Ruedi Marina Campground
1Heads up1 fire 22 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading
- A night
- $29From, per site
- Sites
- 87 on recreation.gov
- Season
- May 1Opens May 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located approximately 14 miles east of Basalt, Colorado, in the White River National Forest, Ruedi Marina Campground is situated on Ruedi Reservoir at an elevation of 7,800 feet. Sites at this campground open up to views of the reservoir and starry nighttime skies. A mixed conifer forest hems in the shoreline and nearby peaks offer an ideal setting for guests seeking recreation and relaxation. Keep reading
Recreation
Renowned for its fly fishing, Fryingpan River flows below Ruedi Dam. Here, large rainbow, brown, cutthroat and brook trout are plentiful in an area nicknamed the "toilet bowl." The fish feed on Mysis shrimp, a small freshwater shrimp stocked in the lake. The stretch of river from the dam down to the confluence of Fryingpan and the Roaring Fork River has been designated as Gold Medal Waters by the Colorado Wildlife Commission. Special regulations in this area include fishing only with artificial flies and lures, and releasing all trout except brown trout, with a limit of two fish over 14 inches. For hikers and bikers, the Ruedi Trail, located north of the reservoir, climbs to the top of Red Table Mountain. The trailhead is located 200 feet north of the Jeep trail near the boat ramp and parking lot. This eight mile trail gains over 3,000 feet in elevation, leading hikers to a spectacular panoramic view of the area. Boating, swimming, and water skiing are all possible. Interpretive programs are popular activities.
Facilities
Ruedi Marina Campground has eight standard sites suitable for trailers, and RVs. The sites are equipped with picnic tables and campfire rings. Guests also have access to vault toilets and drinking water, but electrical hook-ups and tent sites are not available.
Natural Features
In the heart of the Rocky Mountains, the 2.3 million acre White River National Forest is a place of serenity and adventure, boasting eight wilderness areas, four defined seasons, and 10 peaks surpassing 14,000 feet in elevation. Wildlife in the area abounds. Bighorn sheep navigate rocky ridges and bull elk bugle at dusk. Scenic rivers sustain populations of cutthroat, rainbow, and brown trout. Alpine regions provide habitat for pika and ptarmigan. These species, along with many others, depend on surrounding undeveloped wilderness, clean streams, and diverse forests to live. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (801) 226-3564.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby town of Aspen is a popular destination for visitors to the area. From downhill skiing and world-class fly fishing, to dining and resorts, there are a multitude of outdoor and indoor opportunities in this resort mountain town.
Charges & Cancellations
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
What the agency tells you
Please Note: One RV with tow per single site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground.
Tent camping not available at this campground, RV's only.
All food, beverages, trash and scented items must be properly stored when not attended. Bear-proof food lockers are provided at each site and bear-proof trash receptacles are provided at the campground.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Prevent the spread of invasive species by inspecting and cleaning packs, equipment, and tires before using lake or trails.
Click here for more information about White River National Forest.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (ELEVEN) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
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.
Any accepted senior passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
Campers must occupy the site the first night at a campsite. This prevents booking the site for Fri-Sun and showing up on a Saturday.
Campers may leave the site for 24 hours and must occupy the site otherwise. This allows a camper to say go for an overnight backpack trip in the woods for one night and come back to their campsite the next day.
Check in time is 2:00pm and Check out time is 11:00am. It is imperative that you are clear from the site at 11:00am on your check out day so the host can come prepare the site for the next event. Please don't be the group that makes the incoming group have to wait.
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.WhiteRiver.Sopris@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 8
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…rings. Guests also have access to vault toilets and drinking water, but electrical hook-ups and…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…also have access to vault toilets and drinking water, but electrical hook-ups and tent sites are not…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek, Beach
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 300th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 20 km away
- Past peak
Full this Saturdayread 16:43 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 15:39 UTC. See them
OpenBookedClosedNot reservable
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.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $29 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.
“Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.” · this campground’s own terms
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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 15:39 UTC
- East MarvineWhite River National Forest · 14 mi · 4 of 5 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 16:43 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
8 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 7 mapped sitesAll 8 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. 7 of the 8 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| RUEDI MARINA CAMPGROUND | 1 | type not stated | 31 ft | 232 ft | ||
| RUEDI MARINA CAMPGROUND | 2 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 28 ft | 216 ft | $29 |
| RUEDI MARINA CAMPGROUND | 3 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 25 ft | 219 ft | $29 |
| RUEDI MARINA CAMPGROUND | 4 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 25 ft | 213 ft | $29 |
| RUEDI MARINA CAMPGROUND | 5 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 25 ft | 204 ft | $29 |
| RUEDI MARINA CAMPGROUND | 6 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 25 ft | 200 ft | $29 |
| RUEDI MARINA CAMPGROUND | 7 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 22 ft | 190 ft | $29 |
| RUEDI MARINA CAMPGROUND | 8 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 22 ft | 188 ft | $29 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Little Maud CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 0.3 mi
Mollie B_white RiverWhite River National Forest · 0.3 mi
Little Mattie CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 0.4 mi
Dearhamer CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 4.1 mi
Chapman Campground and GroupWhite River National Forest · 11 miElk Wallow CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 11 miTake I-70 west of Denver to Glenwood Springs Exit 116, Highway 82 to Basalt. At Basalt, take Frying Pan Road 15 miles to the Ruedi Complex Entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Woody Creek, CO
Typical weather
Typical May night 35°F, day 65°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 35°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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 · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Ruedi Marina Campground 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 →
Who can change it · 3
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.
- The member who votes the moneyJeff HurdU.S. Representative · Colorado’s 3rd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn W. HickenlooperU.S. Senator · Colorado
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMichael F. BennetU.S. Senator · Colorado
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.
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 Ruedi Marina Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado
Dear Jeff Hurd, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Ruedi Marina Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 7 of the 8 campsites the agency files at Ruedi Marina Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ruedi Marina Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ruedi Marina Campground. 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 Ruedi Marina Campground (White River National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
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 Ruedi Marina Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Ruedi Marina Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 7 of the 8 campsites the agency files at Ruedi Marina Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ruedi Marina Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ruedi Marina Campground. 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 Ruedi Marina Campground (White River National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com
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 Ruedi Marina Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at Ruedi Marina Campground, White River National Forest, Colorado, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 7 of the 8 campsites the agency files at Ruedi Marina Campground, and every one of them is booked ahead, 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Ruedi Marina Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Ruedi Marina Campground. 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 Ruedi Marina Campground (White River National Forest, Colorado) via campanac.com