River Hill
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $29From, per site
- Sites
- 18All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
River Hill is a popular campground on the banks of the Rio Grande River. Situated in a meadow surrounded by willows, campers come here to fish for trout, hunt and take in the beautiful views of the forested hills and rock bluffs. River kayaking and fishing are also popular activities, and the Rio Grande Reservoir is just a couple miles away. Keep reading
Recreation
Go rock climbing or horse packing in the San Juan mountains, or fish in the river, Squaw Creek or nearby Rio Grande Reservoir. Two trailheads, Squaw Creek and Weminuche Creek, lead hikers into the Weminuche Wilderness and link to the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.
Facilities
The campground features a campfire educational program on some weekend nights. Drinking water from wells is provided and garbage cans are are provided. Vault toilets are on-site.
Natural Features
The campground lies in a meadow under the shade of many trees at an elevation of 9,200 feet. The Rio Grande National Forest spans 1.86 million acres in south-central Colorado. The Continental Divide runs for 236 miles along most of the forest's western border, presenting a myriad of ecosystems from alpine desert to dense wilderness. Across from the campground is the Weminuche Wilderness, the largest wilderness area in Colorado. It's a famously rugged region with three mountain peaks reaching over 14,000 feet. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (805) 434-1996.
What the agency tells you
PMC & Recreation.gov policy states we will keep your reserved site until check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. If you haven't occupied it at any time during this period, your reservation is null and void and we will give it to first come first serve folks. Your reservation will be a no show and no refund will be given.
All single campsite reservation fees are good for 6 people and 1 vehicle. The maximum number of people per site is 8 ($10.00 additional charge after 6 people). The maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle). Any extra people/vehicle fees will be charged at the campground ($10/night per person/vehicle).
The camp host at this location cannot modify your reservation. Before your check-in date, you may cancel or modify your reservation online. After your check-out date, you have a 7 day period to request a refund online.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Please fill your trailer prior to arriving. Trailers are not allowed to fill at any hydrants as it might contaminate the entire water system.
This facility has first-come, first-served sites available but not guaranteed
The 14 day stay limit is strictly enforced. Camping for a period longer than 14 days during any 30-consecutive day period is prohibited. If you have booked back-to-back reservations, you will be asked to cancel all days after the first 14.
Click here for more information on 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.
The Rio Grande National Forest continues to monitor the COVID-19 situation and evaluate potential impacts and adjustments to reservations and our reservation policies through Recreation.gov. Reservation holders will be notified via email and/or cell phone text messages if there are any changes affecting their reservation. In the event of delayed openings of some, part or all of the campgrounds and cabins to ensure safe social distancing, you will receive a full refund for your reservation. Please remember to review current recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and focus on recreating safely while protecting yourself, Forest Service employees and our volunteers.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 18
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 125 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and garbage cans are are provided. Vault toilets are on-site. Natural Features The campground lies…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…program on some weekend nights. Drinking water from wells is provided and garbage cans are are…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Boating
- Climbing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Night sky · 4th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 11 days ago, 27 km away
- Peak color
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 · 15
What you actually pay
“The maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle).” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $29 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking, plus the agency’s published $2 weekend rate on Friday and Saturday. 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
18 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 18 mapped sitesAll 18 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. 18 of the 18 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.
| RIVER HILL | 001 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 411 ft | 123 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 002 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 111 ft | 111 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 003 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 48 ft | 213 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 004 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 48 ft | 243 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 005 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 121 ft | 49 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 006 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 66 ft | 102 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 007 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 66 ft | 135 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 008 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 113 ft | 122 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 009 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 88 ft | 135 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 010 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 34 ft | 122 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 011 | standard nonelectric | 125 ft | 34 ft | 115 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 012 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 96 ft | 56 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 013 | standard nonelectric | 125 ft | 96 ft | 73 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 014 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 94 ft | 48 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 015 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 94 ft | 133 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 016 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 18 ft | 216 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 017 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 18 ft | 204 ft | $29 |
| RIVER HILL | 018 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 118 ft | 234 ft | $29 |
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
Thirty MileRio Grande National Forest · 1.5 miRoad Canyon CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 2.8 mi
Bristol Head CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 7.7 miSilver Thread CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 8.0 miNorth Clear Creek CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 8.8 miRio Grande CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 12 miFrom Alamosa, CO, go west on Highway 160 to South Fork. Take Highway 149 southwest through Creede and continue on Highway 149 for about 20 miles to milepost 41 (Forest Road 520) and Rio Grande Reservoir Road. Travel about 10 miles on this gravel road to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Piedra, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -4°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
River Hill 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 →