North Canyon Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $28From, per site
- Sites
- 21All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
North Canyon Campground is situated next to Vallecito Reservoir in southwestern Colorado. Visitors enjoy the area for its beautiful scenery and wide range of recreational activities, including boating, fishing and hiking. Keep reading
Recreation
Vallecito Reservoir is a very popular fishing lake, with anglers casting for German brown trout, cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, kokanee salmon and northern pike. The lake offers great boating, water skiing and canoeing opportunities. Boat rentals and fishing licenses are available at various locations around the lake. A variety of hiking and horseback riding trails are found in the area. The North Canyon Trail begins across the road from the campground and leads through ponderosa pine and aspen forests. A short side trail leads to a scenic overlook of the lake. East Creek Trail begins a quarter-mile northeast of the campground, on Forest Road 852. It provides access to a lightly used, scenic drainage where fly-fisherman cast for brook trout. Both trails are popular with horseback riders, however, horses are not allowed in the campground.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites, many of which have lake views. Sites are equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided.
Natural Features
Vallecito, which is Spanish for "little valley," sits at an elevation of 7,900 feet. Scattered ponderosa pines tower over the open campground, offering limited shade. A thick understory provides privacy between sites, many of which have partial lake views. Thickets of willow separate the camping area from the lakeshore. High peaks of the San Juans are visible to the northwest of the campground. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
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
Click here for more information on the San Juan National Forest
For general information about the San Juan National Forest, please call (970) 884-2512. Campsite availability is not available at this phone number
This facility has first come first serve sites. Even if all reservable sites have been taken, it might be possible to acquire one of these sites on a walk in basis
Everything else this campground posts · 1
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
- 21
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. Natural Features Vallecito, which is…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Swimming
- Water sports
- Night sky · 220th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 9 days ago, 4.1 km away
- Patchy color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $28 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
21 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 12 mapped sitesAll 21 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. 21 of the 21 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop A | 001 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $28 | ||
| Loop A | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $28 | ||
| Loop A | 003 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $28 | ||
| Loop A | 004 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 147 ft | 96 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 005 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $28 | ||
| Loop A | 006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 56 ft | 114 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 007 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 32 ft | 151 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 32 ft | 183 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 009 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $28 | ||
| Loop A | 010 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 37 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 58 ft | 67 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 012 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $28 | ||
| Loop A | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $28 | ||
| Loop A | 014 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 19 ft | 319 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 19 ft | 324 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 131 ft | 290 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 017 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $28 | ||
| Loop A | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 109 ft | 286 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 019 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | $28 | ||
| Loop A | 020 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 83 ft | 282 ft | $28 |
| Loop A | 021 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 83 ft | 338 ft | $28 |
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 agency’s directions
Where it is
Graham Creek CampgroundSan Juan National Forest · 0.3 mi
Pine Point CampgroundSan Juan National Forest · 0.5 mi
Pine Point (Vallecito Reservoir, CO)San Juan National Forest · 0.5 mi
Middle MountainSan Juan National Forest · 1.0 mi
Pine RiverSan Juan National Forest · 4.1 mi
Vallecito CampgroundSan Juan National Forest · 5.8 miFrom Bayfield, Colo., at the Vallecito Lake sign on U.S. Highway 160 (County Road 501), go north about 13 miles to Vallecito. Turn right on County Road 501A at the fire station and travel 4 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bayfield, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 61°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
North Canyon Campground 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 →