South Mineral
1Heads up1 fire 18 mi away
- Right now
- Shut for nowOutside the published season, our reading; a database flag says not open
- A night
- $40From, per site
- Sites
- 41 on recreation.gov
- Season
- – September 30Closes September 30. No opening date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
This location is available on a first-come, first-served basis only. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cellular service. Keep reading
Facilities
South Mineral Campground, located along South Mineral Creek, is one of the most popular campgrounds in the San Juan National Forest. The campground has 26 sites, all of which are first-come, first-serve . Most campsites are shaded and well-spaced thanks to spruce and fir trees. Some sites are handicapped accessible. Some sites have large parking areas. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
What the agency tells you
This is a Scan & Pay facility
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 4
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 13 km away
- Patchy color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 1 of the 4 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $40 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
4 sites · the site map
All 4 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 4 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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 4 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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
MatterhornUncompahgre National Forest · 6.4 mi
Matterhorn CabinUncompahgre National Forest · 6.4 miAlta Lakes Campground (Designated) - Norwood RD7.0 miSunshineUncompahgre National Forest · 8.5 miSunshine Campground - Norwood RDUncompahgre National Forest · 8.5 mi
Cayton CampgroundSan Juan National Forest · 11 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ophir, CO
Typical weather
Typical September night 30°F, day 66°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical September night 30°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
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 Mineral 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 →