Platoro Cabin 1
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 17 notices
In the agency’s own words
Platoro Cabin 1 is located downtown in the small mining town of Platoro, Colorado, at an elevation of 10,000 feet in the Rio Grande National Forest. The cabin was built in 1963 by the Rio Grande National Forest as base quarters for various Forest Service Crews working in the surrounding areas until the early 1990s. Today the cabin is a getaway for guests seeking relaxation and recreation in south central Colorado. Visitors to the area should be aware that Platoro is only occupied when snow levels allow driving access, which is usually less than six months of the year. Keep reading
Recreation
The area around the cabin offers a variety of recreational opportunities year-round. Summertime brings great scenic driving tour opportunities in and around Platoro and Summitville. Anglers have a spectacular backdrop while fishing Iron Creek or Treasure Creek. Nearby Platoro Reservoir, which feeds the Conejos River, provides excellent fishing for kokanee salmon, rainbow and brown trout. Great hiking can be found around the area, as it spans both the Rio Grande and San Juan National Forests as well as the South San Juan Wilderness. Big game hunting is popular in fall, while snowmobiling, skiing and snowshoeing are popular winter activities.
Facilities
The cabin has a combination kitchen/living room, a bedroom and a bathroom. It is furnished with two bunkbeds, with single beds on the top and foldout double beds on the bottom, accommodating up to six people. It has a heater, stove, refrigerator and lighting, all powered by propane. The kitchen is equipped with a table and chairs and cooking gear. In the bathroom there is a flush toilet and showers. Although the cabin has most amenities, guests do need to provide their own food, sleeping bags, linens, towels, dish soap, matches, first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags. Guests are also encouraged to bring an additional light source in case of emergencies. Nearby Platoro Cabin #2 is similar to Platoro Cabin #1, with the addition entry ramps and wheelchair accessible facilities in the bathroom and the kitchen. The town of Platoro has access to rental cabins, a small lodge, outfitter-guide services and horseback rides.
Natural Features
Platoro is a natural and unspoiled destination nestled in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado. Platoro started out as a boomtown in the late 1800s following the discovery of large deposits of gold and silver in the area. The nearby San Juan Wilderness is an area defined by peaks and cliffs as well as pinnacles and ridges. The headwaters for the Conejos, San Juan and Blanco Rivers are located here as well. The erosion of rich volcanic rock in combination with heavy snowfall has produced forest ecosystems in the area that transition from lodgepole pine to aspen, then through Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir to alpine tundra. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (719) 274-8971.
Nearby Attractions
Summitville is a nearby ghost town where gold was first discovered in 1870, then mined until the early 1990s. When contaminants leaked off-site and flowed into the local watershed the government forced it to shut down. Now a water treatment plant is on the site as part of a federal clean up program.
What the agency tells you
Cabin only open until end of September so systems can be winterized
Platoro Cabin #2 is an accessible site with entry ramps, and wheelchair accessible facilities in the bathroom and the kitchen
Access to the cabin is by a combination lock; call the Forest Service office at (719) 274-8971 one week before your stay to get the access combination
Everything else this campground posts · 14
Please contact the Ranger District prior to arriving at the cabin to check on any restrictions or conditions, such as fire or road closures, weather or storms that may affect the quality of your visit
Pets are NOT allowed at this facility
No livestock facilities are provided, livestock prohibited
No parking beyond 'No Motor' vehicle signs, as there is a leach field in this area
Do not leave food or trash outside the cabin; there are bears in the area
All garbage and food must be packed out
The cabin is a NON-SMOKING facility. Additionally, outdoor campfires are NOT ALLOWED at this facility.
Please clean cabin upon departure. Do not leave items you brought with you. Items not provided by the USFS will be disposed of.
Make sure cabin is locked upon departure
Drink plenty of water before arrival and during your stay to avoid altitude sickness
Expect afternoon thunderstorms in the summer and below freezing temperatures in the spring, winter and fall
Please check Colorado Division of Wildlife for hunting and fishing seasons and rules
Learn more about the Rio Grande 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Not allowed
- Shade
- Little
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…cooking gear. In the bathroom there is a flush toilet and showers. Although the cabin has most amenities,…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
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
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 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.
| PLATORO CABIN 1 | 1 | cabin electric | 15 amp | 422 ft | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Platoro Cabin 2Rio Grande National Forest · 0.0 miMix Lake CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 0.9 mi
Stunner CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 3.0 miLake Fork CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 4.1 mi
Lake Fork(Rio Grande Natl ForeRio Grande National Forest · 5.0 mi
Elwood CabinRio Grande National Forest · 7.0 miFrom Antonito, CO, follow Highway 17 west to its junction with FSR 250. Follow FSR 250 northwest up the Conejos Canyon about 22 miles to Platoro. Turn left on FSR 250.6A and follow it 0.2 mile to the cabin.
From the town of South Fork, follow Highway 160 to the southwest for about 7.5 miles.
Turn left onto Park Creek Road, which is also Forest Service Road 380. Continue for approximately 27 miles, paralleling Park Creek for much of the way.
Turn right (south), crossing the Alamosa River, and follow National Forest Road 250 over
The 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
Platoro Cabin 1 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 →