CAMPANAC.Powered by public lands intelligenceMore Than Just Parks
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U.S. Forest Service · White Mountain National Forest · NH

Russell-Colbath Barn

Day use, not campingThe agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.

This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →

Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
Photos · U.S. Forest Service
20 ftLongest rig
1,230 ftElevation
896 ftWater · Swift River
9.3 miW of Conway, NH
45%Tree cover

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

This site does not take reservations. Keep reading

Recreation

Facilities Natural Features Nearby Attractions

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Around the campground

Fishing
Historic site
Ranger programs
Wildlife viewing
Night sky · 14th darkest of 28 in NH
Bortle 3
Fall color · reported 14 days ago, 8.6 km away
Past peak
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate · Sep 8, 2026
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (8.6 km) · Oct 3, 2026

Nothing here to sleep in

The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.

No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.

Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
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

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.

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 · 9

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
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 · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

1 records · the site map

All 1 records

1 of 1 records located
Day use1
Russell-Colbath Barn
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
Sites: recreation.gov (RIDB), coordinates as published · Aug 23, 2026
Imagery: Esri World Imagery
Russell-ColbathRussell-Colbath Barnday use20 ft30 ampyes695 ft

The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Getting there

the map and the coordinate
Coordinate43.99556, -71.33722
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight37°Cloudy11% rain
Saturday39°Slight Chance Rain Showers then Slight Chance Rain And Snow Showers18% rain
Saturday Night22°Mostly Clear14% rain
Sunday50°Sunny

NWS forecast for Bartlett, NH

Source: National Weather Service, GYX forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 34°F, day 57°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 8°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

90°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: TAMWORTH 4, NH (USC00278614), 10 miles away and 689 ft lower
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

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

What threatens this place

developing
Roadless
Sandwich Range16,797 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Pemigewasset Ext15,840 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area

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

Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Sep 30, 2026

Who answers for this land

Maggie Goodlander, official portrait

Russell-Colbath Barn is in New Hampshire’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Maggie Goodlander (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.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score
Who can change it · 3
Ask whether this could be a place to sleep

The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.

Read the draft, or change the wording
To Maggie Goodlander

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Russell-Colbath Barn has sites, and nobody may sleep in them

Dear Maggie Goodlander,

I’m a constituent in New Hampshire’s 2nd district. Russell-Colbath Barn, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Russell-Colbath Barn (White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire) via campanac.com
To Jeanne Shaheen

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Russell-Colbath Barn has sites, and nobody may sleep in them

Dear Jeanne Shaheen,

I’m a constituent in New Hampshire. Russell-Colbath Barn, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Russell-Colbath Barn (White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire) via campanac.com
To Margaret Wood Hassan

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Russell-Colbath Barn has sites, and nobody may sleep in them

Dear Margaret Wood Hassan,

I’m a constituent in New Hampshire. Russell-Colbath Barn, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Russell-Colbath Barn (White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
Contacts: Contact forms from @unitedstates/congress-legislators · Sep 9, 2026
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: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Sites on recreation.gov: recreation.gov’s own month availability payload for this facility, asked for October 2026 and November 2026. It names 0 of the 0 campsites the agency files here, and every one of them carries an answer either way. A campground nobody has read carries no answer at all, never a no. · Oct 14, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.18 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 28 rated federal campgrounds in New Hampshire · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (8.6 km) · Oct 3, 2026
Reported by: PhenoCam Network (GCC), reported past peak · 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.
Nearest place of any size: Bartlett, NH, 5.3 mi SSW (a census designated place). Straight line.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026