The Bank Campground
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:37 UTC
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 35All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Open year-round; visitors come for the spectacular rock climbing adjacent to the campground. Approximately 15 miles north of Cañon City, Colorado, The Bank Campground overlooks Shelf Road and is located at an approximate elevation of 6890 feet. The Bank has 33 campsites. The dirt road leading to the campground is very rough and not recommended for large RVs and travel trailers. Keep reading
Recreation
The Bank Campground offers easy access to the popular rock climbing area, Shelf Road. Climbers can access nearly 1000 bolted routes via the Cactus Cliff and Dark Side trails. A variety of other recreation opportunities easily accessed from the campground include hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding as well as 4wd routes. In addition to campsites, The Bank Campground offers a day-use parking area for recreationalists.
Facilities
The dirt road leading to The Bank campground is steep and rough. This 33-site campground was recently renovated and has 31 individual sites, 2 group sites, and 4 vault toilets. Individual sites are limited to 2 vehicles and 8 people. Group sites are limited to 4 vehicles and 20 people. Each campsite includes a parking space, a metal fire ring and a picnic table. Many sites are designed for tent or van camping. Large camp trailers and RVs that can manage the steep access road are accommodated with some pull-through sites in B-Loop. Drinking water, electric hook-ups and trash service are not available at The Bank Campground so please bring your own water and plan to take your trash with you when you leave. Bring your own firewood.
Natural Features
The Bank Campground and the surrounding area is well known amongst rock climbers and outdoor enthusiasts for the long bands of limestone cliffs dominating the landscape. Stunning rock features paired with the piñon pine and juniper vegetation, enhance the dramatic vistas and a picturesque camping environment.
Nearby Attractions
The region around Shelf Road offers numerous attractions and recreation opportunities. Popular activities include visiting the Royal Gorge via the Royal Gorge Bridge, the Royal Gorge Train, hiking trails or a rafting trip with one of a number of river outfitters. The Arkansas River offers whitewater rafting as well as outstanding angling. There are numerous trails for all activities in the region as well as agricultural and heritage tours along the Gold Belt National Scenic Byway. The local communities offer a range of shopping and dining experiences. Visit the Royal Gorge Region web page for more information about local attractions: Explore - Royal Gorge Region: royalgorgeregion.com
What the agency tells you
The dirt road leading to the campground is steep and rough, please travel with caution. Large trailers and RVs are not advised.
There are no hookup services, no trash collection services and no potable water.
Bring your own drinking water.
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Maximum length of stay is 14 days.
Fires are only allowed in BLM approved metal fire rings, do not build rock fire rings. Bring your own firewood.
Individual campsites are limited to 8 people and 2 vehicles per site. Group campsites are limited to 20 people and 4 vehicles per site. Extra vehicles must park in the Day Use Parking area.
Campsites in A Loop are First Come, First Serve, Pay for the site at the pay station immediately after occupying the site. A Loop sites are designed to accommodate tents or van camping.
B Loop is Reservable 14 days in advance, if there isn't a current reservation on the day of, sites are available on a First Come, First Serve basis payable at the Pay Station for one night only. Most B-Loop campsites are large enough to accommodate large trailer units and RVs (B-19, B21, B28, B29, B30, B32 are pull through sites).
Quiet hours are 10:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. This includes, but not limited to, generators, music, loud voices and loud pets.
Generators during non-quiet hours are highly discouraged, for the consideration of other campers.
Check-in time is 1:00 pm. Check-out time is 11:00 am.
During the months of June, July and August, the extreme heat and the presence of pinyon gnats, flies, ants and other insects, can make camping during these months unpleasant. It’s advised to plan accordingly if you plan to camp during this time of the year.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 35 · 13 tent-only, 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…individual sites, 2 group sites, and 4 vault toilets. Individual sites are limited to 2 vehicles and 8…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Drinking water, electric hook-ups and trash service are not available at The Bank Campground so please bring your own water and plan to take your trash with you when you leave.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Biking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Mountain biking
- Climbing
- Scenic drives
- Night sky · 465th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 7 days ago, 15 km away
- Peak color
Full this Saturdayread 15:37 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 22 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 20 are free on Wed, Oct 21. read 15:37 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $20 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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:37 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
35 sites
All 35 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 22 of the 35 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | A-1 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-10 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-11 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-12 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-13 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | |
| A | A-2 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-3 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-4 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-5 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-6 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-7 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-8 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| A | A-9 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | ||
| B | B-14 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-15 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-16 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-17 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-18 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-19 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-20 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-21 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-22 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-23 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-24 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-25 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-26 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-27 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-28 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-29 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-30 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-31 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-32 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| B | B-33 | standard nonelectric | $20 | ||
| Group Site 1 | group standard nonelectric | $40 | |||
| Group Site 2 | group standard nonelectric | yes | $40 |
25 of 35 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sand Gulch CampgroundRoyal Gorge Field Office · 0.8 miCrags CampgroundPike National Forest · 18 miThe CragsPike National Forest · 18 miFive Points CampgroundRoyal Gorge Field Office · 19 mi
Cove CampgroundPike National Forest · 23 mi
Spillway CampgroundPike National Forest · 23 miFrom Highway 50 in Cañon City, Take Dozier Avenue north following it as it turns west. At the four-way stop sign turn right on Field Avenue and follow it north until it turns into CR 9. In approximately 10 miles, continue straight and follow the sign for The Bank Campground. Campground is located approximately 1 mile up the rough dirt road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Victor, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 65°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
The Bank Campground 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyBrittany PettersenU.S. Representative · Colorado’s 7th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn W. HickenlooperU.S. Senator · Colorado
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMichael F. BennetU.S. Senator · Colorado
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at The Bank Campground, Royal Gorge Field Office, Colorado
Dear Brittany Pettersen, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 7th district. I tried to camp at The Bank Campground, Royal Gorge Field Office, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 35 sites at The Bank Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 22 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. The Bank Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run The Bank Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about The Bank Campground (Royal Gorge Field Office, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at The Bank Campground, Royal Gorge Field Office, Colorado
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at The Bank Campground, Royal Gorge Field Office, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 35 sites at The Bank Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 22 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. The Bank Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run The Bank Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about The Bank Campground (Royal Gorge Field Office, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at The Bank Campground, Royal Gorge Field Office, Colorado
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. I tried to camp at The Bank Campground, Royal Gorge Field Office, Colorado, and couldn’t. All 35 sites at The Bank Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 22 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. The Bank Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run The Bank Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about The Bank Campground (Royal Gorge Field Office, Colorado) via campanac.com