1Heads up1 fire 28 mi away
Wildfire
Willow fire · 28 mi away · 7,359 acres · 92% contained · updated Oct 13, 2026
Reservable, and full this SaturdayThe one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and the record lists no site held back for a walk-up. read 16:25 UTC

We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →

Right now
Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 15 nights read 16:25 UTC
Sites
1All of them booked ahead
10,270 ftElevation
1,669 ftWater · Tarryall Creek
7.4 miSE of Blue River, CO
54%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 408th darkest of 522 in CO

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices

In the agency’s own words

Roberts Cabin is one of the recognized historic cabins in Pike & San Isabel National Forests. The primitive cabin dates back to the mining and railroad era of the 1880s, and is eligible for placement in the National Register of Historic Places. Through the ages, the structure has been used as a residence, a blacksmith's shop and stables. In 1993, the piece of history was restored to its original form and converted for use as a cabin rental. Keep reading

Recreation

Bird and wildlife watching are popular pastimes. In summer, many hiking trails are available to explore, this includes the extensive Colorado Trail that extends across the state from Denver to Durango. Winter recreation like cross country skiing and sledding are available, but the cabin is closed in peak winter months from December to April.

Facilities

These historic 1880 cabins are nestled at the base of Boreas Pass in Park County,CO. Roberts cabin is a two-story log cabin, with one room on each floor and a steep staircase leading up to the top floor - this cabin sleep up to 10 guests in five double beds and a futon bed. Schwartz cabin is a small single room detached cabin with a full bed and twin bed. Each cabin has a full size wood stove for heat. A single vault toilet is located outside. Parking can accommodate up to four vehicles with limited trailer turnaround. No water or cooking utensils are available. Pillows and blankets are not provided. Guests are advised to bring plenty of water for drinking, cooking and cleaning. They should also bring cooking pots and utensils, sleeping bags or blankets, flashlights, matches, outdoor furniture and firewood.

Natural Features

Roberts Cabin is located in the South Park Ranger District of the Pike National Forest, which inludes South Park, part of the Mosquito Range, Eleven Mile Canyon, Jefferson Lake Recreation Areas, the Tarryall Mountains and Puma Hills. The cabin offers impressive views of the Mostquito Range and is located at the base of the Boreas Pass, a 11,492 foot high mountain pass in central Colorado that is open seasonally to passanger vehicles to traverse the Continental Divide from Como to Breckenridge. Wildlife sightings may include elk, deer, moose, black bear, golden eagles and the great horned owl.

Nearby Attractions

The cabin is convenient to Como, a town steeped with railroad history. It is also near Breckenridge, Fairplay and the Colorado Trail.

What the agency tells you

Rule

Advanced reservations are ALWAYS required. Walk-ups are not available.

Rule

Entry to the cabin is by combination lock, found in confirmation letter; call district office at (719)836-2031 for questions and updated conditions

Rule

No drinking water available; bring an ample amount

Everything else this campground posts · 7
Rule

Please bring drinking water, food, sleeping bags or bedding, eating utensils, cookware, flashlights or lanterns, outdoor furniture and firewood

Rule

Propane stoves may be used outside only

Rule

No pets allowed

Rule

No tent or RV camping at cabin site

Rule

Click here for current alerts and notices, or call ranger district

Rule

Click here for more information on the Pike and San Isabel National Forest

Rule

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.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Tents and rigs

Sites
1 · 1 cabin
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Shade
Every site
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Pit Toilets
PIT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
Drinking water
None, bring your own
“…with limited trailer turnaround. No water or cooking utensils are available. Pillows and…”
Firewood
Mentioned
Stay limit
14 nights
recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Lake
Fishing
Hiking
Hunting
Wildlife viewing
Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 17 km away
Peak color
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (17 km) · Oct 3, 2026

Full this Saturdayread 16:25 UTC

How full the weekend is nationally.

OpenBooked

The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:25 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t

Booking windowThrough October 30Bookable now through October 30, 2026, the end of the reservable season. On December 1, 2026 at 10 AM ET, availability opens through June 1, 2027.recreation.govAdd to calendar (.ics)
Max stay14 nights2-night minimum on weekendsthe facility record
Sites, a night, from$75From the rate schedule matched to 1 of its 1 sites. U.S. Forest Service publishes no campground-level rate we can read.derived by CAMPANAC
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
Watch for a cancellation

Watch this campground

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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
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’ll write once, when the season that starts Tue, Jun 1 2027 is open for booking.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov ↗

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 12

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
Sites, a night, from$75
Derived by CAMPANAC from the rate schedule matched to 1 of its 1 sites. U.S. Forest Service publishes no campground-level rate for this campground that we can read, only per-site rate templates its own record matches to each site’s own type.
Group area, a night$75
Rates for the season the campground is in now, Jun 1, 2026 to Oct 30, 2026.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 16:25 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

1 sites · the site map

All 1 sites

1 of 1 sites located
Cabin or shelter1
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
SleepsUp to

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.

Roberts and Schwartz Historic CabinsCABINcabin nonelectric740 ft$75

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
Coordinate39.34000, -105.93167
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Getting there

From Denver, Colorado, take Highway 285 southwest about 75 miles to the town of Como. Turn north on County Road 33 and go approximately 4 miles to the cabin. Parking is along east side of the road.

Guests must have combination lock to cabin prior to arrival.

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

This Afternoon46°Sunny
Tonight27°Clear
Saturday56°Sunny
Saturday Night30°Mostly Clear

NWS forecast for Blue River, CO

Typical weather

Typical October night 24°F, day 50°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 5°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

80°32°0°

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.

Measured at: LEADVILLE LAKE CO AP, CO (USW00093009), 22 miles away and 338 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Mount Silverheels6,562 acres · 4 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Boreas Mountain5,306 acres · 5 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Hoosier Ridge6,061 acres · 6 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Brittany Pettersen, official portrait

Roberts Cabin is in Colorado’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Brittany Pettersen (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Who can change it · 3
Write to somebody who can change it

Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.

Read the draft, or change the wording

For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.

To Brittany Pettersen

Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.

Subject Walk-up camping at Roberts Cabin, Colorado

Dear Brittany Pettersen,

I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 7th district. I tried to camp at Roberts Cabin, Colorado, and couldn’t.

All 1 sites at Roberts Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked.

1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Roberts Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Roberts Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund.

The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them.

Sent about Roberts Cabin (Colorado) via campanac.com
To John W. Hickenlooper

Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.

Subject Walk-up camping at Roberts Cabin, Colorado

Dear John W. Hickenlooper,

I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Roberts Cabin, Colorado, and couldn’t.

All 1 sites at Roberts Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked.

1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Roberts Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Roberts Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund.

The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them.

Sent about Roberts Cabin (Colorado) via campanac.com
To Michael F. Bennet

Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.

Subject Walk-up camping at Roberts Cabin, Colorado

Dear Michael F. Bennet,

I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Roberts Cabin, Colorado, and couldn’t.

All 1 sites at Roberts Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked.

1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Roberts Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Roberts Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund.

The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them.

Sent about Roberts Cabin (Colorado) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
The figures in these drafts: Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress (CRS Report RS20643) · Updated December 4, 2025 · “The ship’s final procurement cost was $13,316.5 million (i.e., about $13.3 billion) in then-year dollars.”
The figures in these drafts: Salary Table 2026-GS, Incorporating the 1% General Schedule Increase, Effective January 2026 (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) · Effective January 2026 · “Grade 5, Step 1: $34,799 (annual rate, before locality pay).”
The figures in these drafts: Update to Civilian Position Full Fringe Benefit Cost Factor, Federal Pay Raise Assumptions, and Inflation Factors used in OMB Circular No. A-76 (OMB Memorandum M-08-13) · March 11, 2008 · “the civilian position full fringe benefit cost factor needs to be adjusted downward, from 36.45 percent to 36.25 percent”

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: recreation.gov is offering sites on 15 of the next 15 nights, which isn’t something a closed campground does.
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (17 km) · Oct 3, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.