Off Cow Camp Cabin
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 10 of the next 11 nights read 16:43 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
The cabin is only accessible by 50" width or less vehicles and non-motorized uses (e.g. foot or horseback). YOU CANNOT DRIVE A PASSENGER VEHICLE TO THE CABIN. Off Cow Camp is a small cabin located in a high elevation meadow at 10,500 feet on Burro Creek near an off-highway vehicle trail. The cabin and barn were renovated in 2010 and a vault toilet was installed. Visitors may reserve the cabin for a maximum of fourteen nights to allow others the opportunity to rent the cabin. Keep reading
Recreation
The surrounding area offers many recreation opportunities, including hunting, hiking, off-highway vehicle riding, horseback riding, mountain biking, snowmobiling, backcountry skiing, and fishing.
Facilities
The small, rustic cabin sleeps four (two bunk beds). There is a wood burning cook stove, outhouse, barn for horses, fire ring, table and chairs. There is no potable water. Natural sources of water should be treated before use. Firewood not provided. Firewood can be gathered near the cabin.
Natural Features
There are meadows, aspen groves and spruce/fir forests near the cabin. At 13, 200 feet, Bennett Peak sits southeast of the cabin. Fitton Guard Station is located 400 yards upstream from Off Cow Camp and is available as a rental cabin to the public.
Nearby Attractions
The Burro Creek off-highway vehicle (OHV) trails connect many miles of OHV trails and forest roads in the area. The trails are also used by motorcycles, mountain bikers, hikers and horseback riders. During the winter, snowmobilers and backcountry skiers use the area near the cabin.
What the agency tells you
The cabin is only accessible by 50" width or less vehicles and non-motorized uses (e.g. foot or horseback). YOU CANNOT DRIVE A PASSENGER VEHICLE TO THE CABIN.
During the winter months, the access to this cabin is considered difficult and involves a 6-mile hike from the bottom trailhead.
The cabin has a horse barn and a several acre, fenced pasture for horses.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Access to the cabin is by foot, horse, mountain bike, motorcycle or all-terrain vehicle (ATV). Visitors must travel 1 1/2 miles from the upper trailhead, or 6 miles from the lower trailhead to reach the cabin. The area around the cabin is non-motorized, so ATV and motorcycle users must park next to the ATV trail and walk approximately 150 feet uphill to the cabin.
A combination code is needed to access the cabin. You must call ahead of time during normal business hours to obtain the access code.
Caution: Bears frequent the area. Keep the cabin area clean. Store all food in secure, closed containers. Do not leave food outside the cabin.
ATV's must stay on designated trails. ATV's or motorcycles cannot enter the fenced in cabin area or pasture/ corral areas.
No pets are allowed inside the cabin.
For more information, please call the Divide Ranger District at 719-657-3321.
During the winter and spring seasons, call the Divide Ranger District at 719-657-3321 for road conditions and access details. Snow or muddy conditions can affect access.
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
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and barn were renovated in 2010 and a vault toilet was installed. Visitors may reserve the cabin for a…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…for horses, fire ring, table and chairs. There is no potable water. Natural sources of water should be treated before…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:43 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Tue, Oct 20. read 16:43 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
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 · 12
What you actually pay
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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:43 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| OFF COW CAMP CABIN | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 132 ft | $25 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Fitton Guard Station CabinRio Grande National Forest · 0.2 miComstock CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 6.7 miRock Creek CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 7.8 mi
Stunner CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 9.5 miMix Lake CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 9.9 mi
Platoro Cabin 1Rio Grande National Forest · 9.9 miThe cabin is only accessible by 50" width or less vehicles and non-motorized uses (e.g. foot or horseback). YOU CANNOT DRIVE A PASSENGER VEHICLE TO THE CABIN. Access is from the upper or lower Burro Creek Trailheads (trail #873). From the west side of the town of Del Norte, head south on County Road 14 for 12 miles to the lower Burro Creek Trailhead. The cabin is 6 miles upstream from this trailhead and 1.5 miles from the upper trailhead. The upper trailhead is located 28 miles from the town of Del Norte and is accessed by Forest Service Roads 329 and 329.1C.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Gerrard, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 23°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 2°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
Off Cow Camp Cabin 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 Off Cow Camp Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado
Dear Jeff Hurd, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Off Cow Camp Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Off Cow Camp Cabin 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. Off Cow Camp Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Off Cow Camp Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service 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 Off Cow Camp Cabin (Rio Grande National Forest, 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 Off Cow Camp Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Off Cow Camp Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Off Cow Camp Cabin 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. Off Cow Camp Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Off Cow Camp Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service 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 Off Cow Camp Cabin (Rio Grande National Forest, 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 Off Cow Camp Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Off Cow Camp Cabin, Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Off Cow Camp Cabin 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. Off Cow Camp Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Off Cow Camp Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service 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 Off Cow Camp Cabin (Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com