South Meadows - Pike San Isabel NF (CO)
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $28From, per site
- Sites
- 63All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
South Meadows Campground, located 5 miles north of Woodland Park, provides a scenic spot for campers to rest and enjoy the many recreational offerings of the area. The campground attracts hikers and bikers with access to the multipurpose paved Centennial Bike Trail, as well as visitors looking for a central location for day trips to Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods is a National Natural Landmark in Colorado Springs, featuring incredible rock formations, impressive vistas and a free visitor and nature center. Keep reading
Recreation
The 4.2-mile Centennial Trail, a paved, accessible recreation trail, connects South Meadows Campground to Manitou Lake Picnic Area and Colorado Campground. The trail is popular for hikers, inline skaters and bicyclists. The nearby Rainbow Falls OHV Trail System and North Divide OHV Trail System are recommended for off-road vehicle enthusiasts. Fishing is available at nearby Manitou Lake and Trout Creek.
Facilities
Each site has a campfire ring and picnic table. Roads are paved and a campground host is on duty. Vault toilets and drinking water may be found throughout the campground with reduced facilities outside of peak season.
Natural Features
Campsites are tucked in a stand of ponderosa pines at an elevation of 8,000 feet. To the north is the 5-acre Manitou Lake. Afternoon thunderstorms are common in summer months and temperatures are generally mild, with warm and pleasant days and cooler nights.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Woodland Park is located five miles south of South Meadows Campground where campers can find gas, food, dining and shopping. Visitors can tour the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and view the impressive architecture at the Cadet Chapel. Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods are other popular attractions.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a campsite. Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. No-Shows A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite. Refunds Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Refunds will not be issued after the 7 days has ended. Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive. In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.
What the agency tells you
• Check-In time is 2 p.m. and check-out time is 12 p.m. • SPECIAL NOTE: Colorado State regulations prohibit attaching hoses to hydrants to fill RV’s. Please come prepared. • Please check-in with host upon arrival. • RV or trailers over 36 feet will have a very tough time making it through the campground because of tight corners and trees. • All vehicles including campers must fit in parking spur (not on grass) without blocking road. • Do not feed the wildlife. This includes bird feeders of any kind. • Don’t Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information. • 10 mph speed limit in all campgrounds and day use areas. • Discharging any weapon is prohibited including paintballs, bow & arrow, BB guns, airsoft guns. Fireworks and explosives are prohibited. Target shooting is prohibited. • Thunderstorms are common; take extra precautions for lightning. • Be bear aware; keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating. • This is a high elevation facility; please use caution when traveling from lower elevations. • This facility has first-come, first-served sites. • No hookups available. • No horses allowed. • ATVs prohibited. • Click here for more information on Pike and San Isabel National Forests. • USE OF DRONES PROHIBITED.
Two vehicles or one RV/Trailer and tow vehicle per site is included in the camping fee. $11.00/night for a third vehicle.
Firewood is available for sale at host site for $10.00/bundle.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
$11.00 fee for DAY USE if you are not camping overnight. This is only for sites that are First Come First Serve and you must vacate the site by 5:00 PM.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 63 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 84 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Meadow
- Night sky · 503rd darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 9 days ago, 24 km away
- Peak color
Nothing on the booking system for the next 30 nightsread 16:08 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $28 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.
“Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a cam…” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:08 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
64 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 63 mapped sitesAll 64 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 63 of the 64 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| SOUT | 001 - HOST | host pad | 45 ft | 1,215 ft | ||
| SOUT | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 70 ft | 1,201 ft | $28 | |
| SOUT | 003 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 70 ft | 1,231 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 004 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 33 ft | 1,218 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 005 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 33 ft | 1,220 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 23 ft | 1,272 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 23 ft | 1,293 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 43 ft | 1,321 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 009 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 93 ft | 1,347 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 26 ft | 1,332 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 011 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 18 ft | 1,306 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 18 ft | 1,307 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 57 ft | 1,259 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 014 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 61 ft | 1,063 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 61 ft | 1,011 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 016 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 73 ft | 1,066 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 13 ft | 919 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 018 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 13 ft | 925 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 127 ft | 827 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 020 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 45 ft | 731 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 021 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 45 ft | 715 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 47 ft | 672 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 023 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 74 ft | 635 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 024 | standard nonelectric | 84 ft | 28 ft | 600 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 28 ft | 621 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 026 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 133 ft | 565 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 027 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 30 ft | 572 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 028 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 21 ft | 579 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 029 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 21 ft | 593 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 030 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 55 ft | 577 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 031 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 55 ft | 584 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 032 | tent only nonelectric | 207 ft | 500 ft | $28 | |
| SOUT | 033 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 151 ft | 619 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 034 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 92 ft | 744 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 035 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 44 ft | 821 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 036 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 44 ft | 864 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 037 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 94 ft | 951 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 038 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 48 ft | 1,043 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 039 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 48 ft | 1,090 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 040 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 47 ft | 1,160 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 041 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 47 ft | 1,196 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 042 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 49 ft | 1,218 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 043 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 52 ft | 1,252 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 044 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 74 ft | 1,259 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 045 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 52 ft | 1,250 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 046 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 1,235 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 047 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 1,216 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 048 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 61 ft | 1,058 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 049 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 61 ft | 998 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 050 | standard nonelectric | 10 ft | 32 ft | 888 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 051 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 32 ft | 857 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 052 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 33 ft | 898 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 053 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 33 ft | 887 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 054 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 25 ft | 913 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 055 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 25 ft | 919 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 056 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 88 ft | 936 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 057 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 66 ft | 936 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 058 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 66 ft | 937 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 059 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 77 ft | 974 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 060 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 91 ft | 1,161 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 061 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 35 ft | 1,074 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 062 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 35 ft | 1,039 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 063 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 48 ft | 774 ft | $28 |
| SOUT | 064 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 48 ft | 726 ft | $28 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
25 of 64 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Pike CommunityPike National Forest · 0.0 mi
South Meadows CampgroundPike National Forest · 0.1 mi
Colorado CampgroundPike National Forest · 1.0 mi
Painted RocksPike National Forest · 1.5 mi
Red Rocks Group CampgroundPike National Forest · 1.6 miSpringdalePike National Forest · 5.9 miFrom the I-25 and Hwy 24 intersection in Colorado Springs, Colorado, travel west on Highway 24 for approximately 18 miles to the Hwy 24 and Hwy 67 intersection in Woodland Park. Turn right (north) on Hwy 67 and travel approximately 5.5 miles to South Meadows Campground. The campground is 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 Woodland Park, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 16°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
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
South Meadows - Pike San Isabel NF (CO) is in Colorado’s 7th congressional district. Its representative, Brittany Pettersen (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →