U.S. Forest Service · San Juan National Forest · CO

Middle Mountain

ReservableOut of season; the next season isn't published.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
A night
$28–$32Across the site types the agency prices
Sites
41 on recreation.gov
Season
May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
7,690 ftElevation
160 ftWater · Vallecito Reservoir
11.3 miNE of Bayfield, CO
24%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 207th darkest of 522 in CO
Open May 1 through September 30Today

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

This location is available on a first-come, first-served basis only. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cellular service. Keep reading

Facilities

Middle Mountain Campground is located on Vallecito Reservoir and near the Pine River. It has 24 sites with southern exposure and easy access to the water. The campground is very open and sunny, with a grassy shoreline and afternoon breezes. Some shade is provided by ponderosa pines and small aspen. A few sites can accommodate large RVs. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.

Tents and rigs

Sites
4
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Reservoir, River, Beach
Fall color · reported 10 days ago, 2.8 km away
Patchy color
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (2.8 km) · Oct 8, 2026

No reading yet, book on recreation.gov

recreation.gov lists 1 of the 4 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.

Booking windowOut of seasonOut of season, no booking. The last reservable season the agency published ended September 25, 2022, and it hasn't published the next one.recreation.gov
A night$28–$32plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$64–$72DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itRocky Mountain Recreation CompanyA private concessionaire under permit from U.S. Forest Service (parent: ExplorUS)the operator link
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 13

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night, per site$28–$32
Middle Mountain Standard$28
Middle Mountain Premium$32
These are next season’s rates, Jun 5, 2027 to Sep 12, 2027. The campground is between seasons now.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$36–$40
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$64–$72

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $28–$32 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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

4 sites · the site map

All 4 sites

1 of 4 sites located
Standard1
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
Up to

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 4 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.

Scan and PayScanPay 2type not stated
Scan and PayScanPay 3type not stated
Scan and PayScanPay 4type not stated
Scan and PayStandardstandard nonelectric160 ft$28–$32

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 phone number

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight41°Partly Cloudy
Sunday58°Mostly Sunny10% rain
Sunday Night43°Chance Rain Showers28% rain
Monday57°Chance Rain Showers37% rain

NWS forecast for Bayfield, CO

Typical weather

Typical May night 35°F, day 66°F.

Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 35°F. Bring the bag rated for it.

90°32°0°

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.

Measured at: VALLECITO DAM, CO (USC00058582), 3 miles away and 46 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Runlett Park4,968 acres · 4 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Florida River35,330 acres · 7 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Jeff Hurd, official portrait

Middle Mountain 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it out of season. The season it publishes is the bar below.
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (2.8 km) · Oct 8, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.