U.S. Forest Service · Rio Grande National Forest · CO
Hansen Mill Dispersed Camping
The agency doesn’t say how you get a siteIts record carries no access type, so treat it as a place to phone before you drive.
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- FreeNo camping fee
10,870 ftElevation
4,632 ftWater · East Bellows Creek
22.2 miNW of Del Norte, CO
0%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 36th darkest of 522 in CO
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Elevation: 10,800' This small, isolated dispersed (HORSE FRIENDLY) campground is located 16.8 miles east of Creede on Forest Road 600. Campers will find this to be a good vantage point for viewing vistas of distant mountains. There are 3 camping units at this site with picnic tables and fire rings. There is a vault-type toilet, but no water or refuse receptacles. A small stream can provide emergency drinking water only if it is treated or boiled. Trails and 4 WD roads are nearby, as well as fishing in East Bellows Creek. There is lots of room here to accommodate large groups (family reunions, etc.). Keep reading
This is a very Horse Friendly campground with plenty of nearby grazing and room for trucks/trailers. The 4x4 road takes off here for the Wheeler Geological Area attraction. East Bellows trail #790 goes into the Wilderness Area from here to Wheeler Geologic Area and is a foot or horse trail only, no motorized vehicles or mountain bikes allowed. Call 719-658-2556 for "real time" conditions. 14 DAY CAMPING LIMIT.
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “There is a vault-type toilet, but no water or refuse receptacles.”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 18 km away
- Peak color
Source: Stated in the agency description
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (18 km) · Oct 5, 2026
Phone before you drive
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
A nightFreeNo camping feethe agency’s fee record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 4
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
Camping feeFree
No Fees
The booking feerecreation.gov
We hold no recreation.gov booking record for this campground, so we can’t say whether a booking fee applies.
What a stay costs
A night, and a whole weekendDerivedNothing
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
Sign price: Derived by CAMPANAC from the U.S. Forest Service fee record: a stated per-night amount only · Sep 7, 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
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · 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: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near herePalisade CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 4.5 miCathedral CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 7.3 mi
Alder Guard StationRio Grande National Forest · 9.0 miHighway Springs CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 13 mi
Marshall ParkRio Grande National Forest · 14 miLower Beaver Creek CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 14 mi
Alder Guard StationRio Grande National Forest · 9.0 miHighway Springs CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 13 miMarshall ParkRio Grande National Forest · 14 miLower Beaver Creek CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 14 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Tonight27°Clear
Saturday50°Sunny
Saturday Night29°Partly Cloudy2% rain
Sunday45°Partly Sunny14% rain
NWS forecast for South Fork, CO
Source: National Weather Service, PUB forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
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.
Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026
Who answers for this land
Hansen Mill Dispersed Camping 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
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 · Sep 9, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (18 km) · Oct 5, 2026
Reported by: iNaturalist fall color observations, reported peak color · Oct 5, 2026
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: South Fork, CO, 9.4 mi NNW. Straight line.