Thirty Mile
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $29–$58Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 35All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Thirty Mile Campground is nestled on the banks of the Rio Grande River, just a short mile from the Rio Grande Reservoir. The location is perfect for anyone who loves to spend time fishing, canoeing and swimming. In addition, there are two trailheads and regular interpretive programs located at the campground. Across from the Thirty Mile is the Weminuche Wilderness, the largest wilderness area in Colorado. It's a famously rugged region with three mountain peaks reaching over 14,000 feet. Keep reading
Recreation
Anglers and hikers are common campers at Thirty Mile, and the San Juan Mountains provide great fun for backpackers and horse packers. Two trailheads, Squaw Creek and Weminuche Pass, lead eager hikers into the Weminuche Wilderness and link up to the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.
Facilities
No electric site hookups are available. Firewood is sold onsite. There is ample parking for day visitors but stock unloading and horse trailers are not permitted. Sites are designed for both tent and trailer camping. Drinking water is available.
Natural Features
The campground is located in a meadow among mature spruce and aspen trees, just between the Rio Grande River and Squaw Creek. All sites are nicely shaded and some overlook the creek. The Rio Grande National Forest spans 1.86 million acres in south-central Colorado. The Continental Divide runs for 236 miles along most of the forest's western border, presenting a myriad of ecosystems from alpine desert to dense wilderness. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (805) 434-1996.
What the agency tells you
PMC & Recreation.gov policy states we will keep your reserved site until check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. If you haven't occupied it at any time during this period, your reservation is null and void and we will give it to first come first serve campers. Your reservation will be a no show and no refund will be given.
All single campsite reservation fees are good for 6 people and 1 vehicle. The maximum number of people per site is 8 ($10.00 additional charge after 6 people). The maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle). Any extra people/vehicle fees will be charged at the campground ($10/night per person/vehicle).
All double campsite reservation fees are good for 12 people and two vehicles. The maximum number of people per double site is 16 ($10.00 additional charge after 12 people). The maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for over 2 vehicles). Any extra people/vehicle fees will be charged at the campground ($10/night per person/vehicle).
Everything else this campground posts · 7
The camp host at this location cannot modify your reservation. Before your check-in date, you may cancel or modify your reservation online. After your check-out date, you have a 7 day period to request a refund online.
Please fill your trailer prior to arriving. Trailers are not allowed to fill at any hydrants as it might contaminate the entire water system.
There are no electric site hook-ups at this facility.
This campground has first-come, first-serve sites available but not guaranteed.
The 14 day stay limit is strictly enforced. Camping for a period longer than 14 days during any 30-consecutive day period is prohibited. If you have booked back-to-back reservations, you will be asked to cancel all days after the first 14.
Click here to learn more about the Rio Grande National Forest.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 35
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 90 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…for both tent and trailer camping. Drinking water is available. Natural Features The campground is…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Creek, Meadow
- Fishing
- Night sky · 8th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 30 km away
- Peak color
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 · 16
What you actually pay
“The maximum number of vehicles per site is 2 ($10.00 additional charge for 2nd vehicle).” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $29–$58 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking, plus the agency’s published $2 weekend rate on Friday and Saturday. 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
35 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 35 mapped sitesAll 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. 35 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.
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.
| THIR | 001 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 197 ft | 404 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 002 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 127 ft | 99 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 003 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 38 ft | 70 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 004 | standard nonelectric | 86 ft | 38 ft | 99 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 005 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 48 ft | 103 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 006 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 132 ft | 157 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 007 | standard nonelectric | 90 ft | 109 ft | 289 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 384 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 009 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 148 ft | 475 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 010 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 148 ft | 588 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 011 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 67 ft | 516 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 012 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 191 ft | 512 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 013 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 54 ft | 152 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 014 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 54 ft | 137 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 015 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 82 ft | 167 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 71 ft | 161 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 017 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 71 ft | 116 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 134 ft | 247 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 019 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 16 ft | 208 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 020 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 16 ft | 222 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 021 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 34 ft | 225 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 022 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 36 ft | 249 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 023 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 36 ft | 221 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 77 ft | 131 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 025 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 39 ft | 102 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 026 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 39 ft | 73 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 027 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 112 ft | 404 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 028 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 51 ft | 255 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 029 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 51 ft | 217 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 030 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 135 ft | 390 ftRio Grande | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 031 | standard nonelectric | 111 ft | 345 ft | $29–$58 | |
| THIR | 032 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 16 ft | 306 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 033 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | 291 ft | $29–$58 | |
| THIR | 034 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 54 ft | 266 ft | $29–$58 |
| THIR | 035 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 67 ft | 579 ft | $29–$58 |
25 of 35 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
River HillRio Grande National Forest · 1.5 miRoad Canyon CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 4.2 mi
Bristol Head CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 9.0 miSilver Thread CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 9.1 miNorth Clear Creek CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 10 mi
Palisades Horse CampSan Juan National Forest · 13 miFrom Alamosa, go west on US 160 to South Fork. Turn northwest on State Highway 149 through Creede. Continue on Highway 149 to mile marker 41, turn west (gravel road) on Rio Grande Reservoir Road and continue for 12 miles to Thirty Mile Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Piedra, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -4°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
Thirty Mile 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 →