Lake Fork Campground
1Heads uppark alert
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:25 UTC
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 8319 of them walk-up
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lake Fork Campground is on the Blue Mesa Reservoir, near the reservoir's dam. It is a part of the historic Curecanti Recreation Area and is an ideal place to stay for days of boat recreation, hiking and taking in the views of the Black Canyon. Keep reading
Recreation
Jet skiing, water skiing and canoeing are some of the many water activities available on the reservoir. Bird Watching is also rewarding, with chances to see the black-billed magpie. Along the shrubland, visitors can spot Gunnison's Prairie Dogs popping out of their holes.
Facilities
Flush toilets are available in summer months. Cell phone service is limited. For anglers, a fish cleaning station is provided for conveniently preparing the days catch. Elk Creek, Lake Fork and Iola boat ramps are OPEN for the season.
Natural Features
The steep canyon walls in this part of the reservoir were carved out by the Gunnison River, which once flowed with powerful intensity fueled by the snowmelt of nearby mountains. Today, the Gunnison river is dammed in three places, creating three large and beautiful reservoirs to be enjoyed by visitors. The land is characterized by semi-arid shrubland with vast expanses of sagebrush. The natural features and ecosystems of Curecanti vary greatly, with Riparian habitats, epic canyons and lush patches of Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and aspen trees.
Nearby Attractions
The recreation area is just south of Gunnison National Forest and east of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. There's no shortage of options for Scenic Drives and Hiking. Try hiking the Curecanti Creek Trail or Hermit's Rest Trail off HWY 92.. Charges & Cancellations
What the agency tells you
Lake Fork Campground is set up for RV camping. Most sites have very lttle space for tents. If you want to tent camp at Lake Fork Campground, please reserve one of the walk- in tent sites (sites 046 to 050). RV's are not allowed to park in walk-in campsite parking.
Lake Fork Campground does not offer electric hookups.
Upon arrival and before launching, all watercraft must be inspected and certified as Zebra and Quagga Mussel free. Inspection stations are located at the Elk Creek and Lake Fork boat ramps during peak seasons (May through October). Visit the Curecanti Boat Ramps web page for details.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Lake Fork Campground is a high elevation (7580 feet/2310 m) facility. Learn about how to "Take it Easy at Altitude" and more on the parks' Safety web page .
STOP THE SPREAD OF INVASIVE SPECIES . Remove plants, seeds, animals, a nd mud from boots, gear, pets, and vehicles. Clean your gear before entering and leaving the recreation site. Stay on designated roads and trails, and follow local guidelines for firewood . CLEAN, DRAIN, DRY boats and any o ther recreational equipment that contacts water. Dispose of unwanted bait, worms, fish parts, or other organisms into the trash and not into the environment. For more information visit the National Invasive Species Information Center .
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 83 · 5 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 52 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 6
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets - seasonal · Vault Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Dump station
- Yes
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Tree cover
- 0%
- Night sky · 150th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Park Service says
- Spotty
161 of 164 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:25 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
These counts cover the 83 reservable sites only. This campground also has first-come sites, and recreation.gov publishes no availability for a site you can’t reserve.
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.
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.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:25 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
83 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 64 mapped sitesAll 83 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 64 of the 83 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. 64 of the 83 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Lower Loop | 001 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 002 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 003 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 004 | rv nonelectric | yes | |||||
| Lower Loop | 005 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 006 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 007 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 008 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 009 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 010 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 011 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 012 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 013 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 014 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 015 | rv nonelectric | yes | |||||
| Lower Loop | 016 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 017 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 018 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Lower Loop | 019 | rv nonelectric | ||||||
| Middle Loop | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 37 ft | 221 ft | 441 ft | $24 | |
| Middle Loop | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 28 ft | 228 ft | 404 ft | $24 | |
| Middle Loop | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 28 ft | 228 ft | 376 ft | $24 | |
| Middle Loop | 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 37 ft | 240 ft | 333 ft | $24 | |
| Middle Loop | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 26 ft | 246 ft | 296 ft | $24 | |
| Middle Loop | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 26 ft | 252 ft | 271 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 027 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 30 ft | 175 ft | 122 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 028 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 30 ft | 178 ft | 101 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 029 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 30 ft | 178 ft | 88 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 030 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 29 ft | 193 ft | 66 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 031 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 29 ft | 188 ft | 74 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 032 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 30 ft | 183 ft | 93 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 033 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 27 ft | 179 ft | 125 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 034 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 22 ft | 178 ft | 147 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 035 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 29 ft | 168 ft | 188 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 036 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 22 ft | 172 ft | 166 ft | $24 |
| Upper Loop | 037 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 26 ft | 149 ft | 217 ft | $24 |
| Upper Loop | 038 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 23 ft | 146 ft | 238 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 039 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 23 ft | 144 ft | 256 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 040 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 26 ft | 143 ft | 277 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 041 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 27 ft | 142 ft | 271 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 042 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 24 ft | 136 ft | 256 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 043 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 24 ft | 130 ft | 245 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 044 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 24 ft | 125 ft | 228 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 045 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 24 ft | 121 ft | 219 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 046 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | 41 ft | 243 ft | 200 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 047 | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 37 ft | 281 ft | 167 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 048 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | 41 ft | 266 ft | 227 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 049 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | 37 ft | 317 ft | 161 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 050 | tent only nonelectric | 18 ft | 41 ft | 306 ft | 206 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 051 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 26 ft | 224 ft | 173 ft | $24 |
| Upper Loop | 052 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | yes | 17 ft | 215 ft | 159 ft | $24 |
| Upper Loop | 053 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 17 ft | 230 ft | 143 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 054 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 18 ft | 245 ft | 126 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 055 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 20 ft | 251 ft | 107 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 056 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 21 ft | 259 ft | 87 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 057 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 27 ft | 265 ft | 63 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 058 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 26 ft | 302 ft | 72 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 059 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 26 ft | 309 ft | 95 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 060 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 24 ft | 316 ft | 120 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 061 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 24 ft | 318 ft | 144 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 062 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 26 ft | 324 ft | 172 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 063 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 26 ft | 331 ft | 197 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 064 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 26 ft | 337 ft | 223 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 065 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 25 ft | 342 ft | 208 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 066 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 25 ft | 340 ft | 183 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 067 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 28 ft | 345 ft | 158 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 068 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 31 ft | 351 ft | 132 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 069 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 40 ft | 286 ft | 106 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 070 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 42 ft | 253 ft | 80 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 071 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 45 ft | 283 ft | 153 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 072 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 40 ft | 252 ft | 126 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 073 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 48 ft | 273 ft | 201 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 074 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 45 ft | 239 ft | 173 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 075 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 42 ft | 257 ft | 212 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 076 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 49 ft | 225 ft | 228 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 077 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 48 ft | 247 ft | 162 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 078 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 42 ft | 215 ft | 219 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 079 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 41 ft | 234 ft | 125 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 080 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 48 ft | 200 ft | 179 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 081 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 49 ft | 234 ft | 90 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 082 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 41 ft | 197 ft | 142 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 083 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 54 ft | 220 ft | 94 ft | $24 | |
| Upper Loop | 084 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 49 ft | 189 ft | 129 ft | $24 |
25 of 83 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ponderosa Campground (CO)Gunnison National Forest · 4.7 mi
Red Creek Group SiteGunnison Field Office · 5.2 mi
Red Creek CampgroundGunnison Field Office · 5.5 miSoap Creek Campground - Gunnison RDGunnison National Forest · 6.1 miSoap CreekGunnison National Forest · 6.2 mi
Gateview CampgroundGunnison Field Office · 7.0 miLake Fork campground is located off of Hwy 50 between Gunnison and Montrose, along Blue Mesa reservoir.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Gunnison, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 27°F, day 60°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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Lake Fork 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…Flush toilets are available in summer months. Cell phone service is limited. For anglers, a fish cleaning station is provided for…”