Agency-listedBLM · dispersedUnpriced · confirm
Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · CO · 38.53778, -105.99250
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Bureau of Land Management lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 7,051 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Arkansas Headwaters Recreation AreaNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area · Bureau of Land Management · CO
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel0 mi
- OOutfitter0 mi
- EVEV fast charger0 mi
- GGrocery0 mi
- RxPharmacy0 mi
- WWater0 mi
- @Mail0 mi
- HHardware1 mi
- AAir-up1 mi
- LLaundry1 mi
- MMechanic2 mi
- DDump20 mi
- +Urgent care21 mi
- ShShower24 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 0 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
7,051 ft
Ground slope
0.3% · flat
State
CO
Coordinates
38.53778, -105.99250
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area · Bureau of Land Management · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureArkansas River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townSalida · ~0.6 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~0.3 mi
- Fuelconoco · ~0.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~20.2 mi
- GroceriesSafeway · ~0.2 mi
- PharmacySalida Pharmacy & Fountain · ~0.2 mi
- Hospital / clinicHeart of Rockies Regional Medical Center · ~21.4 mi
- HardwareTrue Value · ~0.9 mi
EV charging — from Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area · Bureau of Land Management · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger0.1 mi straight-line SW — Salida, CO (at a public site) · RIVIAN_ADVENTURE · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily; for Rivian use only · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach7 within 25 mi · 18 within 50 · 238 within 100 · 471 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)1.1 mi — ES1 SALIDA PL1, Salida
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO1.1 mi — ES1 SALIDA PL2, Salida
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)0.0 mi — SALIDA SITES HEADWATERS · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 391219 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area · Bureau of Land Management · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomAhra - Salida East Restroom · ~2.5 mi SE · BLM
- RestroomAhra - Big Bend Ohv Restroom · ~5.1 mi NW · BLM
- RestroomAhra - Big Bend Restroom · ~5.3 mi NW · BLM
- RestroomAhra - Stone Bridge Restroom - Lower West · ~6.4 mi NW · BLM
Coming out here — Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area · Bureau of Land Management · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Arkansas River as a perennial river, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 0.3% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area elsewhere
Other camps near Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- BLM dispersed camp — Chaffee County, CO~1.9 mi
- Browns Canyon National Monument~6.3 mi
- Poncha Pass Dispersed Campground~10.5 mi
- Chaffee County~10.8 mi
The unit that manages Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area
Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area is in the Royal Gorge Field Office, Rocky Mountain District, Bureau of Land Management. Stay limits, permits, road closures and fire restrictions are set there, not at the campsite — check before you go. Its page maps every camp in it.
How we know this — Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area
Source
Bureau of Land Management recreation data
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
BLM RIDB record, agency-listed. Its fee field is empty -- no fee statement -- so the cost is unpriced (field read 2026-09-19). Access not field-checked (assumed drive-up).
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area
Winter vs summer roads →What “dispersed” means here →Cold-weather camping →How to read this page →All field notes →