Duncan Cabin
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:37 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
The cabin was constructed in the 1880s. The cabin sits 8,120 feet above sea level beside a small dry stream‐bed. The nearest source of water is Pole Creek which is approximately 1,500 feet from the cabin. The cabin sits on a west‐facing gently sloping grade that looks out onto the San Luis Valley. Although large coniferous trees are located near the cabin, the vegetation is primarily Rabbitbrush, Pinon, and Juniper. Keep reading
Recreation
The cabin is a good base camp for horse riding. It does have a corral close to the cabin. It is a good place for hunting, hiking and watching the night sky. It is close to the Great Sand Dunes National Park that is designated as an international Dark Sky Park.
Facilities
The one-room cabin is furnished with two bunk beds (the top bunk is a single bed, the bottom is a fold-out futon couch that sleeps two) and can accommodate up to 6 people. The cabin has a wood stove, a table and chairs, cooking utensils and some pots and pans. A picnic table, fire pit and an outdoor vault toilet are also on site. There is no electricity and water at the cabin. Water is also available at the Saguache Ranger District Office during business hours from May through November.
Natural Features
This area also provides habitats for large herds of elk, pronghorn and mule deer. It is also close to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Nearby Attractions
The Duncan cabin is located in the Rio Grande National Forest 11.8 miles southeast of Crestone, CO. There is a lot of hiking trails in this area. The Great Sand Dunes National Park is also close by.
What the agency tells you
• Please contact the Saguache Ranger District prior to arriving at the cabin to check on any restrictions or conditions, such as fire or road closures, weather or storms that may affect the quality of your visit.
The maximum stay limit on the forest is 14 days. You may be visited by a Forest Employee during your stay, for routine cabin safety check and maintenance/cleaning. If you wish to not be disturbed, a door tab will be available to use.
• This site is only allowed to be accessed by hiking, bicycling fitted for sandy conditions (NO E-BIKES), or horseback for visitors. The travel distance is 4 miles using the road, which consists mostly of sand and rocky terrain and a stream crossing. No public vehicle access.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
• Pack stock are allowed, there is a corral to use. Recommended number is 2. Maximum number of allowed stock animals is 3. When using the corral, manure must be spread out, and hay/grass MUST be certified noxious weed free.
• Entry to the cabin is by combination lock, which will be provided in the confirmation letter or email which is sent after a reservation is made. The keypad may have multiple numbers per button. The button needs to only be pressed once regardless of the assigned code, before entering the next number.
• Water is currently NOT available at the guard station. Water is available at the Saguache Ranger District office during business hours from Memorial Day weekend to November.
• There is no electricity at the Guard Station, however there is cell phone service available at this facility. Bring extra batteries and light sources.
• The guard station is a non-smoking facility.
• Pets are allowed at the facility but must be always under control; they must not harass wildlife or livestock. Do not allow pets on furniture; pet hair is very difficult and can cause allergic reactions.
• All garbage and food must be packed out; do not burn garbage in the fire pit or wood stove. DO NOT leave food or trash outside the guard station other than the installed trash bins; there are bears and other scavenger animals in the area.
• This facility does not have propane for heating or cooking; Bring a backcountry cook stove. A fire ring and wood stove is at the site; may need to bring/collect your own local firewood. Make sure the fire is out.
• Please clean the guard station and ensure the door is locked upon departure.
• Drink plenty of water before arrival and during your stay to avoid altitude sickness.
• For safety and resource protection, do not discharge firearms and skeet shooting is prohibited within 150 yards from the cabin area.
As the cabin boundaries with the Great Sand Dunes National Park, be aware of regulations regarding Leave No Trace and hunting.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Little
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Horse Camping
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Stargazing
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Yes
Full this Saturdayread 15:37 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:50 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 15:37 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 12
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 · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:50 UTC
- Pinon Flats CampgroundGreat Sand Dunes National Park · 11 mi · 3 of 178 site-nights open
- Zapata Falls CampgroundSan Luis Valley Field Office · 17 mi · 6 of 74 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:37 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
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.
| Duncan Cabin | cabin nonelectric | $40 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Backpacking Campsites in the Dunes or ForestGreat Sand Dunes National Park · 8.0 mi
Medano Pass Primitive Road CampsitesGreat Sand Dunes National Preserve · 8.1 mi
Pinon Flats CampgroundGreat Sand Dunes National Park · 11 miNorth Crestone Creek CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 11 mi
Alvarado CampgroundSan Isabel National Forest · 14 mi
Zapata Falls CampgroundSan Luis Valley Field Office · 17 miDuncan Cabin cab be reached from Moffat, Colorado, on State Highway 17, either 37 miles from Alamosa or 14 miles from the intersection of US Hwy 285 between Saguache and Salida. From Moffat turn towards Crestone (County Road T), for 12 miles. Before getting to Crestone, turn right at Camino Baca Grande Road for 2 miles. Turn right at Camino Real Road (no street signs, but look for small brown sign saying "Liberty Road" on the right side. Follow Camino Real for 3.4 miles, look for another small brown sign reading "Liberty," turn left at Camino Del Ray. Follow that road up to the top of the hill, roughly 2.5 miles, until the road comes to a left or right turn. Look for the brown "Liberty" sign on the right side of the road, and turn right at Camino Baca Grande.
Note that pavement ends on Camino Baca Grande Way, continue on that road until you get to a narrow gateway with Forest System Road 952. Road becomes very rough and bumpy for the remaining 5 miles to Liberty Gate. From there is hiking/cycling/horseback only, for the 4 miles to the cabin. Note, stream crossing 2 miles from Liberty Gate. Be sure to stay on FSR 952, there's a turnoff road going to Deadman Creek, approximately 0.3 miles from Liberty Gate. Keep right of the turnoff.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Crestone, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 9°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 · a letter you can send
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
Duncan Cabin 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyJeff HurdU.S. Representative · Colorado’s 3rd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn W. HickenlooperU.S. Senator · Colorado
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMichael F. BennetU.S. Senator · Colorado
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Duncan Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado
Dear Jeff Hurd, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Duncan Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Duncan Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Duncan Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Duncan Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Duncan Cabin (Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Duncan Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Duncan Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Duncan Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Duncan Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Duncan Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Duncan Cabin (Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Duncan Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Duncan Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Duncan Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Duncan Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Duncan Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Duncan Cabin (Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“the agency's own site records list "CELL PHONE SERVICE" on 1 of 1 campsites here”