Willows Campground (CO)
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 15:36 UTC
- A night
- $21When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 21In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Willows Campground is located on the north shore of Green Mountain Reservoir in White River National Forest, offering an ideal setting for visitors seeking a multitude of recreational activities both on water and on land. Keep reading
Recreation
Encompassing a landscape of rivers, mountains, trails and forest roads, the White River National Forest is one of the top recreation forests in the nation. Located on the shores of Green Mountain reservoir, Cow Creek Campground is a popular spot for boating, kayaking, fishing, water skiing and windsurfing. Anglers will find populations of rainbow and brown trout, as well as kokanee salmon when casting their lines out into the water. Spring Creek is a popular off-roading area located at the northern end of the Gore Mountain Range. A network of roads open to off-road vehicle use meanders through lodgepole pine and spruce/fir forests. Viewpoints of surrounding mountains open up along these roads.
Facilities
Willows Campground has 21 standard sites suitable for tents, trailers and RVs. Vault toilets are provided. All motorized watercraft must be inspected for Aquatic Nuisance Species and must launch from a monitored launch ramp. The Heeney Marina below the Town of Heeney on the west shore is open during daylight hours throughout the season.
Natural Features
In the heart of the Rocky Mountains, the 2.3 million-acre White River National Forest is a place of serenity and adventure, boasting eight wilderness areas, four defined seasons and ten peaks surpassing 14,000 feet in elevation. The White River National Forest was established in 1891 as the White River Plateau Timber Reserve; the second such reserve to be named in the United States. In 1905, the newly formed Forest Service was given authority of the reserve. Long before this designation, the area was home to the Ute Indians who followed herds of elk and bison on their seasonal migrations. Wildlife in the area abounds. Bighorn sheep navigate rocky ridges and bull elk bugle at dusk. Scenic rivers sustain populations of cutthroat, rainbow and brown trout. Alpine regions provide habitat for pika and ptarmigan. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (801) 226-3564.
Nearby Attractions
Take some time to visit Rocky Mountain National Park to learn about the diverse landscape and history of the area through interpretive programs and exhibits. In the summer visitors may want to traverse Trail Ridge Road from one side of the park to the other, reaching alpine vistas boasting elevations of more than 12,000 feet.
Charges & Cancellations
Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
What the agency tells you
Please Note: One RV with tow per single site or one vehicle per tent site. Most sites can accommodate 1 extra vehicle that is not included with the reservation fee. Extra vehicle will be charged a per night fee and collected at the campground.
No Day Use available at this campground.
No drinking water available at this campground
Everything else this campground posts · 11
Site access is difficult when road is wet
All food, beverages, trash and scented items must be properly stored when not attended. Bear-proof trash receptacles are provided at the campground.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (ELEVEN) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
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.
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 .
Any accepted senior passes must be entered for the discount at the time of booking for single sites only.
Click here for more information about White River National Forest
Campers must occupy the site the first night at a campsite. This prevents booking the site for Fri-Sun and showing up on Saturday.
Campers may leave the site for 24 hours and must occupy the site otherwise. This allows a camper to say go for an overnight backpack trip in the woods for one night and come back to their campsite the next day.
Check in time is 2:00pm and Check out time is 11:00am It is imperative that you are clear from the site at 11:00am on your check out day so the host can come prepare the site for the next event. Please don't be the group that makes the incoming group have to wait.
Customer Service Contact 801-226-3564 or Help.WhiteRiver.Dillon@AmericanLL.com
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 21
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…suitable for tents, trailers and RVs. Vault toilets are provided. All motorized watercraft must be…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, River, Creek
- Night sky · 357th darkest of 522 in CO
- Bortle 3
- Fall color · reported 6 days ago, 33 km away
- Peak color
Nothing to book until it reopensread 15:36 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 10
What you actually pay
“Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.” · 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 · 5
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Willows Campground (CO) closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 2
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Deer Creek CampgroundPike National Forest · 48 mi · 4 sites
- DexterSan Isabel National Forest · 55 mi · 4 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 15:36 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
21 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 21 mapped sitesAll 21 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. 21 of the 21 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Willows | 001 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 55 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 002 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 46 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 003 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 32 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 004 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 28 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 005 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 36 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 006 | standard nonelectric | 106 ft | 39 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 007 | standard nonelectric | 95 ft | 43 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 008 | standard nonelectric | 81 ft | 33 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 009 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 16 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 010 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 13 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 011 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 219 ft | 131 ft | $21 |
| Willows | 012 | standard nonelectric | 427 ft | under 10 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 013 | standard nonelectric | 171 ft | 94 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 014 | standard nonelectric | 171 ft | 70 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 015 | standard nonelectric | 113 ft | 76 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 016 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 62 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 017 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 53 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 018 | standard nonelectric | 98 ft | 69 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 019 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 71 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 020 | standard nonelectric | 76 ft | 76 ft | $21 | |
| Willows | 021 | standard nonelectric | 94 ft | 76 ft | $21 |
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 agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cow Creek North (CO)White River National Forest · 1.2 mi
Elliott Creek Campground (CO)White River National Forest · 1.4 mi
Cow Creek South1.8 miCataract Creek CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 3.5 miMcDonald Flats CampgroundWhite River National Forest · 4.6 mi
Prairie Point Campground (CO)White River National Forest · 5.2 miFrom Silverthorne, on Interstate 70 take exit 205 and go north 24.5 miles north on Colorado Highway 9. The campground is at the northern point of Green Mountain Reservoir. Turn left onto Heeney Rd for .5 mile, the entrance is on the left. From Kremmling, Colorado, turn off Highway 40 onto Colorado Highway 9 South and go 13 miles, turn right on Heeney Rd.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Heeney, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 25°F, day 57°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 0°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
Willows Campground (CO) 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 →