Horse Thief
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 17 of the next 17 nights read 15:40 UTC
- A night
- $29From, per site
- Sites
- 7All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Horse Thief Campground, located at Trappers Lake in the White River National Forest, offers a natural setting for stock users adjacent to the Flat Tops Wilderness. The campsites are set aside for stock users only, with corrals, long spurs for large trailers, and an RV Dump just up the road. The Flat Tops Wilderness area provides miles of riding within this historic wilderness area. Trappers Lake is in the wilderness, so motorized, mechanized, and any kind of wheeled cart is prohibited; this goes for bikes and game carts on the trails as well. Keep reading
Recreation
Trappers Lake is known as the Cradle of Wilderness. At approximately 302 surface acres, the lake contains a strain of native cutthroat trout and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife operates a spawn collection station at the Cabin Creek inlet during May and June. Trappers Lake lies completely within the Flat Tops Wilderness; motorized boats and wheeled carts for boat transport are prohibited.
Facilities
Horse Thief Campground (Elevation 9,700ft) has 7 single first-come first-serve sites with corrals . There are long spurs to accommodate large trailers (max length 60ft). The campground is equipped with picnic tables, fire grates, vault toilets, trash disposal, bear boxes, and potable water. Limited shade is available so shade shelters are recommended. An RV dump station within the TL Campground complex. Electrical hook-ups are not available.
Natural Features
The Horse Thief Campground at Trappers Lake is located adjacent to the Flat Tops Wilderness, offering a natural environment with many pothole lakes, surrounding glacier carved mountains, and access to trails and wilderness areas. Wildlife frequent the area and moose, elk, deer, marmots, pine marten, and an abundance of birds may be seen. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (801) 226-3564.
Nearby Attractions
Fishing Access: Trappers Lake, Little Trappers Lake, Wall Lake, Fraser Creek, Lake of the Woods Trail Access: Little Trappers Trail #1814, Carhart Trail #1815, Trappers Lake Trail #1816, Wall Lake Trail #1818, Island Lakes Trail #1842, Chinese Wall Trail #1803, Deer Lake Trail #2021, South Derby Trail #1857, Himes Peak Trail #1877 Charges & Cancellations Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
What the agency tells you
Please Note: One RV with tow per single site or one vehicle per tent site. Most sites can accommodate 1 exra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground.
Prevent the spread of invasive species by inspecting and cleaning packs, equipment, and tires before using lake or trails.
Reserved Sites: will be held until check out time (ELEVEN) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of the following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
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.
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
Any accepted passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
Click link for more information about White River National forest : White River National Forest
Pets are welcome but need to be on a leash and accompanied by owner at all times.
Campers must occupy the site the first night at a campsite. This prevents booking the site for Fri-Sun and showing up on Saturday.
Campers may leave the site for 24 hours and must occupy the site otherwise. This allows a camper to say go for an overnight backpack trip in the woods for one night and come back to their campsite the next day.
Check in time is 2:00pm and Check out time is 11:00am It is imperative that you are clear from the site at 11:00am on your check out day so the host can come prepare the site for the next event. Please don't be the group that makes the incoming group have to wait.
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.WhiteRiver.Blanco@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 7 · 7 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 55 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Little
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with picnic tables, fire grates, vault toilets, trash disposal, bear boxes, and potable water.…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…toilets, trash disposal, bear boxes, and potable water. Limited shade is available so shade shelters are…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Backpacking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horse Camping
- Horseback riding
- Stargazing
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 95th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
5 of 9 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:40 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $29 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking, plus the agency’s published $1 weekend rate on Friday and Saturday. 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.
“Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.” · 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:40 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
7 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 7 mapped sitesAll 7 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 7 of the 7 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. 7 of the 7 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Horse Thief | 1 | equestrian nonelectric | 55 ft | 115 ft | 250 ft | 70 ft | $29 |
| Horse Thief | 2 | equestrian nonelectric | 55 ft | 102 ft | 40 ft | 163 ft | $29 |
| Horse Thief | 3 | equestrian nonelectric | 55 ft | 64 ft | 90 ft | 99 ft | $29 |
| Horse Thief | 4 | equestrian nonelectric | 55 ft | 64 ft | 136 ft | 52 ft | $29 |
| Horse Thief | 5 | equestrian nonelectric | 55 ft | 224 ft | 322 ft | 245 ft | $29 |
| Horse Thief | 6 | equestrian nonelectric | 55 ft | 70 ft | 527 ft | 352 ft | $29 |
| Horse Thief | 7 | equestrian nonelectric | 55 ft | 70 ft | 563 ftScotts Lake | 403 ft | $29 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Shepherds Rim CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 0.2 miTrappers Lake / Cutthroat CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 0.3 miHimes Peak CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 2.9 miCold Springs CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 6.8 miFrom Meeker, take Colorado Highway 13 east for 1 mile, then turn right on Rio Blanco County Road 8 and follow this for 39 miles to Trappers Lake Road #205. Turn south on Trappers Lake Road #205, and continue for 10 miles turn right at the bridge near Trappers Lake Lodge. Horse Thief Campground is approximately 1 mile further on the right.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Carbonate, CO
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
Horse Thief 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 →