Matterhorn Cabin
1Heads up1 fire 18 mi away
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 23Opens May 23. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Matterhorn Cabin is a great destination for anything from a family reunion to a week-long ski trip. This modern facility offers comfortable accommodations for groups of 12 or more and is available during the fall and winter months. Located just off the highway, it is easily accessible by passenger cars and is only 15 miles from the town of Telluride. Keep reading
Recreation
Ski right from the cabin door onto groomed cross-country ski trails! Neighboring the cabin is a groomed cross-country ski area that offers 10 kilometers of groomed trails for classic skiing, skate skiing and snowshoeing. The Telluride Ski Area is just a 15-minute drive from the cabin, offering world-class skiing and snowboarding. Snowmobilers will enjoy riding the Lizard Head meadows (three miles away) or riding groomed trails in the nearby Alta Lakes area. Local guide services offer heli-skiing, snowmobiling, backcountry skiing, dog sledding and ice climbing trips.
Facilities
This 1,800-square foot cabin has electricity, running water, a furnace, woodstove and washer/dryer. It comfortably sleeps 12 people in the five bedrooms (two twin bunk beds/mattresses each) and upstairs TV room (two double sleeper couches). The kitchen has two refrigerators, two electric ovens, one microwave oven, cookware, coffee maker, dishes and utensils. The two bathrooms each have flush toilets and showers. There is a land line phone in the cabin. Cell phone reception is unreliable. Cleaning supplies, garbage bags, toilet paper, dish soap and sponges, firewood, and a garbage dumpster are provided. Bring food, sleeping bags, bed pillows, bath towels and toiletries.
Natural Features
Visitors can expect a large facility set back roughly 100 feet from the road within a forested setting. Guests will have a prominent view of Sheep Mountain (13,188 feet) from the front porch.
Nearby Attractions
Nearby winter attractions include the Telluride Ski Area, Lizard Head Wilderness and the resort towns of Telluride and Mountain Village. Contact Info This location has limited staffing. Please call (970) 729-2307 for general information.
What the agency tells you
Entry is by combination lock. Note: the combination number will be provided to guests in the reservation confirmation letter.
Customers must clean cabin before leaving. Cleaning supplies will be provided. Please review checklist that is posted on fridge or on clipboard near the landline telephone. Please reach out to the Norwood Ranger District if there are any issues at the cabin or we are low on any cleaning supplies, toliet paper, etc.
No smoking allowed in the cabin.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
No pets allowed inside the cabin.
No linens provided, just mattress covers. Bring your own sleeping bags, pillows and bath towels.
Cell phone service is unreliable. There is a landline telephone on site that can be used to dial local numbers or emergency services.
The following are provided: washer & dryer, garbage bags, toilet paper & paper towels, dish soap and sponges, dish towels, cleaning solutions for surface cleaning/mopping, vacumn, garbage dumpster,etc.
DO NOT USE the woodstove at this time. We are currently addressing some issues with the fireplace and stovepipe. It is not safe to burn anything in this woodstove until these issues are addressed. Please use the forced air heat. The thermostat is located next to the kitchen entrance. Please set it to 60F when you leave for your stay.
Check in time is 3pm. Check-out time is 12pm
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…utensils. The two bathrooms each have flush toilets and showers. There is a land line phone in the…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Meadow
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- Spotty
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 13 km away
- Patchy color
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 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. 1 of the 1 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.
| MATTERHORN CABIN | MATTERHORN CABIN | cabin electric | 200 ft | 535 ft | $240 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
MatterhornUncompahgre National Forest · 0.1 miSunshine Campground - Norwood RDUncompahgre National Forest · 3.2 miSunshineUncompahgre National Forest · 3.2 miAlta Lakes Campground (Designated) - Norwood RD3.3 mi
South MineralSan Juan National Forest · 6.4 mi
Cayton CampgroundSan Juan National Forest · 7.2 miFrom Telluride, drive 3 miles west on the State Hwy 145 Spur. At the roundabout, turn left onto Hwy 145 and proceed south for approximately 10 miles. Turn left at the Matterhorn Cabin sign into the cabin parking area (300 yards past the Matterhorn Campground).
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ophir, CO
Typical weather
Typical May night 29°F, day 60°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 29°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 moreOutside the published season
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
Matterhorn Cabin 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
“…showers. There is a land line phone in the cabin. Cell phone reception is unreliable. Cleaning supplies, garbage bags, toilet paper, dish soap and…”