Soap Creek Campground - Gunnison RD
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $18From, per site
- Season
- May 23 – September 29Open May 23 through September 29
The place
the agency’s own description
In the agency’s own words
This campground provides access to the southern trails of the West Elk Wilderness. On site is Coal Mesa Trailhead, which is the portal for a network of trails including 451.2 (Coal Mesa), 451 and 452. Horse corrals and bins are located adjacent to the campground. 21 campsites.
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and a night costs $18 with nothing added. 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.
Every line of the receipt · 7
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($18), and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
How we know this receipt · 5
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Crawford, CO
Typical weather
Typical May night 32°F, day 66°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 32°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 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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Soap Creek Campground - Gunnison RD 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 →