Grizzly Creek Guard Station
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 4 of the next 12 nights read 16:25 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
At an elevation of 8,500 feet, Grizzly Creek Guard Station is located between Walden and Steamboat Springs, Colorado, offering guests an unique lodging opportunity in the Routt National Forest. The area around the guard station offers a chance to view abundant wildlife and experience a variety of recreational opportunities year-round. The guard station is accessible by passenger vehicle when there is no snow; however, high clearance vehicles are recommended in the spring and fall. Access to the cabin in winter is only available by snowmobile, cross-country skis or snowshoes. The cabin offers some creature comforts, but guests should be prepared to bring some of their own supplies and gear. Keep reading
Recreation
In summer, hiking and fishing can be found within the vicinity. Trailheads leading to hiking and horseback riding trails are an easy drive from the guard station. Designated areas for off-road vehicles are also near the cabin. In winter, the area is blanketed by snow for wintertime play. Cross-country skiers and snowmobile traffic often pass by the guard station during daylight hours.
Facilities
The historic two-room cabin sleeps five on bunkbeds with mattresses. The cabin has a heater and range powered by propane. The kitchen is equipped with a table and chairs, cooking utensils, pots and pans. An accessible outhouse with pit toilet is also on-site. Water, electricity, indoor plumbing and trash collection are not available. Water must be hauled from a campground approximately three miles away during the summer. In the winter, guests must provide their own supply of water for cooking, cleaning and washing. Guests must bring their own food, sleeping bags, lanterns or flashlights, pillows, towels, dish soap, matches, first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags. All trash and food should be packed out, and guests are expected to clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
The cabin sits in an open area among grassland and sagebrush, with nearby aspen groves and lodgepole pine forests. The Mount Zirkel Wilderness lies east of the guard station. The wilderness was one of the original areas protected under the 1964 Wilderness Act and has since been expanded twice to its present size of 160,648 acres. The area boasts ecosystems ranging from sagebrush meadows in the lower areas, through pine and spruce/fir forests, to alpine tundra at high elevations. Elk, deer, moose and other wildlife are often seen in meadows adjacent to the cabin, and cattle frequently pass by the area as well.
What the agency tells you
Water not available at this facility
In winter, the road to the guard station is not always passable as a result of heavy and drifting snow; the road is often unplowed within 3 miles of the cabin, making it accessible by snowmobile, cross-country skis or snowshoes only
Access to the cabin is by a combination lock; please call the Parks Ranger District at (970) 723-8204 prior to your stay to get the access combination for the cabin (Forest Service office is not open evenings, weekends or federal holidays)
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Please contact the 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
Pets are not allowed at this facility
All garbage and food must be packed out
The cabin is a no-smoking facility
Please clean cabin upon departure
Make sure cabin is locked upon departure
Drink plenty of water before arrival and during your stay to avoid altitude sickness
Learn more about Medicine Bow-Routt 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…and pans. An accessible outhouse with pit toilet is also on-site. Water, electricity, indoor…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and trash collection are not available. Water must be hauled from a campground approximately three miles away…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Horseback riding
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Something open on 1 of the next 4 bookable nightsread 16:25 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
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 · 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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:25 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 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.
| GRIZZLY CREEK | 1 | cabin nonelectric | yes | 3,582 ft | $90 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Teal Lake Group CampsiteRoutt National Forest · 2.1 mi
Hidden Lakes CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 3.6 mi
Summit Lake CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 5.1 miGranite CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 6.9 mi
Dry Lake Campground (CO)Routt National Forest · 10 mi
Dumont CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 11 miFrom Walden, take Highway 14 west for approximately 11 miles to Hebron. Turn right on County Road 24, driving west. Follow County Road 24 as it forks left and then right at intersections with County Roads 1 and 5. After approximately 10 miles, the road becomes Forest Service Road 60 and you arrive at the Grizzly Creek Guard Station.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Steamboat Springs, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 7°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
Grizzly Creek Guard Station 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 →