Kelsey Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $28From, per site
- Sites
- 17All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Kelsey is one of two campgrounds within the Buffalo Creek Recreation Area, about an hour's drive southwest of Denver, Colorado. Visitors enjoy a variety of recreational opportunities, including hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking and trout fishing. Keep reading
Recreation
The Buffalo Creek Recreation Area is home to a 40-mile trail system most popular with mountain bikers, but hikers and horseback riders enjoy the area as well. Several trailheads are within the area, including Little Scraggy Trail, just 3 miles north of the campground. Access to the Colorado Trail and the Buffalo Burn Trail begin from this trailhead. Shinglemill Trail is also nearby. Buffalo Creek is a popular fishing stream for brook trout. The area offers great wildlife viewing opportunities for turkey, elk, mule deer, chipmunks and porcupines.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites, some of which are designated for tent camping only. Each site is equipped with picnic tables and campfire rings with grills. Vault toilets are provided. Drinking water is available from a hand pump, but hookups are not available. Kelsey Campground has 17 single-family campsites at an elevation of 7,400 feet in Pike National Forest. Campsites can accommodate tents, trailers and RVs. Each site has a parking spur (up to 30 feet), table fire ring and grill. You can have up to 8 people and 2 vehicles per site. Campground amenities include drinking water, vault toilets and trash collection. Firewood is also available to purchase from the camp host. Cell service is poor in the area.
Natural Features
The campground sits at an elevation of 7,400 feet in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Summer temperatures are mild and range from 75-80 during the day to 55-65 at night. The Kelsey Overlook is just north of the campground along County Road 126, offering beautiful views of the valley below. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (303) 647-2366.
Nearby Attractions
The drive along County Road 126 southwest from Pine Junction affords magnificent views of the valleys below. Pikes Peak, at 14,110 feet, can be seen in the distance and other prominent rock formations present themselves throughout the scenic drive.
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
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
This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
Facility has first-come, first-served sites
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Click here for more information on Pike and San Isabel National Forests
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 17 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 17
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tables and campfire rings with grills. Vault toilets are provided. Drinking water is available from a…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…with grills. Vault toilets are provided. Drinking water is available from a hand pump, but hookups are not…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Climbing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 497th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Spotty
- Fall color · reported 10 days ago, 32 km away
- No change
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, $28 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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
17 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 17 mapped sitesAll 17 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. 17 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.
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.
| KELS | 001 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 45 ft | 1.2 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 002 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 50 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 003 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 51 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 004 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 44 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 44 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 006 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 007 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 10 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 10 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 009 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 010 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 23 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 011 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 44 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 23 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 013 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 82 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 014 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 73 ft | 1.1 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 015 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 69 ft | 1.2 mi | $28 |
| KELS | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 45 ft | 1.2 mi | $28 | |
| KELS | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 58 ft | 1.2 mi | $28 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Meadows Group CampgroundPike National Forest · 2.9 miPlatte RiverPike National Forest · 3.4 mi
Buffalo CampgroundPike National Forest · 3.8 mi
OuzelPike National Forest · 4.2 mi
Lone Rock Campground (CO)Pike National Forest · 4.8 miFrom Denver, take Highway 285 southwest to Pine Junction and turn south on Jefferson County Road 126. Travel approximately 17 miles 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 Westcreek, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 59°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 9°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
Kelsey Campground 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…is also available to purchase from the camp host. Cell service is poor in the area. Natural Features The campground sits at an…”