Island Lake Campground
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $26–$52Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 32All of them booked ahead
- Season
- June 14Opens June 14. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Island Lake Campground is located at an elevation of 10,000 feet on Colorado's Grand Mesa, which is home to more than 300 fishing lakes, near the cities of Cedaredge and Delta. Visitors enjoy the area for its excellent fishing, canoeing and hiking opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
More than 3,000 miles of trails and routes provide access to areas of rugged beauty and solitude. Many were carved by indigenous peoples, early explorers and miners, offering an experience that connects visitors to the land and its prehistoric and historic past. The topography allows the forest to provide year-round trails for beginners to experts. The mountains, plateau and mesa never fail to provide a breathtaking backdrop.
Facilities
The campground offers 39 sites, including electric, non-electric and group sites. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided. Three vault restrooms are located within the facility. Trail access for hiking and off-road vehicle driving can be found within the campground. Visitors will find a boat ramp, fish cleaning station and new restroom at nearby Island Lake. Day-use parking and boat trailer parking are available for a small fee.
Natural Features
Island Lake is just .10 miles from the campground. A few sites offer panoramic views of Grand Valley and several lakes below. A dense grove of mature spruce trees covers most sites. A wide variety of wildlife frequents the area, including deer and elk. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (928) 537-8888.
Nearby Attractions
Recreation opportunities on the Grand Mesa National National Forest and surrounding areas are varied, and millions of visitors come to enjoy nearly 60 campgrounds and 13 picnic areas and more than 3,700 miles of system roads, including national and state-designated scenic byways and other scenic or recreation travel corridors. Thousands of miles of trails for hiking, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, mountain biking and motorcycle riding are available, including sections of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail and the Colorado Trail. More than 300 lakes and 3,600 miles of streams are found on the Forest. Six mountain peaks reach more than 14,000 feet in elevation, creating many popular areas for rock and ice climbing, hiking and driving along high elevation meadows thick with colorful wildflowers and nature observation and photography of Colorado's abundant wildlife. A variety of historic mining sites are also found in the forest, including the San Juan Mining area, as well as the Alpine Tunnel Historic District, which includes approximately 13 miles of the former Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad railbed across the Continental Divide. The forest also contains three ski resorts, three lodges, two organizational camps and one marina.
What the agency tells you
Standard Single Family sites: Recreation Use Fee allows ONE camping unit ONLY. Double & Group sites: Refer to Specific Site # for capacity limits.
Extra Vehicles: cannot be paid for in advance. Upon arrival coordinate with host for payment and where to park.
FIRST COME FIRST SERVE sites must be booked in person. DO NOT call to determine availability, as they are only available on-site.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Late Arrivals: campers are not considered a "no-show" until 24 hours after arrival date check in time. Our policy is that your site will not be released before that.
America the Beautiful Annual Passes are not accepted at this campground; senior and access passes are accepted, but pass holders must occupy the site and present card upon arrival
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.
Opening and closing dates are weather permitting, please call 928-537-8888 for more information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 32 · 3 group
- Hookups
- 8 electric, 1 sewer
- Longest rig
- 140 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire rings are provided. Three vault restrooms are located within the facility. Trail access for…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Boating
- Climbing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hotel/Lodge/Resort Privately Owned
- Hunting
- Visitor center
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
- Night sky · 291st darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 11 days ago, 5.5 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $26–$52 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.
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
32 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 31 mapped sitesAll 32 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. 32 of the 32 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.
| C.G. | 001 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 123 ft | 537 ft | $36 |
| C.G. | 002 | standard electric | 100 ft | 30 amp | 123 ft | 627 ft | $36 |
| C.G. | 003 | standard electric | 100 ft | 30 amp | 99 ft | 513 ft | $36 |
| C.G. | 004Host | standard electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | $36 | ||
| C.G. | 005 | standard electric | 100 ft | 50 amp | 99 ft | 442 ft | $36 |
| C.G. | 006 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 55 ft | 366 ft | $36 |
| C.G. | 007 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 55 ft | 314 ft | $36 |
| C.G. | 008 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 51 ft | 277 ft | $36 |
| C.G. | 009 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 37 ft | 319 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 010 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 37 ft | 286 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 011 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 74 ft | 329 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 012 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 57 ft | 282 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 013 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 57 ft | 321 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 014 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 86 ft | 291 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 015Double | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 70 ft | 287 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 016 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 65 ft | 222 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 017 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 65 ft | 206 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 021Double | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 72 ft | 189 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 022Double | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 71 ft | 154 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 023 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 71 ft | 181 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 024 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 81 ft | 157 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 99 ft | 104 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 029 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 130 ft | 240 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 030 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 51 ft | 334 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 031 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 51 ft | 356 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 036 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 49 ft | 563 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 037 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 57 ft | 466 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 038Double | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 49 ft | 514 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 039 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 107 ft | 588 ft | $26–$52 | |
| C.G. | 18-20 | group standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 97 ft | 251 ft | $160–$190 | |
| C.G. | 26-28 | group standard nonelectric | 140 ft | 128 ft | 190 ft | $160–$190 | |
| C.G. | 32-35 | group standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 181 ft | 572 ft | $160–$190 |
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.
25 of 32 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
From Cedaredge, Colorado, take State Route 65 north for 15.7 miles to campground sign (Forest Route 116). Turn left at sign onto Route 116 (gravel) and go 1.4 miles to campground sign. Turn left at sign into campground.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cedaredge, 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
Island Lake Campground 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 →