U.S. Forest Service · Routt National Forest · CO
Summit Lake Campground
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: the sites go to whoever pulls in first.
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
10,360 ftElevation
334 ftWater · Summit Lake
6.9 miNE of Steamboat Springs, CO
43%Tree cover
Bortle 3Night sky · 298th darkest of 522 in CO
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
* NOTE: This campground will stay open until the snow makes it unreachable. Summit Lake Campground generally does not open until Mid July due to the high elevation of 10,300 ft and is located on Buffalo Pass outside of Steamboat Springs. It provides 9 back-in campsites and 6 walk-in tent sites (all are first come first serve and cannot be reserved. Each site has a table and a fire grate, and vault toilets and trash service is offered. Day Use is also obtainable in two parking lots provided for the visitor to use while fishing or picnicking. Keep reading
Only hand powered watercraft are permitted on Summit Lake, with no boat ramp available. This campground provides great opportunities for mountain biking, dirt biking and ATVing, horseback riding, fishing and hiking. It is located near the boundary of Mount Zirkel Wilderness which offers numerous backcountry opportunities. This site was approved for a fee change - Click here for more information
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…site has a table and a fire grate, and vault toilets and trash service is offered. Day Use is also…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
Source: Stated in the agency description
Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
Source: Stated in the agency description
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. 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.
BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe record
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 7
What you actually pay
The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
Site .$20
Exact cash or check only as there is no option for change back if paying cash.
NO CREDIT CARDS accepted.
Payment instructions are found on the kiosk.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near hereGranite CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 3.5 mi
Hidden Lakes CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 4.8 mi
Teal Lake Group CampsiteRoutt National Forest · 4.9 mi
Grizzly Creek Guard Station5.1 mi
Dry Lake Campground (CO)Routt National Forest · 5.3 mi
Dumont CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 10 mi
Hidden Lakes CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 4.8 miTeal Lake Group CampsiteRoutt National Forest · 4.9 miGrizzly Creek Guard Station5.1 miDry Lake Campground (CO)Routt National Forest · 5.3 miDumont CampgroundRoutt National Forest · 10 miSource: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Overnight25°Clear
Saturday45°Sunny
Saturday Night28°Mostly Clear
Sunday45°Mostly Sunny
NWS forecast for Steamboat Springs, CO
Source: National Weather Service, BOU forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
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.
Source: USFS Inventoried Roadless Areas via MTJP Roadless Map · Jul 29, 2026
Who answers for this land
Summit Lake Campground is in Colorado’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Joe Neguse (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service’s own recreation database flags it not open and publishes no reason and no date. That’s a flag, not a notice.
Listed not open: USFS EDW Recreation Opportunities, openstatus field: a not-open flag in a database, with no reason and no date published; read there since Sep 9, 2026. A flag, not a notice, so this page doesn’t call it a closure. · Oct 17, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.