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

Williams Creek (CO)

1Heads up1 fire 21 mi away
Wildfire
Gold Mountain fire · 21 mi away · 39,747 acres · 92% contained · updated Oct 13, 2026
ReservableBooking 6 months out; today unlocks April 15. Season not published.
Book on recreation.govWe make nothing when you book
Right now
Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
Sites
41 on recreation.gov
Season
May 23 – September 29Open May 23 through September 29
Drawn from the record · 9,200 ft · 0% tree cover · Lake Fork within reach · Bortle 2 sky
9,200 ftElevation
220 ftWater · Lake Fork
25.6 miE of Telluride, CO
0%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 17th darkest of 522 in CO
Open May 23 through September 29Today

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

This location is available on a first-come, first-served basis only. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the campground to purchase and claim a site. Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or no cellular service.

Tents and rigs

Sites
4
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Around the campground

Fall color · reported 11 days ago, 37 km away
Peak color
Source: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (37 km) · Oct 5, 2026

No reading yet, book on recreation.gov

recreation.gov lists 1 of the 4 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.

Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 15, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 9

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 · 4

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

4 sites · the site map

All 4 sites

1 of 4 sites located
Standard1
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
Scan and PayScanPay 2type not stated
Scan and PayScanPay 3type not stated
Scan and PayScanPay 4type not stated
Scan and PayStandardstandard nonelectric220 ft

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.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the phone number

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Today58°Sunny
Tonight29°Clear
Saturday60°Sunny
Saturday Night32°Partly Cloudy3% rain

NWS forecast for Lake City, CO

Typical weather

Typical May night 33°F, day 65°F.

Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 33°F. Bring the bag rated for it.

90°32°-10°

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.

Measured at: LAKE CITY, CO (USC00054734), 7 miles away and 533 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
Carson Peak25,876 acres · 3 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Big Buck / Kitty / Ruby9,761 acres · 5 mi · inventoried roadless area
Roadless
Crystal Peak5,463 acres · 10 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

Williams Creek (CO) 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: The agency lists it out of season. The season it publishes is the bar below.
Fall color: More Than Just Parks foliage tracker, joined to this campground by distance (37 km) · Oct 5, 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: Lake City, CO, 6.4 mi S. Straight line.