Idlewild Campground
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $29From, per site
- Sites
- 2524 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Idlewild Campground is off US Highway 40, just south of Winter Park. The campground is well located for hiking, biking, fishing, as well as wildlife viewing and sightseeing. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, biking, and fishing are all accessible near the campground. Nearby Berthoud Pass is known for its scenic drive.
Facilities
Idlewild Campground has 24 non-electric single sites for camping that can accommodate tents, trailers, and RVs. All campsites are equipped with a tent pad, picnic table, metal fire ring, and bear-resistant food storage locker. Additional facilities include restrooms, trash service and drinking water. A campground host is on site.
Natural Features
Idlewild Campground sits at 9,000' elevation, along the Fraser River as it runs from its source near Berthoud Pass to its confluence with the Colorado River. Nearby trailheads and 4x4 roads provide access to the Vasquez Wilderness Area, as well as the west side of historic Rollins Pass. The Fraser River Trail runs near the campground, providing a paved path for hiking and biking that connects the towns of Winter Park and Fraser. Afternoon thunderstorms can be expected during spring and summer months.
Nearby Attractions
The campground has access to Winter Park via the Fraser River Trail, a road and bike/walking path. Grocery shopping and restaurants are available in the towns of Winter Park and Fraser. The Arapaho National Recreation Area and western portal of Rocky Mountain National Park are within an hour's drive.
Charges & Cancellations
Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov or by calling the call center at 1-877-444-6777 PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
What the agency tells you
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests.
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
Everything else this campground posts · 12
RV water connections are not available. Come with your water tank filled.
Reservation holder must be present at check-in.
This campground has a 14 day stay limit and a maximum of 8 people per site.
Pets must be on a hand-held leash of 6 feet maximum length.
All campsites with a tent pad have a bear locker. For bear and human safety, keep a clean campsite and do not place food or other attractants in your tent. For more information about visiting bear country, contact Colorado Parks and Wildlife at http://wildlife.state.co.us It is also required that you use bear resistant food storage lockers where these facilities are provided.
Click here for more information about Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
All campsites must be occupied within 26 hours of the beginning of the reservation. If not present the site will be rented by first come first serve basis.
EXTRA VEHICLE FEES: One vehicle is included in your reservation. Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On. One vehicle consists of one camper being towed by vehicle, or any other vehicle towed behind camper. One van or one truck with camper attached counts as one vehicle. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at your site.
Tents must fit on the pads provided. RVs, trailers or other vehicles must fit on the parking spur. Driving or parking off road is not permitted. Maximum Vehicle Length: 30'.
Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
Check-Out is at 12 P.M. Check-In is at 2 P.M.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 25
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “Additional facilities include restrooms, trash service and drinking water.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…include restrooms, trash service and drinking water. A campground host is on site. Natural Features…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Biking
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 479th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 17 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 24 of the 25 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
“Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
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.
“Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov or by calling the call center at 1-877-444-6777 PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.” · 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 · 7
rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
25 sites
All 25 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. 24 of the 25 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Idlewild | 1 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 10 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 11 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 12 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 13 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 14 | type not stated | 30 ft | |
| Idlewild | 15 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 16 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 17 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 18 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 19 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 2 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 20 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 21 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 22 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 23 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 24 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 25 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 3 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 4 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 5 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 6 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 7 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 8 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
| Idlewild | 9 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | $29 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Midland Group CampgroundArapaho National Forest · 3.3 mi
St. Louis CreekArapaho National Forest · 4.4 miRobbers Roost CampgroundJames Peak Protection Area (National) · 5.2 miMizpah CampgroundArapaho National Forest · 8.9 miRainbow Lakes CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 13 miFrom Winter Park, travel one mile south on US Highway 40. The campground is on the east side of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Winter Park, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 21°F, day 56°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -1°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
Idlewild Campground 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 →