Hydrography Dataset, nearest perennial lake, reservoir, river or stream to this campground’s coordinate · Sep 8, 2026

Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.19 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 522 rated federal campgrounds in Colorado · Sep 8, 2026

Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model

Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.

Nearest place of any size: inside Red Feather Lakes, CO (a census designated place). Straight line.

Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026