West Fork Campground
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $32From, per site
- Sites
- 27All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
West Fork Campground sits near the West Fork San Juan River in a secluded 10-acre area, just over a mile from Highway 160. Visitors enjoy the area for its hiking opportunities and plentiful solitude. Keep reading
Recreation
The West Fork and nearby Wolf Creek offer fishing opportunities, but are heavily fished streams. Only skilled and patient fishermen have much luck in these waters. The West Fork Trail, also known as the Rainbow Trail, leads into the Weminuche Wilderness from a trailhead a mile beyond the campground. The first portion of the trail passes through private property, so please stay on the trail and leave the gates as you find them.
Facilities
The campground offers single-family sites, some of which are adjacent to the river but without direct views. Most sites are suitable for large RVs. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water.
Natural Features
The campground is situated among a forest of mixed conifers, where sites have sun and shade. The West Fork can be heard, but not seen from the campground. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (661) 702-1420.
Nearby Attractions
Trailheads for Windy Pass and Treasure Mountain Trails are located across Highway 160 from the West Fork Road turnoff. Treasure Falls, located off Highway 160 about three miles from the campground, is an impressive 100-foot waterfall with a short hike leading to its base.
Charges & Cancellations
Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a campsite. Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. No-Shows A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite. Refunds Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Refunds will not be issued after the 7 days has ended. Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive. In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.
What the agency tells you
Click here for more information on the San Juan 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.
First Come First Served (FCFS) Campsites are also available at this campground
Everything else this campground posts · 1
FYI: Due to the flooding rains in October 2025, the river has repositioned itself away from the campsites that were once along side it.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 27
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 24 of 27 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features The campground…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features The campground is situated among…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 101st darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 2
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 40 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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $32 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.
“Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a cam…” · this campground’s own no-show 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 · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
27 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 27 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. 27 of the 27 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Loop A | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 51 ft | 547 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 006 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 51 ft | 504 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 008 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 84 ft | 458 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 009 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 54 ft | 416 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 010 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 54 ft | 405 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 86 ft | 419 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 014 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 140 ft | 432 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 015 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 55 ft | 304 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 016 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 49 ft | 272 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 017 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 49 ft | 285 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 018 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 100 ft | 277 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 020 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 95 ft | 548 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 95 ft | 568 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 211 ft | 658 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 026 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 211 ft | 773 ft | $32 |
| Loop A | 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 | ||
| Loop A | 028 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $32 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 27 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
East Fork Campground (San Juan NF - CO)San Juan National Forest · 4.9 miTucker Ponds CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 8.6 mi
Big Meadows Reservoir Campground (South Central CO)Rio Grande National Forest · 8.7 miPark Creek CampgroundRio Grande National Forest · 14 mi
Elwood CabinRio Grande National Forest · 15 mi
BridgeSan Juan National Forest · 16 miFrom Pagosa Springs, Colo., travel east on U.S. Highway 160 for about 13 miles, then turn northwest on Forest Road 684 and continue more than a mile to the campground entrance on the West Fork Road.
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 May night 36°F, day 68°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 36°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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 Fork Campground 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 →