Father Dyer
1Heads up1 fire 5.6 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $29From, per site
- Sites
- 2623 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Father Dyer Campground is situated on the eastern shore of Turquoise Lake in the shade of a lodgepole pine and subalpine fir forest. The family-friendly campground is a popular summer destination for boating, hiking and fishing. The campground is named after Father John Lewis Dyer, one of the first Methodist ministers to tour Colorado's high country mining camps. For 20 years, beginning in 1862, he travelled the circuit encompassing Alma, Fairplay and Leadville, regularly skiing over the 13,186-foot Mosquito Pass on long, wooden skis. Keep reading
Recreation
The 1.2-mile Turquoise Lake Nature Trail is a gentle loop trail through the forest and down to the shoreline of Turquoise Lake. This trail connects to the 6.4-mile Turquoise Lake Trail that parallels the shoreline from Sugar Loaf Dam to May Queen Campground. Trail guides are available at the trailhead located about a mile south, at the entrance to Molly Brown Campground. On the lake, boating, sailing, canoeing and fishing are favorite activities. Anglers fish for stocked cutthroat, rainbow, brown and lake trout. Matchless Boat Ramp is located about two miles south of the campground.
Facilities
The campground offers 26 single-family sites. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and trash collection are provided. Firewood is available for purchase from the Host. Parking spurs are gravel or dirt.
Natural Features
Campsites are nestled in the forest near the scenic lakeshore. The Mount Massive Wilderness Area, a 30,540 acre stretch of primitive land encompassing Colorado's second highest peak at 14,421 feet, is nearby. Much of the wilderness is above timberline with many alpine plant communities and permanent snowfields. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
Nearby Attractions
Venture to Independence Pass for a scenic drive with breathtaking views of the Rockies and surrounding alpine tundra habitat. At 12,095 feet, it is one of the highest paved mountain passes in the country and marks where the Top of the Rockies National Scenic and Historic Byway crosses the Continental Divide.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a campsite. Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. No-Shows A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite. Refunds Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Refunds will not be issued after the 7 days has ended. Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive. In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.
What the agency tells you
Water will NOT be available in this campground in 2026. Please bring enough water for your needs, including water to fully extinguish your campfire. Also, the RV Dump Stations at White Star and Printer Boy will remain closed this season.
Check in: 2 pm, Check out: 12 pm (noon)
Two (2) vehicles are included with each campsite reservation. RVs and their tow vehicle, as well as vehicles towing camper trailers, are considered one vehicle when they arrive as a single unit. Vehicles beyond that would be subject to the additional vehicle fee ($11.00/night) collected at the campground upon arrival. Boat/ATV trailers are considered an additional vehicle and will be charged the extra vehicle fee per night. Please note that all vehicles must fit in the parking spur. Please no parking on the grass.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Maximum of 8 people are permitted to occupy 1 site.
3 tent maximum per site, or 1 RV and 2 tents
Dogs, including service and therapy dogs, must be leashed at all times.
Generators may not be operated after 10 PM. CPAP machines and other medical equipment are not exempt.
Be bear aware. Do not leave any food unattended at your site. Lock in your vehicle or RV.
OHVs, ATVs, and dirt bikes are not permitted to operate in any campground
Firearms and fireworks are not permitted.
No hookups are available
This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
Click here for more information on Pike and San Isabel National Forests
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.
Firewood is available for sale at host site for $10.00/bundle.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 26
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and trash collection are provided. Firewood is…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Night sky · 392nd darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 18 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 23 of the 26 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
“Extra Vehicle Fee $10.00” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $29 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.
“Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a cam…” · this campground’s own no-show 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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
27 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 23 mapped sitesAll 27 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 26 of the 27 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. 26 of the 27 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.
| FATH | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 139 ft | 1,777 ft | 2,082 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 90 ft | 1,662 ft | 2,048 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 005 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 61 ft | 1,599 ft | 2,044 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 54 ft | 1,580 ft | 2,070 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 007 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 25 ft | 1,535 ft | 2,057 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 37 ft | 1,524 ft | 2,091 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 009 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 127 ft | 1,441 ft | 2,097 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 010 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 28 ft | 1,509 ft | 2,273 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 011 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 12 ft | 1,499 ft | 2,288 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 12 ft | 1,509 ft | 2,299 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 013 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 57 ft | 1,476 ft | 2,402 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 45 ft | 1,481 ft | 2,449 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 015 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 45 ft | 1,473 ft | 2,475 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 69 ft | 1,285 ft | 2,411 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 25 ft | 1,268 ft | 2,330 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 019 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 25 ft | 1,262 ft | 2,344 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 50 ft | 1,250 ft | 2,245 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 50 ft | 1,221 ft | 2,195 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 59 ft | 1,224 ft | 2,139 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 023 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 59 ft | 1,258 ft | 2,116 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 27 ft | 1,385 ft | 2,142 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 27 ft | 1,358 ft | 2,131 ft | $29 |
| FATH | 026 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 25 ft | 1,526 ft | 2,067 ft | $29 |
| MANAGEMENT | 001 | type not stated | 1,752 ft | 2,094 ft | $29 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 0016 | type not stated | 1,438 ft | 2,531 ft | $29 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 004 | type not stated | 1,673 ft | 2,070 ft | $29 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | XXX | unnamed record | 35 ft | $29 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It types it MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 27 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Baby DoeSan Isabel National Forest · 0.3 mi
Printer BoySan Isabel National Forest · 0.3 miBelle of ColoradoSan Isabel National Forest · 0.4 miTaborSan Isabel National Forest · 0.5 mi
Molly BrownSan Isabel National Forest · 0.5 mi
Silver DollarSan Isabel National Forest · 0.8 miFrom Leadville, Colorado, drive west on County Road 4 about 3 miles, turn right on County Road 9C and follow to Father Dyer Campground on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Leadville North, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 24°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 3°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
Father Dyer 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 →