West Chicago Creek
- Right now
- Listed not openA database flag with no reason and no date
- A night
- $25From, per site
- Sites
- 1614 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
West Chicago Creek Campground sits along its namesake creek at the base of Mount Blue Sky and is located off Highway 103 on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in central Colorado. It is a popular facility for hiking and fishing enthusiasts. Keep reading
Recreation
The area provides easy access to many hiking trails that lead into the Mount Evans Wilderness. West Chicago Creek offers good fishing for rainbow, brown and brook trout.
Facilities
There are 15 sites available all suitable for RV and tent camping. Each site contains a tent pad, picnic table, charcoal grill and fire ring. Other amenities include a vault toilet, water spigot and trash dumpster. There are no RV hook-ups. Firewood is available for sale during peak season at the campground.
Natural Features
The campground sits at an elevation of 9,600 feet in an aspen and lodgepole pine forest. The Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland are located in the foothills and slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The forests and grassland cover 1.5 million acres and extend north to the Wyoming border, south to Mount Evans and west across the Continental Divide. The area encompasses mountains, lakes and five scenic byways, designated by Congress for their scenery, wildlife or history, including the highest road in North America. Mount Evans Road, also known as Colorado Highway 5, allows visitors to drive from 10,500' to 14,130' above sea level in just 14 miles. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 529-0578.
Nearby Attractions
Nearby Idaho Springs, a former mining town, makes for a nice outing. History buffs will appreciate the Argo Gold Mine and Mill Museum.
Charges & Cancellations
Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov or by calling the call center at 1-877-444-6777 PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
What the agency tells you
The well is not working. Please bring all the water you will need for your stay. RV electric, water and sewer connections are not available.
Limited first-come, first-served sites are available
This is bear country! For bear and human safety, keep a clean campsite and do not place food or other attractants in your tent. For more information about visiting bear country, contact Colorado Parks and Wildlife at http://wildlife.state.co.us
Everything else this campground posts · 10
https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp to learn more about the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland.
The area does not offer off-highway vehicle (OHV) trails and OHVs are not allowed in the campground.
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.
You must stay on the site you reserved. This is a busy place and site swapping is not allowed.
All campsites must be occupied within 26 hours of the beginning of the reservation. If not present the site will be rented by first come first serve basis.
EXTRA VEHICLE FEES: One vehicle is included in your reservation. Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On. One vehicle consists of one camper being towed by vehicle, or any other vehicle towed behind camper. One van or one truck with camper attached counts as one vehicle. Extra vehicles must fit on the parking spur at your site.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Tents must fit on the pads provided. RVs, trailers or other vehicles must fit on the parking spur. Driving or parking off road is not permitted. The parking length ranges from 30 to 45 feet.
Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.
Check-Out is at 12 P.M. Check-In is at 2 P.M.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 16 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and fire ring. Other amenities include a vault toilet, water spigot and trash dumpster. There are no RV…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…Other amenities include a vault toilet, water spigot and trash dumpster. There are no RV hook-ups.…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 483rd darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 11 days ago, 32 km away
- Peak color
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 14 of the 16 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
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 · 15
What you actually pay
“Any additional vehicles will be charged $8.00 per vehicle per night and will be collected by the camp host if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $25 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.
“Modifications for this campground must be made through Recreation.gov or by calling the call center at 1-877-444-6777 PRIOR to your reservation start date. Customers and contact center agents cannot modify reservations on or after the check-in date.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 7
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
16 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 14 mapped sitesAll 16 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 16 of the 16 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 16 of the 16 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.
| WEST | 001 | type not stated | 40 ft | 216 ft | 227 ft | $25 | |
| WEST | 002 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 51 ft | 207 ft | 195 ft | $25 |
| WEST | 003 | type not stated | 40 ft | 223 ft | 165 ft | $25 | |
| WEST | 004 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 51 ft | 209 ft | 151 ft | $25 |
| WEST | 005 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 32 ft | 233 ft | 95 ft | $25 |
| WEST | 006 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 32 ft | 256 ft | 63 ft | $25 |
| WEST | 007 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 57 ft | 245 ft | 66 ft | $25 |
| WEST | 008 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 26 ft | 230 ft | 113 ft | $25 |
| WEST | 009 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 26 ft | 214 ft | 138 ft | $25 |
| WEST | 010 | rv nonelectric | 32 ft | 42 ft | 230 ft | 164 ft | $25 |
| WEST | 011 | tent only nonelectric | 13 ft | 240 ft | 212 ft | $25 | |
| WEST | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 13 ft | 244 ft | 223 ft | $25 | |
| WEST | 013 | standard nonelectric | 14 ft | 257 ft | 224 ft | $25 | |
| WEST | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 143 ft | 389 ft | 141 ft | $25 |
| WEST | 015 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 20 ft | 356 ft | 139 ft | $25 |
| WEST | 016 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 20 ft | 343 ft | 150 ft | $25 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Clear Lake CampgroundArapaho National Forest · 3.3 mi
Echo Lake3.6 mi
Guanella PassArapaho National Forest · 5.5 mi
Mestaa’ėhehe Mountain Fire LookoutArapaho National Forest · 8.8 miMizpah CampgroundArapaho National Forest · 9.8 mi
Columbine CampgroundArapaho National Forest · 11 miI-70 westbound, Idaho Springs exit #240 - Hwy 103. Go south for 6.5 miles and turn right on southwest Forest Service Road 188 (West Chicago Creek Road). Go 3 miles to campground. The last mile of dirt/gravel road is one lane with pull over's and contains two sharp switchbacks.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Georgetown, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 29°F, day 50°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 12°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
West Chicago Creek 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 →