Jefferson Creek
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 16All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Campers looking for a pleasant fishing destination with great mountain views will enjoy camping at Jefferson Creek. The campground is located a short drive or hike from Jefferson Lake. The lake is one of the highest elevation lakes around, capping 10,685 feet elevation and bordered by steep 12,000 foot peaks. Fishing in both the creek and lake offer promising catches of trout. Another noteworthy aspect of the campground is its access to the Colorado Trail. Keep reading
Recreation
Two trails can be accessed near the campground. The best hiking, biking and horseback riding experience is on the epic Colorado Trail, a 471-mile trail that extends from Denver to Durango. The other is the West Jefferson Loop Trail, a foot path that extends for 11 miles to the Continental Divide. Rainbow, brown, mackinaw and brook trout can be found swimming in the creek and lake. Motorized boating is allowed in Jefferson Lake, but it is a no-wake lake.
Facilities
Jefferson Campground offers nearly 20 reservable campsites. Parking aprons are gravel and the max RV length 25 feet. Amenities include picnic tables, vault toilets, drinking water and campfire rings.
Natural Features
Jefferson Creek Campground extends along a ridge looking over Jefferson Creek. The high elevation campground sits at 10,100 feet altitude with surroundings of mixed conifers. It is a mile from Jefferson Lake, a182-acre lake with deep, cold waters that freezes over in winter. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
Nearby Attractions
Visitors enjoy Fairplay, Colorado, a ghost town that was once a frontier boom town. The South Park City Museum contains 34 authentic buildings with 60,000 artifacts.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a campsite. Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. No-Shows A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite. Refunds Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Refunds will not be issued after the 7 days has ended. Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive. In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.
What the agency tells you
Alert for Reservation Holders: There is a one-time fee of $11.00 to enter Jefferson Lake Recreation Area in which your campground is located. You will only have to pay this fee once for the duration of your stay. There is an Annual Pass available for purchase here. The fee for the 2025 calendar year pass is $100.00.
Please note it is difficult to access Jefferson Lake Recreation Area during the winter months; the roads to this site are not maintained for snow throughout the winter. County Road 37 is an unpaved gravel surface road that leads to the entrance of the area.
Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
Everything else this campground posts · 12
This is a high elevation facility, please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
No RV hookups are available. Also, No pay phones are available.
For more information on Pike and San Isabel National Forests, click here
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing organisms by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. Firewood is available to purchase on site, depending on any fire ban. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
The use, sale, and possession of all forms of cannabis in the United States is illegal under federal law on federal land.
Shooting of any type is prohibited in the campground and Jefferson Lake Recreation Area
ATV's and off road vehicles are prohibited in the campground and Jefferson Lake Recreation Area
Dogs must be on a leash or tethered at all times.
Reservations are available up to 5 days prior to arrival date. Sites not reserved 5 days before become ‘walk-up’ and are available on a ‘first come - first serve’ bases.
Check-out time is 12:00pm. Check-in time is 2:00pm
Two vehicles or one RV per site is included in the camping fee. $11.00 for a third vehicle. $11.00 fee for day use if not camping overnight.
Firewood is available for sale at host site for $10.00/bundle.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 16 · 3 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- 12
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…feet. Amenities include picnic tables, vault toilets, drinking water and campfire rings. Natural…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 17 of 17 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 426th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 16 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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $24 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.
“Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a cam…” · this campground’s own no-show 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
17 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 16 mapped sitesAll 17 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 17 of the 17 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. 16 of the 17 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 001 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 130 ft | 142 ft | 164 ft | $24 | |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 002 - Host site | host pad | 30 ft | 217 ft | 95 ft | |||
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 003 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | yes | 65 ft | 215 ft | 34 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 004 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | yes | 65 ft | 197 ft | 43 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 005 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 50 ft | 212 ft | 107 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 006 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | yes | 17 ft | 203 ft | 157 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 007 | standard nonelectric | 14 ft | 17 ft | 207 ft | 173 ft | $24 | |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 008 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 28 ft | 248 ft | 211 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 009 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 28 ft | 237 ft | 203 ft | $24 | |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 010 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 34 ft | 265 ft | 175 ft | $24 | |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 011 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 43 ft | 312 ft | 112 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | yes | 43 ft | 273 ft | 110 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 50 ft | 321 ft | 75 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 50 ft | 328 ft | 125 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 33 ft | 317 ft | 174 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 016 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | yes | 33 ft | 295 ft | 201 ft | $24 |
| JEFFERSON CREEK | 017 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 97 ft | 229 ft | 145 ft | $24 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Aspen (CO)Pike National Forest · 1.3 miLodgepole CampgroundPike National Forest · 1.4 mi
Lodgepole (Jefferson Lake, Fairplay Colorado)1.5 miMichigan CreekPike National Forest · 2.2 miHall ValleyPike National Forest · 4.3 miHandcartPike National Forest · 4.5 miFrom US Highway 285 at Jefferson, Colorado, take County Road 35 north to County Road 37 and turn right. Pay the user fee at Jefferson Lake Recreation Area entrance station and continue on the road to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Blue River, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 50°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 12°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
Jefferson Creek is in Colorado’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Brittany Pettersen (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →