Southside Campground - Lake Isabel
1Heads up1 fire 2.6 mi away
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $25From, per site
- Sites
- 8All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Southside Campground is a small RV facility situated in the Wet Mountains by Lake Isabel. The popular recreation area offers a selection of hiking trails and great fishing and paddle boating on Lake Isabel. Lake Isabel was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s, for the purpose of recreation.The 40-acre lake is stocked with trout and the nearby St. Charles Creek offers additional fishing opportunities. Keep reading
Recreation
Lake Isabel welcomes non-motorized boating and fishing. Brown and brook trout are stocked in the lake and the St. Charles headwaters reap brook trout. Visitors can enjoy hiking, bicycling or motorcycling on either the Snow Slide Trail and Cisneros Trail. The 15-mile Cisneros Trail, also open to ATV riders, leads to the heart of the Wet Mountains, through forests and open, wildflower-speckled valleys. Along the way, the trail connects to St. Charles Trail, which heads to St. Charles Peak.
Facilities
The campground is designed for RVs less than 30 feet in length, with no large slide-outs and require no hook-ups. Roads are paved. The facility is not ideal for tent camping, but tent camping is permitted. All sites are pull-through; backing is not required. RV hookups are not available. Amenities include campfire grills, vault toilets, drinking water and picnic tables.
Natural Features
Aspen and ponderosa pine help shade the campground. Lake Isabel impresses visitors with a shoreline that meets the rocky base of the surrounding mountains at an elevation of 8,600 feet. The Pike and San Isabel National Forest includes over a million acres of wilderness and over half of Colorado's mountain peaks that reach above 14,000 feet.
Nearby Attractions
Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (719) 489-2034.
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
This Campground has a limit of 8 people; either 2 tents and 2 vehicles OR 1 RV in each campsite.
Tight turns prevent vehicles over 30' in length from safely maneuvering through this campground.
Be BEAR AWARE; please keep all food out of sight in approved containers or locked inside your vehicle and remove all food from area after eating
Everything else this campground posts · 7
This is a high elevation facility, please use caution when traveling from lower elevations
No firearms or fireworks
For more information on Pike and San Isabel National Forests, click here
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.
Due to the remoteness of the campground, real time information is not available. Call the San Carlos Ranger District office at (719) 269-8500 for more information.
Two vehicles included in the camping fee. $10 for additional vehicles.
Cellphone service does not work at this location.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 8
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 30 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Amenities include campfire grills, vault toilets, drinking water and picnic tables. Natural Features…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…include campfire grills, vault toilets, drinking water and picnic tables. Natural Features Aspen and…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Ranger programs
- Night sky · 345th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
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
“$10 for additional vehicles.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $25 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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
8 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 8 mapped sitesAll 8 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 8 of the 8 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. 8 of the 8 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.
| LAKE | 001 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 38 ft | 251 ftLake Isabel | 72 ft | $25 |
| LAKE | 002 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 36 ft | 259 ftLake Isabel | 109 ft | $25 |
| LAKE | 003 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 36 ft | 276 ftLake Isabel | 144 ft | $25 |
| LAKE | 004 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 36 ft | 282 ftLake Isabel | 187 ft | $25 |
| LAKE | 005 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 35 ft | 294 ftLake Isabel | 223 ft | $25 |
| LAKE | 006 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 32 ft | 318 ftLake Isabel | 256 ft | $25 |
| LAKE | 007 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 32 ft | 320 ft | 288 ft | $25 |
| LAKE | 008 | rv nonelectric | 30 ft | 36 ft | 291 ft | 324 ft | $25 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
La Vista Campground - Lake IsabelSan Isabel National Forest · 0.2 mi
Lake Isabel CabinSan Isabel National Forest · 0.4 mi
St Charles Campground - Lake IsabelSan Isabel National Forest · 0.5 miPonderosa Group CampgroundSan Isabel National Forest · 0.9 mi
Ponderosa Group - Lake IsabelSan Isabel National Forest · 1.2 mi
Spruce Group - Lake IsabelSan Isabel National Forest · 1.2 miFrom Pueblo, drive 25 miles south on Interstate 25 to exit 74. Go west 18 miles on state Highway 165. Turn into the main entrance at Lake Isabel Recreation Area. The campground is the first within the recreation area on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Beulah Valley, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 62°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 17°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
Southside Campground - Lake Isabel 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 →