Oh Be Joyful Campground
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 3029 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Approximately 5 miles from Crested Butte, Colorado, Oh Be Joyful Campground is a 30-unit campground along the Slate River. The campground itself gets its name from nearby Oh Be Joyful Creek that features massive waterfalls and colorful wildflowers in the summer months. The campground is located at approximately 9,000 feet in elevation and the views are spectacular. There is no cell service at this location, please save or print a copy of your reservation confirmation prior to arrival. Keep reading
Recreation
This premier area is known for camping, fishing, horseback riding, sight-seeing, hiking/walking, water play, kayaking, mountain biking, wildflower viewing, and motorized recreational uses. A foot bridge allows visitors to access the west side of the Slate River to hike along Oh Be Joyful Creek and into the Raggeds Wilderness.
Facilities
This 30-unit campground was recently renovated and has 14 RV campsites, 15 walk-in tent campsites, one walk-in group campsite and 3 vault restrooms. This campground is normally full and not available unless you have a reservation. Each campsite has a parking space, metal fire ring, picnic table, tent pad and bear proof food storage locker. Drinking water, electric hook-ups and trash service are not available at Oh Be Joyful so bring your own water and plan to take your own trash with you when you leave. Parking is available for day use visitors who come to Oh Be Joyful to hike, play in the water, picnic, etc. The access road (BLM Road 3220) into Oh Be Joyful Campground is steep and can be rough. The campground can accommodate RVs but the rough road down to the campground may not be suitable for larger low clearance rigs. Be aware BLM is a multi-use land management agency, cattle may enter the camping area during your stay.
Natural Features
The campground sits directly on the east bank of the Slate River and is nestled in a valley with mountains on either side of the valley. Due to the abundance of moisture in the spring and early summer, wildflowers are abundant. Look for our State flower the Columbine and other species including Indian Paintbrush and Avalanche Lilies.
Nearby Attractions
Charges & Cancellations Reservations cannot be modified less than 72 hours prior to reservation start date. This means no modifications can be made to a 4-day advanced reservation. 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
- Please save or print a copy of your reservation confirmation prior to arrival. There is no cell service at this campground. - Check-in time is after 2:00 p.m. on the first day of the reservation. - Check-out time is prior to 2:00 p.m. on the last day of the reservation. - If the reservation holder doesn't show up on the first day of the reservation, the campsite is released at check-in time (2 pm) the next day. - There are no hookup services, no trash collection services and no potable water. - Bring your own drinking water. - Maximum length of stay is 14 days. - Fires are only allowed in BLM approved metal fire rings. - Campsites are limited to 8 people and 2 vehicles per site. - Only 1 RV/trailer per RV campsite. - No RV/trailer camping allowed in tent campsites. - No RVs or camper trailers are allowed to park in parking spaces for walk-in tent campsites. These campsites and associated parking are for tent camping only. This applies to campsties 7-10 and 20-28. - No overnight RV/trailer camping in day use parking areas. - Dogs must be on leash. - Food should be stored in the bear proof food storage lockers provided. - This is a high elevation campground. Be prepared to take cover during afternoon thunderstorms. - Water levels will rise during spring run-off causing dangerous swift water. Be careful. Use caution along the riverbank. - Quiet hours are 10:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 30 · 1 tent-only, 15 walk-in, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 58 ft
- Accessible sites
- 13
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 30 of 30 campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Drinking water, electric hook-ups and trash service are not available at Oh Be Joyful so bring your own water and plan to take your own trash with you when you leave.”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Cell signal
- Little or none
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek
- Auto Touring
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Kayaking
- Mountain biking
- Mountain Climbing
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Picnicking
- Stargazing
- Night sky · 213th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
- Cell signal · Cell signal · BLM says
- None
- Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 5.4 km away
- Peak color
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 15:22 UTC
recreation.gov lists 29 of the 30 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 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. This means no modifications can be made to a 4-day advanced reservation. - Only 2 modifications can be made to a 180-day advanced reservations sites. - Reservation cancellations occurring less than 72 hours prior to reservation sta…” · 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 15:22 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
30 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 27 mapped sitesAll 30 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 28 of the 30 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. 29 of the 30 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.
| Group Campsite | 18 | group tent only area nonelectric | 18 ft | yes | Accessible Vault Toilets listed | $60 | ||
| Main Loop | 1 | rv nonelectric | 42 ft | yes | 115 ft | 85 ft | 249 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 10 | walk to | 16 ft | 64 ft | 146 ft | 923 ft | $20 | |
| Main Loop | 11 | rv nonelectric | 50 ft | 57 ft | 149 ft | 654 ft | $20 | |
| Main Loop | 12 | rv nonelectric | 58 ft | yes | 70 ft | 201 ft | 593 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 13 | rv nonelectric | 48 ft | yes | 70 ft | 252 ft | 554 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 14 | type not stated | yes | 268 ft | 511 ft | |||
| Main Loop | 15 | rv nonelectric | 56 ft | yes | 53 ft | 266 ft | 444 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 16 | rv nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 53 ft | 214 ft | 421 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 17 | rv nonelectric | 36 ft | yes | 53 ft | 171 ft | 354 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 2 | rv nonelectric | 32 ft | yes | 53 ft | 126 ft | 362 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 3 | rv nonelectric | 29 ft | yes | 74 ft | 150 ft | 436 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 4 | rv nonelectric | 21 ft | yes | 59 ft | 93 ft | 536 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 5 | rv nonelectric | 46 ft | yes | 59 ft | 152 ft | 507 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 6 | rv nonelectric | 16 ft | yes | 57 ft | 98 ft | 614 ft | $20 |
| Main Loop | 7 | walk to | 16 ft | 61 ft | 110 ft | 810 ft | $20 | |
| Main Loop | 8 | walk to | 16 ft | 61 ft | 159 ft | 860 ft | $20 | |
| Main Loop | 9 | walk to | 16 ft | 63 ft | 107 ft | 880 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 19 | rv nonelectric | 20 ft | Accessible Vault Toilets listed | $20 | |||
| Oxbow Sites | 20 | walk to | 16 ft | 48 ft | 40 ft | 194 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 21 | walk to | 16 ft | 68 ft | 54 ft | 188 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 22 | walk to | 16 ft | 48 ft | 72 ft | 204 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 23 | walk to | 16 ft | 124 ft | 105 ft | 322 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 24 | walk to | 16 ft | 86 ft | 36 ft | 384 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 25 | walk to | 16 ft | 86 ft | 52 ft | 463 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 26 | walk to | 16 ft | 77 ft | 130 ft | 472 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 27 | walk to | 16 ft | 79 ft | 89 ft | 576 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 28 | walk to | 16 ft | 82 ft | 113 ft | 636 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 29 | walk to | 16 ft | 57 ft | 165 ft | 557 ft | $20 | |
| Oxbow Sites | 30 | walk to | 16 ft | 57 ft | 175 ft | 501 ft | $20 |
25 of 30 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lake IrwinGunnison National Forest · 4.6 miLake Irwin Campground - Gunnison RDGunnison National Forest · 4.6 miGothic Campground - Gunnison RDGunnison National Forest · 4.8 miGothicGunnison National Forest · 4.9 miLost Lake Campground-Paonia RDGunnison National Forest · 10 miFrom the town of Crested Butte, drive north on Gothic Road. (County road 317) towards Mount Crested Butte. Cross the Slate River and turn left on Slate River Road (County Road 734). Follow this up the valley for approximately 5 miles to BLM Road 3220. Turn left onto BLM Road 3220 and continue for approximately 0.3 miles to a Oh Be Joyful Campground. BLM Road 3220 is steep and rough, low clearance vehicles and larger RVs may want to scout the road before driving down 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 Mount Crested Butte, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 22°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -6°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Oh Be Joyful 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…elevation and the views are spectacular. There is no cell service at this location, please save or print a copy of your…”