Red Creek Group Site
- 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 · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
In the heart of southwest Colorado is a group camp getaway for nature lovers and outdoor sports-enthusiasts. The Red Creek Group Site is located in the Curecanti Recreation Area, just south of the West Elk Mountains. The campground is surrounded by national forests and park lands with Gunnison National Forest to the north, Black Canyon to the west and the Uncompahgre National forest to the southwest. A wide range of mammals can be found within Curecanti, including mule deer, mountain lions, black bears, prairie dogs, bighorn sheep, elk and the occasional moose. Bald eagles come here to fish in winter. Keep reading
Recreation
Hikers may enjoy the Dillon Pinnacles Trail for views of spires formed by erosional forces working volcanic debris. The trail is a lollipop of about 4 miles. Anglers can enjoy fishing for brown, rainbow, and Mackinaw trout and Kokanee salmon. The population of Kokanee salmon is denser at Blue Mesa Reservoir than anywhere else in the country.
Facilities
This is a group camping site for a minimum of 9 people and a maximum of 20 people. Recreation vehicles over 22'' not reccomended.
Natural Features
“This area is characterized by semi-arid shrubland with large cottonwood trees lining the campground. Red Creek flows out of the West Elk Mountains, through this campground, and into Blue Mesa Reservoir. By mid to late summer, the creek is low enough for wading. Some small fish inhabit the deeper pools.” Blue Mesa connects to the Morrow Point Reservoir, which flows down to the more isolated Crystal Reservoir. The passage of the Gunnison River is marked by the steep, narrow cliffs of the Black Canyon.
Nearby Attractions
The Cimarron Canyon Rail Exhibit features a display of an old-fashioned locomotive at the last remaining railroad trestle in the Black Canyon on the Gunnison route. The bonus is picture-perfect access to the tallest cliffs in the canyon. The Red Creek Road, which passes by the campground, provides access to national forest lands where hiking abounds. Charges & Cancellations
What the agency tells you
The park shuts off the water approximately September 19th each year. If your reservation is after this date please bring all the water you will need. Pit toilets will still be available.
Red Creek Group Site has no electric hookups.
Upon arrival to the boat ramp and before launching, all watercraft will be inspected and certified Zebra and Quagga Mussel free. Inspection stations are located at the Elk Creek and Lake Fork boat ramps during peak seasons (May through October). Visit Curecanti's Boat Ramps web page for more details.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
This is a high elevation facility (7542 feet/2300 m). Be aware of the signs of high elevation travel and altitude illness, especially if you are accustomed to lower elevations.
Cell phone coverage is limited.
Vehicles over 21' (6.5 m) are not recommended.
STOP THE SPREAD OF INVASIVE SPECIES . Remove plants, seeds, animals, and 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 other 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
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 22 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 174th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 9
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 · 4
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
| RED CREEK GROUP SITE | 001 | group standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 47 ft |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Red Creek CampgroundGunnison Field Office · 0.6 mi
Dry Gulch Campground2.8 mi
East Elk Creek Group Campsite3.7 mi
Elk Creek Campground3.7 mi
Ponderosa Campground (CO)Gunnison National Forest · 4.9 mi
Lake Fork CampgroundGunnison Field Office · 5.2 miRed Creek Group campground is located off of US Hwy 50 between Gunnison and Montrose, on the north side of the highway approximately 3 1/2 miles (5.5 km) west of Elk Creek.
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
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Red Creek Group Site 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 →