Silesca Cabin
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:42 UTC
- Sites
- 1In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
The historic Silesca Cabin, once used as a Ranger Station, is a semi-rustic dwelling with comfortable modern conveniences like electricity and refrigerator. Located 40 minutes west of the city of Montrose, the cabin is set back 100 feet from the main road, providing easy access with some privacy. The cabin is accessible in the summer and fall by passenger vehicle, when the road is dry. Four-wheel drive vehicles are recommended when the road is wet. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, mountain biking, single track dirtbiking, UTV & ATV riding, horseback riding, hunting and wildlife viewing are all available in the vicinity. Silesca Pond is a short walk north of the cabin. Silesca Cabin is located near a limited hunting area for Rocky Mountain Elk, Unit 61.
Facilities
The rustic cabin accommodates up to six guests. Amenities include three bedrooms with six twin beds, electricity, refrigerator and a wood stove. Limited cooking utensils, dishes and cleaning supplies are provided. The kitchen and bathroom are located in the basement of this cabin. A campfire ring and picnic table are located outside. No drinking water is available. Items to bring include food, bedding, warm clothing, toilet paper, flashlights, towels, dish soap and toiletries. Click here for more cabin details.
Natural Features
The cabin is perched in a meadow surrounded by spruce and aspen trees at an elevation of 9,200 feet.
What the agency tells you
Entry is by combination lock; contact the ranger district at (970) 240-5300 for combination prior to arrival. Must call to get the code between Monday and Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm MST. Check in is after 12:00PM and Check out is by 10:00AM.
Cabin does not meet current established accessibility standards
No drinking water available; guests must bring their own supply
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Collection of firewood is prohibited
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility
Please clean cabin before leaving
No discharge of firearms within 150 yards of cabin
No smoking allowed
No pets allowed
Bears frequent the area; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
Guests should be aware that there is a risk of exposure to hantavirus when visiting remote cabins; click here to learn more
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and picnic table are located outside. No drinking water is available. Items to bring include food, bedding,…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Meadow
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Off Highway Vehicle Trails
- Off Road Vehicle Trails
- Stargazing
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 205th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:42 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 11
What you actually pay
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
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Silesca Cabin closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 150 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- House CreekSan Juan National Forest · 60 mi · 49 sites
- Saddlehorn CampgroundColorado National Monument · 63 mi · 79 sites
- Rio Grande CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 72 mi · walk-up
- Hovenweep CampgroundHovenweep National Monument · 83 mi · 31 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:42 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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. 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.
| SILESCA CABIN | Silesca Cabin | cabin electric | 20 ft | 30 amp | 588 ft | $120 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Follow Highway 90 southwest from Montrose. Watch for signs as the highway makes several turns as it weaves its way out of town. The pavement ends where the road begins to climb out of the Uncompahgre River Valley and enters lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management. In 20 miles, it enters the Uncompahgre National Forest. Silesca Cabin is about a half-mile further on the left side of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Montrose, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 14°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Silesca Cabin 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 →