Silver Bell Campground
1Heads up1 fire 25 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 14All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located just outside Aspen, Colorado, Silver Bell Campground is hemmed in by aspen groves and subalpine forests on the banks of Maroon Creek. The campground sits at an elevation of 8,460 feet, allowing guests to experience warm summer days and cool evenings with probable afternoon thunderstorms. Come prepared for changing weather conditions. Snow is possible even at the peak of summer. Keep reading
Recreation
For hikers and backpackers, the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness Area epitomizes the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Starting from the Deadly Bells Trailhead at Maroon Lake, the West Maroon Trail gains elevation through aspen groves and evergreens, traverses boulder fields, crosses streams, and leads hikers through high-elevation (10,000+ feet) mountain passes. Climbing through alpine terrain, backpackers will find high mountain lakes and a smattering of wildflowers in mid-summer. Check specific regulations for camping in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness Area. For day hikers and horseback riders, nearby Maroon Creek Trail offers a less crowded alternative to viewing the Maroon Bells, Pyramid Peak and the entire Maroon valley. The gentle, flat terrain offers scenic stops that are great for picnicking.
Facilities
Silver Bell Campground has 14 sites, including tent-only and walk-in sites. RVs and trailers are welcome at the standard sites. Sites are equipped with picnic tables, vault toilets, food storage lockers (bear boxes) and campfire rings. Drinking water and electrical hook-ups are not available. Silver Bell campsites 2-4 and 8-14 are not available for advanced reservation on Recreation.gov and are set aside as first-come, first-served for up to the five day stay limit. Please visit the welcome station on Maroon Creek Road during staffed hours 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the day of arrival to check availability. The campground is usually full before noon during peak Summer/Fall season.
Natural Features
The Maroon Bells Scenic Area is surrounded by the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. This wilderness is one of the five original Colorado wilderness areas designated by the 1964 Wilderness Act. Its scenic value exudes from its aspen groves, meadows of wildflowers, and dark forests of spruce and fir that rise up from the valleys to alpine landscapes. Here, bighorn sheep, pika, and ptarmigan find habitat above timberline. Towering over glacial valleys at over 14,000 feet in elevation, the Maroon Bells are the most recognizable peaks in the Elk Mountains. The Maroon Bells are unique in the Rockies in that they are made up of metamorphic sedimentary mudstone that gives the peaks their maroon color and unstable nature for climbing. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (970) 945-2521.
Nearby Attractions
The nearby resort town of Aspen is a popular destination for visitors to the area. From downhill skiing and world-class fly fishing, to dining and shopping, there is a multitude of outdoor and indoor opportunities in this mountain town.
What the agency tells you
Maroon Bells Scenic Area campgrounds have a five day total stay limit.
Check out time is 11:00 a.m.
Camping permitted in developed campgrounds and/or designated campsites only.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
$10 car pass is required in addition to camping fee and will be collected as you enter the area. The car pass gives you unrestricted access to your campsite and the Maroon Bells.
Welcome station is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Independence Pass (Highway 82) is normally open from Memorial Day through mid-October, weather dependent. If you are planning an event during these times, please call the Colorado Department of Transportation Hotline for road updates at (877) 315-7623.
This area provides access to the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness area.
Pets must be on a leash at all times while visiting Maroon Bells Scenic Area, and within designated Wilderness.
Campsites are limited to 8 people and 2 tents that fit within the defined footprint of the campsite. You may not expand campsite into surrounding vegetation.
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.
Horses are not allowed in Campgrounds.
Camping overnight in wilderness areas requires registration (proper food storage in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness requires an approved bear cannister).
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.
Click here for more information about White River National Forest.
Reservations must check-in at the Welcome Station within 24 hours of their check-in day and time or their site will be forfeited.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 14 · 6 tent-only, 6 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Sites are equipped with picnic tables, vault toilets, food storage lockers (bear boxes) and campfire…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Drinking water and electrical hook-ups are not available.”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 4 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Visitor center
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 327th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 13 days ago, 7.7 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
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.
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 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.
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
14 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 14 mapped sitesAll 14 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. 14 of the 14 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| SILV | 001 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 86 ft | 116 ft | $15 |
| SILV | 002 | walk to | 43 ft | 100 ft | $15 | |
| SILV | 003 | walk to | 43 ft | 67 ft | $15 | |
| SILV | 004 | walk to | 46 ft | 93 ft | $15 | |
| SILV | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 87 ft | 184 ft | $15 |
| SILV | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 22 ft | 28 ft | 146 ft | $15 |
| SILV | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 28 ft | 130 ft | $15 |
| SILV | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 35 ft | 156 ft | $15 |
| SILV | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 35 ft | 154 ft | $15 |
| SILV | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 25 ft | 121 ft | $15 |
| SILV | 011 | walk to | 20 ft | 140 ft | $15 | |
| SILV | 012 | walk to | 20 ft | 160 ft | $15 | |
| SILV | 013 | walk to | 62 ft | 216 ft | $15 | |
| SILV | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 87 ft | 191 ft | $15 |
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 · the phone number
Where it is
Silver Queen CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 0.7 mi
Maroon Bells AmphitheatreWhite River National Forest · 4.4 mi
Difficult CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 6.5 miWeller CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 9.3 miLincoln Creek Dispersed CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 11 miComing to Aspen via Independence Pass: Take Highway 82 West from downtown Aspen, 1 mile to the roundabout (rotary). From the roundabout, take Maroon Creek Road 4.7 miles to the Maroon Bells Welcome Station. Continue past the Welcome Station half a mile. Silver Bell Campground is on the left hand side. Silver Bell Campground is approximately 5 miles from Highway 82 at the roundabout.
Coming to Aspen via Glenwood Springs: Take Highway 82 for 40 miles to the roundabout (rotary). From the roundabout, take Maroon Creek Road 4.7 miles to the Maroon Bells Welcome Station. Continue past the Welcome Station half a mile. Silver Bell Campground is on the left hand side. Silver Bell Campground is approximately 5 miles from Highway 82 at the roundabout.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Snowmass Village, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 10°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
Silver Bell 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 →