Meadows Campground (CO)
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $26From, per site
- Sites
- 3130 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Meadows Campground is located on Rabbit Ears Pass outside of Steamboat Springs, CO and is surrounded by Spruce, Fir and Lodgepole forest. It has 30 campsites, with a combination of pull-through, back-in and walk-in tent sites. At an elevation of 9,300 feet, Meadows campground lies near the top of Continental Divide in the Park Range. Activities include stream fishing, hiking, wildflower viewing, and mountain biking easily accessible on nearby trails. Established Forest Service summer hiking and mountain biking trails are accessible nearby from the road to Dumont Campground (NFSR 315). Vault toilets and garbage services are provided. Keep reading
Recreation
Activities include stream fishing, hiking and mountain biking easily accessible. Camping limit is 14 days.
Facilities
Vault toilets and garbage services provided.
Natural Features
At an elevation of 9,300 feet, Meadows campground lies in the Rocky Mountains in the heart of the Routt National Forest on Rabbit Ears pass. The Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland encompass nearly three million acres from central and northeastern Wyoming to north-central Colorado. Black bear, bobcat, coyote, elk, mule deer and moose are just some of the many animals that inhabit these rich and diverse lands. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (970) 870-2299.
What the agency tells you
• No water available • This is a high elevation facility (9,300 ft); please use caution when traveling from lower elevations. • Be bear aware; keep all food out of site in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating. • 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 31 · 4 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…road to Dumont Campground (NFSR 315). Vault toilets and garbage services are provided. Recreation…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Meadow
- Picnicking
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 30 of the 31 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, $26 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.
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 Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
31 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 30 mapped sitesAll 31 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. 30 of the 31 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| East | 15 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 487 ft | $26 |
| East | 16 | standard nonelectric | 109 ft | 589 ft | $26 |
| East | 17 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 561 ft | $26 |
| East | 18 | standard nonelectric | 130 ft | 691 ft | $26 |
| East | 19 | standard nonelectric | 156 ft | 700 ft | $26 |
| East | 20 | standard nonelectric | 108 ft | 546 ft | $26 |
| East | 21 | standard nonelectric | 87 ft | 554 ft | $26 |
| East | 22 | standard nonelectric | 87 ft | 469 ft | $26 |
| East | 23 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 352 ft | $26 |
| East | 24 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 312 ft | $26 |
| East | 25 | standard nonelectric | 109 ft | 429 ft | $26 |
| East | 26 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 305 ft | $26 |
| East | 27 | standard nonelectric | 109 ft | 423 ft | $26 |
| Tent, Walk In | 28 | tent only nonelectric | 126 ft | 161 ft | $26 |
| Tent, Walk In | 29 | tent only nonelectric | 126 ft | 173 ft | $26 |
| Tent, Walk In | 30 | tent only nonelectric | 55 ft | 133 ft | $26 |
| Tent, Walk In | 31 | tent only nonelectric | 55 ft | 188 ft | $26 |
| West | 1 | type not stated | 312 ft | ||
| West | 10 | standard nonelectric | 123 ft | 637 ft | $26 |
| West | 11 | standard nonelectric | 73 ft | 534 ft | $26 |
| West | 12 | standard nonelectric | 73 ft | 467 ft | $26 |
| West | 13 | standard nonelectric | 94 ft | 514 ft | $26 |
| West | 14 | standard nonelectric | 153 ft | 379 ft | $26 |
| West | 2 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 397 ft | $26 |
| West | 3 | standard nonelectric | 103 ft | 466 ft | $26 |
| West | 4 | standard nonelectric | 78 ft | 438 ft | $26 |
| West | 5 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 669 ft | $26 |
| West | 6 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 607 ft | $26 |
| West | 7 | standard nonelectric | 88 ft | 619 ft | $26 |
| West | 8 | standard nonelectric | 88 ft | 694 ft | $26 |
| West | 9 | standard nonelectric | 88 ft | 606 ft | $26 |
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 31 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Dumont CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 5.6 miGranite CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 8.5 mi
Hidden Lakes CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 11 mi
Dry Lake Campground (CO)Routt National Forest · 12 mi
Summit Lake CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 12 mi
Grizzly Creek Guard Station14 miDirections from Steamboat Springs, CO: Travel 15 miles southeast of Steamboat Springs on US Highway 40 to Rabbit Ears Pass. The Campground is located on the south side of the highway, on Forest Road 297 near the west summit of the pass.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Steamboat Springs, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 7°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
Meadows Campground (CO) is in Colorado’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Joe Neguse (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →