Lake Fork(Rio Grande Natl Fore
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $29From, per site
- Sites
- 18All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lake Fork Campground sits in the Rio Grande Forest, 40 miles northwest of Antonito, Colorado. The campground is a true getaway from any city, and requires an 18-mile drive on a gravel road. This high elevation campground boasts limitless beauty with mountain peaks, alpine wildlife spotting and several varieties of birds. Keep reading
Recreation
The campground is convenient to several trails, such as Lake Fork to Big Lake and Conejos Peak to Blue Lake. The Conejos River is a Gold Medal River, meaning it offers the greatest potential for trophy trout fishing. Rainbow and brown trout are the most common species in the river.
Facilities
Some campsites overlook the river. There is one centrally located drinking water spigot. All parking spurs are gravel. Firewood can be purchased on-site. No electric hookups are available. Campers will find an old-fashioned steel tub bath at Brummel's Rocky Mountain Lodge about 10 miles south.
Natural Features
The campground is located in south central Colorado on the banks of the Conejos River. It is shaded by spruce, aspen and a few cottonwoods and willows at an elevation of 9,500 feet. A variety of wildlife makes its home in the area, including black bears, deer and marmots. Wildflowers dot the region, creating colorful landscapes for photography enthusiasts. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (805) 434-1996.
Nearby Attractions
Take in spectacular views of the Conejos Canyon and River along Forest Road 250.
What the agency tells you
SCRS & Recreation.gov policy states we will keep your reserved site until check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. If you haven't occupied it at any time during this period, your reservation is null and void and we will give it to first come first serve folks. Your reservation will be a no show and no refund will be given.
The camp host at this location cannot modify your reservation. Before your check-in date, you may cancel or modify your reservation online. After your check-out date, you have a 7 day period to request a refund online.
No electric hookups at this facility.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
This campground has first-come, first-serve sites.
The 14 day stay limit is strictly enforced. Camping for a period longer than 14 days during any 30-consecutive day period is prohibited. If you have booked back-to-back reservations, you will be asked to cancel all days after the first 14.
Click here for more information on the Rio Grande National Forest.
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.
The Rio Grande National Forest continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation and evaluate potential impacts and adjustments to reservations and our reservation policies through Recreation.gov. Reservation holders will be notified via email and/or cell phone text messages if there are any changes affecting their reservation. In the event of delayed openings of some, part or all of the campgrounds and cabins to ensure safe social distancing, you will receive a full refund for your reservation. Please remember to review current recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and focus on recreating safely while protecting yourself, Forest Service employees and our volunteers.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 18
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…river. There is one centrally located drinking water spigot. All parking spurs are gravel. Firewood can…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 48th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
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, $29 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking, plus the agency’s published $2 weekend rate on Friday and Saturday. 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 Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 19 mapped sitesAll 19 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 18 of the 19 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.
| LAKE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 81 ft | 393 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 11 ft | 315 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 11 ft | 312 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 84 ft | 233 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 005 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 31 ft | 244 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 31 ft | 255 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 114 ft | 262 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 114 ft | 252 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 009 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 110 ft | 236 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 80 ft | 156 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 80 ft | 94 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 012 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 78 ft | 88 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 013 Host | host pad | 35 ft | 78 ft | 128 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 014 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 115 ft | 131 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 015 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 115 ft | 98 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 016 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 138 ft | 94 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 017 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 101 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 018 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 58 ft | 158 ftConejos River | $29 |
| LAKE | 019 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 102 ft | 182 ftConejos River | $29 |
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.
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
Platoro Cabin 1Rio Grande National Forest · 5.0 mi
Platoro Cabin 2Rio Grande National Forest · 5.0 miMix Lake CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 5.8 mi
Stunner CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 8.0 miAlamosa CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 8.7 miFrom Antonito, travel west on Highway 17 approximately 24 miles to the junction of Highways 17 and 250. Turn on Highway 250 and travel 18 miles on a gravel road to Lake Fork Campground.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Capulin, 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
Lake Fork(Rio Grande Natl Fore 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 →