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The map
U.S. Forest Service · Routt National Forest · CO

Sheriff Reservoir Campground

First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Get directionsWhat it costs, and the rules
Right now
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
Drawn from the record · 9,790 ft · 45% tree cover · Sheriff Reservoir within reach · Bortle 2 sky
9,790 ftElevation
369 ftWater · Sheriff Reservoir
22.7 miSE of Hayden, CO
45%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 138th darkest of 522 in CO

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

Sheriff Reservoir is a small campground with 5 sites in a tightly forested loop best suited for tents and is located approximately 15 miles to the west of Yampa, CO. Each site has a picnic table and firegrate and there is a vault toilet. This campground does not have potable water so campers should plan to pack in plenty of their own water. Dogs must remain on a leash at all times. Campers should come prepared with a variety of different insect repellants as the mosquitos are exceptionally thick this year. Keep reading

Although the views of the reservoir and the Flat Tops are very limited from most sites, the beautiful views are a few steps outside the campground. The area offers fabulous lake and stream fishing for trout and is also very popular among hunters during big game season. Shore and dam are easily accessible by foot or by car from the campground and can accommodate canoes, belly boats, paddle boards, kayaks and non-motorized fishing boats. Fish species in the reservoir are Rainbow Trout, Colorado River Cutthroat Trout, and Brook Trout. If the campground is full, there is plenty of dispersed camping opportunities leading towards the campground. Enjoy some beautiful hiking from the main trailhead over the Sheriff Reservoir dam that goes to several little lakes. Hiking Trails include: (see hiking tab for specific details of each trail) Sand Creek #1123 Bunker Basin #1109 Black Mountain Creek Trail #1117 This site was approved for a fee change - Click here for more information

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Vault Toilets
“…table and firegrate and there is a vault toilet. This campground does not have potable water so…”
Drinking water
None, bring your own
“…there is a vault toilet. This campground does not have potable water so campers should plan to pack in plenty of their…”
Source: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Reservoir, Lake, River, Creek
Source: Stated in the agency description

Nothing to book, just show up

One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.

recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Directions
Every line of the receipt · 7

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.
Site .$14
Exact cash or check only as there is no option for change back if paying cash.
NO CREDIT CARDS accepted.
Payment instructions are found on the kiosk.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
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: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate
Coordinate40.14390, -107.13881

Where it is

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

The weather

the next four days

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight30°Clear
Saturday53°Sunny
Saturday Night33°Mostly Clear
Sunday52°Mostly Sunny1% rain

NWS forecast for Phippsburg, CO

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

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Bunker Basin12,800 acres · 2 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Chatfield11,260 acres · 4 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Ripple Creek Pass / Trappers Lake590 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area

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

Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026

Who answers for this land

Jeff Hurd, official portrait

Sheriff Reservoir 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

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.
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: 0.042 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 522 rated federal campgrounds in Colorado · 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
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: Phippsburg, CO, 10.9 mi WSW (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