U.S. Forest Service · Uncompahgre National Forest · CO

Thistledown Campground - Ouray RD

1Heads up1 fire 3.5 mi away
Wildfire
Gold Mountain fire · 3.5 mi away · 39,747 acres · 92% contained · updated Oct 13, 2026
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
Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
A night
$10From, per site
Drawn from the record · 8,520 ft · 20% tree cover · Canyon Creek within reach · Bortle 2 sky
8,520 ftElevation
12 ftWater · Canyon Creek
7.3 miNE of Telluride, CO
20%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 192nd darkest of 522 in CO

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

Thistledown Campground is adjacent to the historic site of Thistledown and the Weehawken Trailhead in Canyon Creek near Ouray, CO. This campground is heavily used by people planning to hike into Mount Sneffels & other nearby trails, enjoying the wildflowers in Yankee Boy Basin or driving on the local jeep trails. Tent camping is recommended.

Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

Around the campground

On the water
Creek
Fall color · reported 6 days ago, 11 km away
Patchy color
Source: Stated in the agency description
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (11 km) · Oct 10, 2026

Nothing to book, just show up

One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and a night costs $10 with nothing added. 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
A night$10Per site, fromthe agency’s fee record
A weekend$20DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
Runs itU.S. Forest Servicethe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 5

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night, from$10
Camp unit per night .$10
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
One night, fromDerived$10
A weekend, Friday and Saturday, fromDerived$20

Derived by CAMPANAC: the lowest per-night amount the agency’s fee record states ($10), and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.

How we know this receipt · 5
Source: USFS Enterprise Data Warehouse · Aug 24, 2026

record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Today52°Sunny
Tonight33°Clear
Saturday55°Sunny
Saturday Night34°Partly Cloudy2% rain

NWS forecast for Ouray, CO

Typical weather

Typical October night 34°F, day 57°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 15°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

90°32°10°

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.

Measured at: OURAY, CO (USC00056203), 2 miles away and 680 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Beaver Creek1,877 acres · 5 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Badly Peak1,948 acres · 7 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Iron Mountain7,590 acres · 8 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Jeff Hurd, official portrait

Thistledown Campground - Ouray RD 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: U.S. Forest Service publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (11 km) · Oct 10, 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.
Nearest place of any size: Ouray, CO, 1.3 mi SSW. Straight line.