Molly Brown
1Heads up1 fire 5.4 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $30–$33Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 4945 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Named after the "unsinkable" Molly Brown on the Titanic, Molly Brown Campground, on the eastern shore of Turquoise Lake, sits in a shaded lodgepole pine forest. The campground offers access to boating, fishing, and hiking. The famous Molly Brown lived in the town of Leadville, just 5 miles east of the campground. She became wealthy from her husband's mining success and took on a life as a philanthropist, socialite and activist. Keep reading
Recreation
The 1.2-mile Turquoise Lake Nature Trail is a gentle loop trail through the forest and down to the shoreline of Turquoise Lake. This trail connects to the 6.4 mile Turquoise Lake Trail that parallels the shoreline from the dam to May Queen Campground. It is recommended that hikers pick up a trail guide prior to departure to learn about the flora and fauna along this trail. On the lake, sailing, boating and canoeing are always enjoyed. Anglers seek out mostly mackinaw and rainbow trout.
Facilities
The two-loop campground offers single family sites. Each site is equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and trash collection are provided. Firewood is for sale at the Host site.
Natural Features
Campsites are perched along the scenic waters of the lake. Nearby is the Mount Massive Wilderness area, a 30,540 acre stretch of forest land which encompasses Colorado's second highest peak, Mount Massive at 14,421 feet. Much of the wilderness is above timberline with many alpine plant communities and permanent snowfields. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
Nearby Attractions
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, the RV Dump Stations at both Printer Boy & White Star Campgrounds will 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
Maximum of 8 people are permitted to occupy 1 site.
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.
OHVs, ATVs, and dirt bikes are not permitted to operate in any campground.
Be bear aware. Do not leave any food unattended at your site. Lock inside your vehicle or RV.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 49 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and trash collection are provided. Firewood is for…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Beach
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Swimming
- Night sky · 399th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 19 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 45 of the 49 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 · 15
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 rates for this season, $30–$33 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
50 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 45 mapped sitesAll 50 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 49 of the 50 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. 49 of the 50 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.
| MANAGEMENT | 034 | type not stated | 357 ft | 2,173 ft | $30 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | 045 | type not stated | 237 ft | 1,889 ft | $30 | ||
| MANAGEMENT | XXX | unnamed record | 40 ft | $30 | |||
| MOLL | 001 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 111 ft | 430 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,273 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 002 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 34 ft | 320 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,256 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 003 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 34 ft | 310 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,223 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 108 ft | 212 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,270 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 005 | type not stated | 25 ft | 200 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,341 ft | $30 | |
| MOLL | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 353 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,642 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 172 ft | 227 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,471 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 33 ft | 364 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,693 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 009 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 33 ft | 379 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,724 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 44 ft | 369 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,764 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 011 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 29 ft | 351 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,913 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 012 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 29 ft | 352 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,941 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 49 ft | 353 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,987 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 014 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 45 ft | 401 ftTurquoise Lake | 2,034 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 015 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 45 ft | 446 ftTurquoise Lake | 2,022 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 016 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 61 ft | 506 ftTurquoise Lake | 2,016 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 559 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,968 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 51 ft | 599 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,930 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 58 ft | 576 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,771 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 34 ft | 568 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,727 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 021 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 34 ft | 564 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,700 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 022 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 68 ft | 570 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,653 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 023 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 86 ft | 552 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,573 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 024 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 112 ft | 446 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,489 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 025 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 87 ft | 551 ftTurquoise Lake | 1,406 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 026 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 87 ft | 614 ft | 1,477 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 027 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 102 ft | 481 ft | 1,671 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 028 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 17 ft | 450 ft | 1,791 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 029 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 17 ft | 453 ft | 1,793 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 030 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 43 ft | 433 ft | 1,827 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 031 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 53 ft | 403 ft | 1,982 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 032 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 40 ft | 377 ft | 2,035 ft | $30 |
| MOLL | 033 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 40 ft | 348 ft | 2,073 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 035 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 81 ft | 415 ft | 2,250 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 036 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 60 ft | 417 ft | 2,331 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 037 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 37 ft | 375 ft | 2,363 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 038 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 37 ft | 345 ft | 2,374 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 039 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 95 ft | 262 ft | 2,310 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 040 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 147 ft | 173 ft | 2,104 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 041 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 11 ft | 192 ft | 2,028 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 042 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 11 ft | 203 ft | 2,018 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 043 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 112 ft | 255 ft | 1,972 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 044 | type not stated | 35 ft | 281 ft | 1,957 ft | $30 | |
| MOLL | 046 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 43 ft | 280 ft | 1,816 ft | $30 |
| MOLL | 047 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 43 ft | 304 ft | 1,777 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 048 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 13 ft | 399 ft | 1,764 ft | $30–$33 |
| MOLL | 049 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 13 ft | 403 ft | 1,751 ft | $30–$33 |
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 50 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Baby DoeSan Isabel National Forest · 0.2 mi
Printer BoySan Isabel National Forest · 0.3 mi
Silver DollarSan Isabel National Forest · 0.3 mi
Father DyerSan Isabel National Forest · 0.5 miTaborSan Isabel National Forest · 0.7 miFrom Leadville, Colorado, head west on County Road 4 and turn right on County Road 9C. Follow signs to Molly Brown 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
Molly Brown 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 →