Lodgepole (Jefferson Lake, Fairplay Colorado)
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $24From, per site
- Sites
- 3433 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Lodgepole Campground is a creekside destination with incredible Colorado mountain views. The campground is located 3 miles south of Jefferson Lake, 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
The best hiking, biking and horseback riding experience is on the epic Colorado Trail, a 471-mile trail that extends from Denver to Durango. Also accessible from the campground is the West Jefferson Loop Trail, a foot path that extends for 11 miles and reaches the Continental Divide. Rainbow, brown, mackinaw and brook trout can be found swimming in the creek. For those who prefer fishing by boat, Jefferson Lake has a boat ramp. It is a no-wake lake.
Facilities
Lodgepole offers more than 30 reservable campsites. Parking aprons are gravel and dirt and the max RV length 30 feet. Amenities include picnic tables, vault toilets, drinking water and grills.
Natural Features
Lodgepole sits in a valley along Jefferson Creek facing Jefferson Hill at the high elevation of 9,900 feet. The single-loop campground is surrounded by groves of aspen and mixed conifer trees. Jefferson Lake, spanning about 182 acres, has deep, cold waters and 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 is $100.00.
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.
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
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 campgroung and Jefferson Lake Recreation Area
ATV's and off road vehicles are prohibited in the campround and Jefferson Lake Recreation Area
Dogs must be on a leash or tethered at all times.
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/night 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
- 34 · 8 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- 18
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…feet. Amenities include picnic tables, vault toilets, drinking water and grills. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 34 of 34 campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 421st darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 18 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 33 of the 34 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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
34 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 33 mapped sitesAll 34 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. 33 of the 34 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LODGEPOLE | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 52 ft | 363 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 003 | type not stated | 22 ft | yes | 385 ftJefferson Creek | ||
| LODGEPOLE | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 19 ft | 353 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 19 ft | 335 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 37 ft | 327 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 30 ft | 322 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 008 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | yes | 30 ft | 302 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 009 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | yes | 49 ft | 310 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 010 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | yes | 77 ft | 310 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 011 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 58 ft | 387 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 012 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | yes | 27 ft | 432 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 013 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 27 ft | 458 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 014 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 48 ft | 520 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 24 ft | 523 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 24 ft | 547 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 017 | standard nonelectric | 14 ft | 17 ft | 557 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 018 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | yes | 17 ft | 541 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 019 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 38 ft | 575 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 020 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | yes | 38 ft | 553 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 021 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 30 ft | 561 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 022 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 30 ft | 547 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 023 | standard nonelectric | 14 ft | yes | 49 ft | 543 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 024 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 71 ft | 617 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 025 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | yes | 38 ft | 538 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 026 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 38 ft | 554 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 027 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 54 ft | 562 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 028 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 13 ft | 553 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 029 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 13 ft | 540 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 030 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 18 ft | 522 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 031 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 18 ft | 535 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 032 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 81 ft | 449 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 033 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 92 ft | 376 ftJefferson Creek | $24 | |
| LODGEPOLE | 034 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 97 ft | 352 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
| LODGEPOLE | 035 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | yes | 52 ft | 366 ftJefferson Creek | $24 |
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.
25 of 34 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Aspen (CO)Pike National Forest · 0.8 mi
Jefferson CreekPike National Forest · 1.5 miMichigan CreekPike National Forest · 1.9 mi
Timberline CampgroundPike National Forest · 4.8 mi
Kenosha Pass CampgroundPike National Forest · 5.0 miFrom US Highway 285 at Jefferson, 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 21°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 2°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
Lodgepole (Jefferson Lake, Fairplay Colorado) 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 →