Ponderosa Campground (CO)
1Heads uppark alert
- 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 · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Ponderosa Campground is located at the northwest end of the Soap Creek Arm of Blue Mesa Reservoir at 7880 feet (2402 m). The campground offers outstanding views and solitude. Note: During dry conditions, the first 7 miles (11 km) of Soap Creek Road are passable to trailers and RVs. Rain can make the Soap Creek Road impassable. Keep reading
Facilities
Trash/recycling collection provided. Vault toilets only. Horse Corral in upper loop.
What the agency tells you
During dry conditions, the first 7 miles of Soap Creek Road are passable to trailers and RVs. Rain can make the Soap Creek Road impassable.
Quiet hours are from 10 pm to 6 am. This includes generator use.
Keep all pets on leash. Unattended pets are not allowed. Clean up after your pet.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Fires are only permitted in the fire grates provided. Building fire pits is prohibited. Unattended fires are not permitted. All fires must be extinguished before leaving the site.
Check-in & out time is 1 pm.
Payment must be made immediately after occupying the site and may be made at the campground entrance fee station or Elk Creek Visitor Center. Please display your payment stub on the post in front of the site.
Campsites may fit, if space allows, up to eight people, two tents, an RV, a boat trailer, and/or other vehicles.
Camping is limited to 14 nights during a 30 day period.
Keep vehicles on the pavement or gravel so you don't damage vegetation.
Do not drain wastewater on ground. Catch water in a receptacle and empty at dump station or restroom.
STOP THE SPREAD OF INVASIVE SPECIES . Remove plants, seeds, animals, a nd mud from boots, gear, pets, and vehicles. Clean your gear before entering and leaving the recreation site. Stay on designated roads and trails, and follow local guidelines for firewood . CLEAN, DRAIN, DRY boats and any o ther recreational equipment that contacts water. Dispose of unwanted bait, worms, fish parts, or other organisms into the trash and not into the environment. For more information visit the National Invasive Species Information Center .
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 30
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Creek
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
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.
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 15:22 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
30 sites
All 30 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. 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.
| Lower | 24 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Lower | 25 | type not stated | |
| Lower | 26 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Lower | 27 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Lower | 28 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Lower | 29 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 10 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 11 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 12 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 13 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 14 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 15 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 16 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 17 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 18 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 19 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 20 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 21 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 22 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 23 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 8 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Middle | 9 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Scan and Pay | Scan and Pay Ponderosa Campground (CO) | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Upper | 1 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Upper | 2 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Upper | 3 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Upper | 4 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Upper | 5 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Upper | 6 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
| Upper | 7 | standard nonelectric | $20 |
25 of 30 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Lake Fork CampgroundGunnison Field Office · 4.7 mi
Red Creek Group SiteGunnison Field Office · 4.9 mi
Red Creek CampgroundGunnison Field Office · 5.5 mi
Dry Gulch Campground7.4 miFrom U.S. Highway 50, turn onto CO Highway 92. In less than 1 mile (1.6 km) you will cross over the Blue Mesa Dam. Approximately one half (.5) mile after crossing the dam, turn right on Soap Creek Road (a gravel road also known as County Road 721 and/or Blue Mesa Drive). Proceed 7 miles (18 km) north on Soap Creek Road to reach the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Gunnison, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 27°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -1°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
Ponderosa Campground (CO) 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 →