Little Mattie Campground
1Heads up1 fire 22 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 1 of the next 15 nights read 15:22 UTC
- A night
- $29From, per site
- Sites
- 1918 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located approximately 14 miles eat of Basalt, CO, in the White River National Forest, Little Mattie Campground is situated on the Ruedi Reservoir at an elevation of 7800 feet. Sites are open to the starry nighttime skies and access to the lake and trails. It sits amid a mixed conifer forest and offers an ideal setting for guest seeking recreation and relaxation. Little Mattie has 19 standard sites suitable for tents, trailers and RVs. There is a maximum length of 30 feet for RVs & trailers. The sites are equipped with picnic tables, campfire rings and bear boxes (food storage lockers). Guests also have access to vault toilets and drinking water, but electrical hook-ups are not available. Keep reading
Recreation
Renown for its fly fishing, Frying pan River flows below Ruedi Dam. Here, large rainbow, brown, cutthroat and brook trout are plentiful in an area nicknamed the “toilet bowl.” The fish feed on Mysis shrimp, a small freshwater shrimp stocked in the lake. The stretch of rive from below the dam down to the confluence of Frying Pan and the Roaring Fork River has been designated as Gold Medal Waters by the Colorado Wildlife Commission. Special regulations in this area include fishing only with artificial flies and lures, and releasing all trout except brown trout, with a limit of two fish over 14 inches. For hikers and bikers, the Ruedi Trail, located north of the reservoir, climbs to the top of Red Mountain. The trailhead is located 200 feet north of the Jeep trail near the boat ramp and parking lot. This eight mile trail gains over 3,000 feet in elevation, leading hikers to a spectacular panoramic view of the area. Boating, swimming, and water skiing are all possible. Interpretive programs are popular activities.
Facilities
Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (801) 226-3564.
Charges & Cancellations
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
What the agency tells you
Please Note: One RV with tow per single site or one vehicle per tent site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (ELEVEN) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
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 .
Any accepted senior passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
Campers must occupy the site the first night at a campsite. This prevents booking the site for Fri-Sun and showing up on Saturday.
Campers may leave the site for 24 hours and must occupy the site otherwise. This allows a camper to say go for an overnight backpack trip in the woods for one night and come back to their campsite the next day.
Check in time is 2:00pm and Check out is 11:00am. It is imperative that you are clear from the site at 11:00am on your check out day so the host can come prepare the site for the next event. Please don't be the group that makes the incoming group have to wait.
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.WhiteRiver.Sopris@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 19
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…lockers). Guests also have access to vault toilets and drinking water, but electrical hook-ups are not…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…also have access to vault toilets and drinking water, but electrical hook-ups are not available.…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Paddle Boating
- Paddling
- Sailboarding
- Night sky · 299th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 21 km away
- Past peak
Full this Saturdayread 15:22 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 15:39 UTC. See them
OpenBookedClosedNot reservable
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 12
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. 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.
“Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.” · this campground’s own 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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 15:39 UTC
- East MarvineWhite River National Forest · 14 mi · 4 of 5 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:22 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 18 mapped sitesAll 19 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. 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.
| 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 122 ft | 63 ft | $29 |
| 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 51 ft | 41 ft | $29 |
| 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 32 ft | 57 ft | $29 |
| 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 32 ft | 64 ft | $29 |
| 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 102 ft | 46 ft | $29 |
| 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 37 ft | 52 ft | $29 |
| 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 37 ft | 56 ft | $29 |
| 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 64 ft | 99 ft | $29 |
| 009 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 42 ft | 123 ft | $29 |
| 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 42 ft | 127 ft | $29 |
| 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 48 ft | 111 ft | $29 |
| 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 48 ft | 105 ft | $29 |
| 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 65 ft | 94 ft | $29 |
| 014 | type not stated | 30 ft | 94 ft | ||
| 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 81 ft | 84 ft | $29 |
| 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 81 ft | 56 ft | $29 |
| 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 86 ft | 36 ft | $29 |
| 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 47 ft | 49 ft | $29 |
| 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 47 ft | 88 ft | $29 |
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
Little Maud CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 0.3 mi
Mollie B_white RiverWhite River National Forest · 0.3 mi
Ruedi Marina CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 0.4 mi
Dearhamer CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 3.8 mi
Chapman Campground and GroupWhite River National Forest · 11 miElk Wallow CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 11 miTake I-70 west of Denver to Glenwood Springs Exit 116, Highway 82 to Basalt. At Basalt, take Frying Pan Road 15 miles to the Ruedi Complex Entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Woody Creek, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January 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 · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Little Mattie 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyJeff HurdU.S. Representative · Colorado’s 3rd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn W. HickenlooperU.S. Senator · Colorado
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMichael F. BennetU.S. Senator · Colorado
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Little Mattie Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado
Dear Jeff Hurd, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Little Mattie Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 18 of the 19 campsites the agency files at Little Mattie Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Little Mattie Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Little Mattie Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Little Mattie Campground (White River National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Little Mattie Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Little Mattie Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 18 of the 19 campsites the agency files at Little Mattie Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Little Mattie Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Little Mattie Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Little Mattie Campground (White River National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Little Mattie Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Little Mattie Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 18 of the 19 campsites the agency files at Little Mattie Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Little Mattie Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Little Mattie Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Little Mattie Campground (White River National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com