Thistledown Campground - Ouray RD
1Heads up1 fire 3.5 mi away
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
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.
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Fall color · reported 6 days ago, 11 km away
- Patchy color
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.
Every line of the receipt · 5
What you actually pay
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
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Amphitheater (CO)Uncompahgre National Forest · 2.3 miAlta Lakes Campground (Designated) - Norwood RD12 miSunshineUncompahgre National Forest · 13 miSunshine Campground - Norwood RDUncompahgre National Forest · 13 mi
South MineralSan Juan National Forest · 14 mi
MatterhornUncompahgre National Forest · 15 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
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.
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

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 →