Mill Creek Campground (CO)
1Heads up1 fire 19 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 1 of the next 30 nights read 16:43 UTC
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 31All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 6 notices
In the agency’s own words
Mill Creek Campground is located 14 miles southwest of Lake City, Colorado at 9,500 feet above sea level. Nestled along the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, the campground offers a fishing access trail for anglers and river access (though boating is not recommended from this location). The campground is surrounded by the Redcloud Peak and Handies Peak Wilderness Study Areas with world class hiking opportunities just a short drive away, including trails to three 14,000-foot peaks. From the campground, licensed OHV's and high clearance 4-wheel-drive vehicles can access the legendary Alpine Loop Backcountry Byway; a rugged 65 mile road system that connects the towns of Lake City, Silverton, and Ouray through the spectacular mountain scenery of the San Juan Mountains. The campground is accessible June through September. Keep reading
Recreation
Mill Creek Campground is an ideal base camp for exploring the Alpine Loop Backcountry Byway and the majestic San Juan Mountains. Whether you like to ride an off-highway vehicle, fly fish the Lake Fork, learn about the area's hardrock mining history, or challenge yourself to hike one of the 14,000-foot peaks, this area has something for everyone. There are also opportunities for viewing wildlife, seasonal wildflowers, and fishing the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River or nearby Lake San Cristobal.
Facilities
Mill Creek Campground has 22 campsites suitable for tent camping and medium sized RV's. Each campsite is limited to eight people and two vehicles. Each campsite features a metal fire ring with a cooking grate, a picnic table, and a bear-proof food storage box. Mill Creek Campground has vault restrooms, hand pumps for potable water, and bear-proof trash dumpsters on site. No electric or hookups are available at Mill Creek Campground. Campground hosts are available from June through early September.
Natural Features
Mill Creek offers shaded campsites among a mixed spruce/fir and aspen forest with magnificent mountain views of some of the highest peaks in Colorado and the sounds of the nearby Mill Creek and the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River.
Nearby Attractions
Enjoy Lake City, nestled in the valley of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River and Henson Creek, not only for shopping but to take in the impressive Hinsdale County Museum that celebrates the residents of past and present and tells of the rich railway history of the rail line that went to Lake City from 1889 to 1933. A variety of tours are also available including learning about the momental volcano that formed Lake City. Lake City also is a Gateway Community for hiking the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) that traverses 800 miles of majestic and challenging peaks dotted with abandoned homesteads, ghost towns, and remnants of Native Americans and settlers who flocked here to mine gold and silver. Other shorter hikes from town can lead to some wonderful waterfalls. Discover Lake San Cristobal, the second largest natural lake in Colorado that was formed by the Slumgullion Earthflow that slid 700 years ago, damming the Lake Fork of the Gunnison. The lake offers a wide variety of recreation opportunities including boating and fishing and much more. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (970) 642-4940.
Charges & Cancellations
Reservations cannot be modified less than 72 hours prior to reservation start date. Only 2 modifications can be made to a 180-day advanced reservations sites. Reservation cancellations occurring less than 72 hours prior to reservation start date are subject to NO REFUND .
What the agency tells you
Thirteen campsites at Mill Creek Campground are RESERVABLE, the remaining nine sites available FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE
Maintained gravel road to campground, beyond campground 4X4 recommended
Potable water is available at a hand pump
Everything else this campground posts · 3
Be bear aware, keep a clean campsite, use bear boxes
Campground is located at high elevation, drink water and use sunscreen
Be aware of variable weather and summer thunderstorms
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 31
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- 27 of 31 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 31 of 31 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER (HAND PUMP) on 31 of 31 campsite records
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Creek
- Night sky · 20th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 34 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 16:43 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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.
“- Reservations cannot be modified less than 72 hours prior to reservation start date. - Only 2 modifications can be made to a 180-day advanced reservations sites. - Reservation cancellations occurring less than 72 hours prior to reservation start date are subject to NO REFUND.” · this campground’s own 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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:43 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
31 sites
All 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. 31 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.
| A | 1 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | $20 |
| A | 10 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | $20 |
| A | 11 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | $20 |
| A | 12 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | $20 |
| A | 13 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $20 |
| A | 14 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $20 |
| A | 15 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | $20 |
| A | 16 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $20 |
| A | 17 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | $20 |
| A | 18 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | $20 |
| A | 19 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
| A | 2 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $20 |
| A | 20 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | $20 |
| A | 21 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | $20 |
| A | 22 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | $20 |
| A | 3 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | $20 |
| A | 4 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | $20 |
| A | 5 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | $20 |
| A | 6 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | $20 |
| A | 7 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | $20 |
| A | 8 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | $20 |
| A | 9 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | $20 |
| Tent Loop | 23 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
| Tent Loop | 24 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
| Tent Loop | 25 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
| Tent Loop | 26 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
| Tent Loop | 27 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
| Tent Loop | 28 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
| Tent Loop | 29 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
| Tent Loop | 30 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
| Tent Loop | 31 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | $20 |
25 of 31 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
From Lake Highway, take highway 149 south for about 2 miles. Turn right onto County Road 30 and continue for about 10.5 miles. Mill Creek Campground is on the left, over the bridge.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lake City, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 28°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 1°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 · a letter you can send
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
Mill Creek Campground (CO) 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyJeff HurdU.S. Representative · Colorado’s 3rd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn W. HickenlooperU.S. Senator · Colorado
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMichael F. BennetU.S. Senator · Colorado
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Mill Creek Campground (CO), Gunnison Field Office, Colorado
Dear Jeff Hurd, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Mill Creek Campground (CO), Gunnison Field Office, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 31 sites at Mill Creek Campground (CO) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Mill Creek Campground (CO) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mill Creek Campground (CO). I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Mill Creek Campground (CO) (Gunnison Field Office, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Mill Creek Campground (CO), Gunnison Field Office, Colorado
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Mill Creek Campground (CO), Gunnison Field Office, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 31 sites at Mill Creek Campground (CO) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Mill Creek Campground (CO) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mill Creek Campground (CO). I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Mill Creek Campground (CO) (Gunnison Field Office, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Mill Creek Campground (CO), Gunnison Field Office, Colorado
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Mill Creek Campground (CO), Gunnison Field Office, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 31 sites at Mill Creek Campground (CO) are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Mill Creek Campground (CO) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Mill Creek Campground (CO). I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Mill Creek Campground (CO) (Gunnison Field Office, Colorado) via campanac.com