Pawnee
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $29–$58Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 5145 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Pawnee Campground is located in the Brainard Lake Recreation Area, off the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway, 35 miles south of Estes Park and the main entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Visitors enjoy the area for its fishing, canoeing and hiking opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
Brainard Lake is a popular destination for canoeing, kayaking and fishing. Anglers cast for rainbow, brown and cutthroat trout. Long Lake, Red Rock Lake and Left Hand Reservoir are nearby. Several trails in the area provide access to the adjacent Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. Hiking is allowed on all trails; mountain biking is allowed outside the wilderness area. Rock climbing, snowshoeing and cross country skiing are often available, weather permitting.
Facilities
The campground offers several single-family campsites, each equipped with a picnic table and campfire ring. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided.
Natural Features
The campground lies at the foot of the Continental Divide, next to 25-acre Brainard Lake and the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area at an elevation of 10,350 feet. A scenic forest of spruce and fir trees covers the area. Summertime temperatures are warm in the day and cool at night. Afternoon thunderstorms are common. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 529-0578.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Nederland is 14 miles south of the campground, offering grocery and hardware stores, restaurants, gas, a bank and a post office. Rocky Mountain National Park's main entrance is 35 miles north in Estes Park. With lush valleys and craggy peaks reaching elevations higher than 14,000 feet, visitors are provided opportunities for countless breathtaking experiences and adventures. Scenic driving, hiking, backpacking, fishing, horseback riding and wildlife viewing are popular activities in the park. Estes Park is a full-service community. Dining, shopping, rafting, fly-fishing, horseback riding and golfing opportunities are available there. Lake Estes offers boating, sailboarding and fishing.
Charges & Cancellations
Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov or by calling the call center at 1-877-444-6777 PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
What the agency tells you
Check in time is 2 pm. Do not arrive prior to that time as you are not able to access the campground until your site has emptied and the campground has been cleaned and sanitized. There is nowhere at Pawnee or nearby for you to wait or to turn around.
Visitors with a Pawnee Campground reservation do not need to purchase a timed ticket to enter, but must show proof of their campground reservation. Parking limited to Pawnee Campground for the duration of the reservation. A separate timed ticket is required to park at other lots in the fee area (including trailheads).
No RV water connections are available.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Be sure to reserve a site that will accommodate your equipment; check the campsite details. You may not move to another campsite.
This is bear country! For bear and human safety, keep a clean campsite and do not place food or other attractants in your tent. For more information about visiting bear country, contact Colorado Parks and Wildlife at http://wildlife.state.co.us
Due to the unpredictable snow drifting you may be moved to another site at Pawnee Campground up until mid-July.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp for more information on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest
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.
Check for hunting season dates. https://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/HuntingSeasonDatesAndFees.aspx
All campsites must be occupied within 26 hours of the beginning of the reservation. If not present the site will be rented by first come first serve basis.
EXTRA VEHICLE FEES: One vehicle is included in your reservation. Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On. One vehicle consists of one camper being towed by vehicle, or any other vehicle towed behind camper. One van or one truck with camper attached counts as one vehicle. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at your site.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
FF site listings do not automatically mean a site is available. This Facility does not have the ability to mark sites that were paid for at the campground as reserved.
Check-Out is at 12 P.M. Check-In is at 2 P.M.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 51 · 8 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 100 ft
- Paved pads
- 2 of 51
- Accessible sites
- 2
- 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 The campground lies…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake
- Biking
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Climbing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
- Skiing
- Snowshoeing
- Winter sports
- Night sky · 482nd darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 7.7 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 45 of the 51 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
“Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $29–$58 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.
“Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov or by calling the call center at 1-877-444-6777 PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.” · 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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
52 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 45 mapped sitesAll 52 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 47 of the 52 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. 51 of the 52 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.
| ELK | 001 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 89 ft | 875 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 220 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 002 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 75 ft | 805 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 152 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 003 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 97 ft | 931 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 159 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 60 ft | 832 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 83 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 005 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 97 ft | 919 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 108 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 006 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 60 ft | 774 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 73 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 007 | type not stated | 48 ft | 666 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 175 ft | $29 | ||
| ELK | 008 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 75 ft | 731 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 177 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 009 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 90 ft | 622 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 169 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 010 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 90 ft | 671 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 251 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 011 | type not stated | 42 ft | 579 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 208 ft | $29 | ||
| ELK | 012 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 126 ft | 721 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 108 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 013 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 94 ft | 437 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 270 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | 014 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 94 ft | 523 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 303 ft | $29–$58 | |
| ELK | H1 | type not stated | $29 | |||||
| ELK | H2 | type not stated | $29 | |||||
| MOOSE | 015 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | yes | 65 ft | 829 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 270 ft | $29–$58 |
| MOOSE | 016 | standard nonelectric | yes | 74 ft | 921 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 314 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 017 | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 65 ft | 859 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 273 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 018 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 66 ft | 940 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 227 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 019 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 66 ft | 879 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 202 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 020 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 69 ft | 954 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 163 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 021 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 77 ft | 891 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 112 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 022 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 77 ft | 944 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 93 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 023 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 98 ft | 824 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 66 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 024 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 97 ft | 758 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 173 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 025 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 47 ft | 718 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 243 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 026 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 113 ft | 648 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 250 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 027 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 97 ft | 621 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 163 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 028 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 47 ft | 718 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 244 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 029 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 112 ft | 615 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 136 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 030 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 108 ft | 712 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 210 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 031 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 91 ft | 624 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 190 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 032 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 125 ft | 643 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 210 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 033 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 94 ft | 535 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 245 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 034 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 91 ft | 608 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 192 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 035 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 95 ft | 464 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 166 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 036 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 94 ft | 536 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 104 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 037 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 137 ft | 410 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 71 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 038 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 114 ft | 511 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 103 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | 039 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 137 ft | 445 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 214 ft | $29–$58 | |
| MOOSE | H3 | type not stated | $29 | |||||
| MOOSE | H4 | type not stated | $29 | |||||
| PAWNEE | XXX | unnamed record | 99 ft | $29 | ||||
| WALK IN | W1 | tent only nonelectric | 53 ft | 486 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 59 ft | $29 | ||
| WALK IN | W2 | tent only nonelectric | 53 ft | 443 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 40 ft | $29 | ||
| WALK IN | W3 | tent only nonelectric | 80 ft | 332 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 142 ft | $29 | ||
| WALK IN | W4 | tent only nonelectric | 80 ft | 308 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 187 ft | $29 | ||
| WALK IN | W5 | tent only nonelectric | 87 ft | 262 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 279 ft | $29 | ||
| WALK IN | W6 | tent only nonelectric | 87 ft | 299 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 291 ft | $29 | ||
| WALK IN | W7 | tent only nonelectric | 78 ft | 205 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 361 ft | $29 | ||
| WALK IN | W8 | tent only nonelectric | 78 ft | 190 ftSouth Saint Vrain Creek | 381 ft | $29 |
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 52 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Camp DickRoosevelt National Forest · 2.6 mi
Peaceful ValleyRoosevelt National Forest · 3.2 mi
Pawnee CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 3.6 mi
Olive RidgeRoosevelt National Forest · 5.8 mi
Meeker Park Overflow CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 7.9 miRainbow Lakes CampgroundRoosevelt National Forest · 8.4 miFrom Denver, travel north on Interstate 25 to U.S. Highway 36 West to Boulder. Continue on Colorado Highway 119 (Canyon Boulevard) for 22 miles to Nederland, then go north on Colorado Highway 72 to Ward. Turn left at the sign and travel 5 miles to Brainard Lake Recreation Area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Allenspark, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 26°F, day 47°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 12°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
Pawnee is in Colorado’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Joe Neguse (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →