May Queen
1Heads up1 fire 3.1 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 2713 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
May Queen Campground is located at the far western end of Turquoise Lake in a shaded lodgepole pine forest. Conveniently perched near the Charles Boustead Memorial Tunnel, May Queen offers easy access to boating, fishing and hiking. Incredible views of the Holy Cross and Mount Massive Wildernesses can be seen from the area, and visitors are likely to see native wildlife like chipmunks, beavers and porcupines. The Charles Boustead Memorial Tunnel is a 5.5-mile tunnel that transports water from the Fryingpan and Roaring Fork River Basins through the Continental Divide to the Arkansas River Basin by emptying water into Turquoise Lake. Keep reading
Recreation
Explore the 6.4-mile Turquoise Lake Trail, which parallels the shoreline of Turquoise Lake from May Queen Campground to the dam. The trail offers moderate hiking with spectacular views and a variety of flora and fauna, as well as remnants of old mines. The Timberline Lake trailhead is 1/2 mile up the road. A 2-mile hike to this lake is rewarded with stunning views and high alpine lake fishing. The Colorado Trail can also be accessed from this trailhead. On Turquoise Lake, sailing, boating and canoeing are enjoyed. Anglers seek out mostly mackinaw and rainbow trout.
Facilities
Campground offers single family sites. Each site is equipped with a campfire ring and picnic table. Vault toilets and trash collection are provided. Easy access to the lake is provided for canoes and other hand-carried boats. Trailered boats can use Matchless Boat Ramp located on the east side of Turquoise Lake.
Natural Features
The campground sits at an elevation of 9,900 ft. on Turquoise Lake. Most campsites are situated on a level, open field along a creek, feeding into the lake. Six first come-first, serve-sites are perched on the wooded hillside above the creek. Nearby is the Mount Massive Wilderness area, a 30,540 acre expanse encompassing Mount Massive, Colorado's second highest peak at 14,421 feet. Much of the wilderness is above timberline with many alpine plant communities and permanent snowfields.
Nearby Attractions
Nearby is the abandoned bed of the Colorado Midland Railroad, built in the 1890s. The trail is hard to trace, but visitors may find artifacts in the gulch it once crossed. The town of Leadville, a historic gold and silver mining town, is a fun place to explore with the family. Drive on the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway to Independence Pass, one of the highest paved passes in Colorado. Continue over the pass to the town of Aspen, a well-known ski resort town.
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
Water will not be available in this campground in 2026. Please bring enough water for your needs, including water to fully extinguish your campfire. Also, RV Dump Stations at both Printer Boy & White Star Campgrounds remain closed this season.
Check in: 2 pm, Check out: 12 pm (noon)
Two (2) vehicles are included with each campsite reservation. RVs and their tow vehicle, as well as vehicles towing camper trailers, are considered one vehicle when they arrive as a single unit. Vehicles beyond that would be subject to the additional vehicle fee ($11.00/night) collected at the campground upon arrival. Boat/ATV trailers are considered an additional vehicle and will be charged the extra vehicle fee per night. Please note that all vehicles must fit in the parking spur. Please no parking on the grass.
Everything else this campground posts · 11
3 tent maximum per site, or 1 RV and 2 tents
Dogs, including service and therapy dogs, must be leashed at all times.
Generators may not be operated after 10 PM. CPAP machines and other medical equipment are not exempt,
Be bear aware. Do not leave any food unattended at your site. Lock inside your vehicle or RV.
OHVs, ATVs, and dirt bikes are not permitted to operate in any campground
Firearms and fireworks are not permitted.
No hookups available
This is a high elevation facility, please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
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.
Firewood is available for sale at host site for $10.00/bundle.
First Come First Served Campsites are available here. Information regarding the distance between the parking area and the campsites are as follows: Campsite #5 - 220 feet Campsite #6 - 20 feet Campsite #7 - 180 feet Campsite #8 - 180 feet
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 27 · 4 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a campfire ring and picnic table. Vault toilets and trash collection are provided. Easy access to…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Swimming
- Night sky · 329th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 20 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 13 of the 27 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 · 14
What you actually pay
“Extra Vehicle Fee $10.00” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own fee record
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $30 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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
28 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 13 mapped sitesAll 28 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 27 of the 28 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. 27 of the 28 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| MANAGEMENT | 005 | type not stated | 256 ftLake Fork | 211 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 006 | type not stated | 263 ftLake Fork | 158 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 007 | type not stated | 272 ftLake Fork | 57 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 008 | type not stated | 280 ftLake Fork | 73 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 009 | type not stated | 319 ftLake Fork | 133 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 011 | type not stated | 390 ft | 279 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 016 | type not stated | 299 ft | 534 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 018 | type not stated | 225 ft | 394 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 021 | type not stated | 255 ft | 380 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 023 | type not stated | 84 ft | 45 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 024 | type not stated | 237 ftLake Fork | 97 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 025 | type not stated | 244 ftLake Fork | 143 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 026 | type not stated | 204 ftLake Fork | 245 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | 027 | type not stated | 181 ftLake Fork | 282 ft | $30 | |||
| MANAGEMENT | XXX | unnamed record | 99 ft | yes | $30 | |||
| MAY | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 163 ft | 168 ftLake Fork | 478 ft | $30 | ||
| MAY | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 5 ft | 244 ftLake Fork | 253 ft | $30 | ||
| MAY | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 5 ft | 248 ftLake Fork | 249 ft | $30 | ||
| MAY | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 71 ft | 234 ftLake Fork | 325 ft | $30 | ||
| MAY | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 101 ft | 312 ftLake Fork | 160 ft | $30 | |
| MAY | 012 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 101 ft | 381 ft | 259 ft | $30 | |
| MAY | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 11 ft | 353 ft | 361 ft | $30 | |
| MAY | 014 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 24 ft | 371 ft | 385 ft | $30 | |
| MAY | 015 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 11 ft | 353 ft | 372 ft | $30 | |
| MAY | 017 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 171 ft | 253 ft | 492 ft | $30 | |
| MAY | 019 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 106 ft | 149 ft | 325 ft | $30 | |
| MAY | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 68 ft | 152 ft | 220 ft | $30 | |
| MAY | 022 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 68 ft | 171 ft | 168 ft | $30 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It types it MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 28 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Silver DollarSan Isabel National Forest · 4.4 mi
Baby DoeSan Isabel National Forest · 4.4 mi
Father DyerSan Isabel National Forest · 4.5 miFrom Leadville, Colorado, head west on County Road 4. Continue on the paved road about 9 miles to May Queen Campground on the right.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Leadville North, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 24°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 3°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
May Queen 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 →