Palisade Campground
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $31From, per site
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
Located right on the Rio Grande, this is the only campground in the canyon between Creede and South Fork. It is located adjacent to Colorado Highway 149 for easy access to travelers passing through. Active railroad tracks bisect the campground. Highway 149 runs along the northeast side of the campground and there is no screening between the two. There is some highway traffic year-around and occasionally a scenic railroad excursion passes through the campground. Some of the 12 sites are out in the open, while other sites are screened with cottonwoods/aspen/spruce/fir. Keep reading
There is a vault type toilet with lights that is accessible to the handicapped. Firewood is not provided but may be gathered on Forest lands in the area. There is ample overflow parking near the entrance sign. A host is usually stationed at the campground. Fishing, and rafting are popular on the river. This is a popular area and heavily used in the summer. It tends to stay full from mid-June through August. Early afternoon arrival is recommended. The Rio Grande is considered a Trophy Fishing River and is very popular with rafters.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “There is a vault type toilet with lights that is accessible to the handicapped.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 16 km away
- Peak color
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and a night costs $31 with nothing added. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 7
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($31), and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Alder Guard StationRio Grande National Forest · 7.2 miHighway Springs CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 9.8 miCathedral CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 10 miLower Beaver Creek CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 11 miUpper Beaver Creek CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 11 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for South Fork, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 26°F, day 61°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
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
Palisade 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 →