Agency-listedUSFSFeeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Bear River
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CO · 40.05843, -107.01940
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 →U.S. Forest Service lists this as a developed campground. Expect marked sites, a fee station or a reservation, and the usual campground rules. The dispersed-camping freedom of the surrounding forest does not apply inside it. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Bear River · Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest · CO
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 900.1 (Bear River), 70 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as crushed aggregate or gravel surface and maintenance level 3 – suitable for passenger cars.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 900.1 (Bear River), 70 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 900.1 (Bear River): “01/01-12/31” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Bear River
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 9,187 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Bear RiverNIFC · 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 Bear River · Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest · CO
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- EVEV fast charger9 mi
- GGrocery9 mi
- FFuel9 mi
- WWater12 mi
- ShShower12 mi
- @Mail14 mi
- DDump18 mi
- MMechanic28 mi
- HHardware29 mi
- RxPharmacy30 mi
- +Urgent care30 mi
- LLaundry30 mi
- OOutfitter31 mi
- PPropane47 mi
- AAir-up57 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 9 mi out.
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 — Bear River
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
9,187 ft
Ground slope
12.7% · noticeable
Nearest rail line
~8.0 mi · main line
State
CO
Coordinates
40.05843, -107.01940
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Bear River · Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureBear River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townYampa · ~8.8 mi
- Nearest rail line~8.0 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~8.9 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~17.7 mi
- GroceriesHunt's Pizza · ~8.8 mi
- PharmacyNearly Everything Store · ~29.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicUCHealth Urgent Care · ~29.8 mi
- HardwareHeartwood Custom Woodworks · ~29.3 mi
EV charging — from Bear River · Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger8.6 mi straight-line NE — Helios Yampa CO (at a public site) · EVRANGE · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 33 within 50 · 121 within 100 · 441 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)29.5 mi — Gypsum, CO - Tesla Supercharger, Gypsum
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO28.4 mi — GYPSUM SHOP&HOP #11, Gypsum
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)29.0 mi — SPRING_CREEK_1 SCV_1, Gypsum, CO · 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 448020 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Bear River · Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletBear River · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletGardner Park · ~0.6 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletHeart Lake · ~0.7 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletYamcolo Reservoir · ~2.1 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Bear River · Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Bear 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 12.7% — noticeable. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (10 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.
- Rail line mapped ~8.0 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in it.
- 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 Bear River elsewhere
Other camps near Bear River
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Bear Lake~2.8 mi · fee
- Horseshoe~5.2 mi · fee
- Cold Springs~5.6 mi · fee
- Crosho Lake~7.9 mi
The unit that manages Bear River
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Bear River are set by Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Bear River at 9,100 ft, less than a mile away. That is about the height of this camp, so it is a fair proxy. We do not repeat a depth here, because any number we stored would be stale by the time you read it — the station publishes today's.
How we know this — Bear River
Source
U.S. Forest Service 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
Developed FEE campground (not free) - review | auto:usfs-fee 2026-08-20: US Forest Service developed campground, agency coordinates, agency states a fee. No dollar amount in the agency record -- expect a charge and confirm the current rate before you go. Not field-verified. | Fee 2026-08-27: $10 per site -- the cheapest rate in this batch of thirty, and at the bottom of the range for Colorado generally, though this audit has already found CO camps cheaper still. Exact cash or check only; credit cards are not accepted and payment instructions are on the kiosk. Worth knowing what you are paying for: the agency database files this as 'Bear River Designated Dispersed', but the forest's own page calls it Bear River DEVELOPED Camp Sites -- numbered sites strung along Forest Service Road 900 past a fee station, with a vault toilet and NO potable water, at 9,200 feet. Single source: the Medicine Bow-Routt NF page (updated Jun 9 2025 -- among the three oldest pages cited in this batch, so treat the $10 as more likely than most to have moved); no recreation.gov listing. Yampa Ranger District, about 10 miles from Yampa via County Rd 7 and FSR 900. Source: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/mbrtb/recreation/bear-river-developed-camp-sites.
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
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 Bear River
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.
- Whether that MVUM road is the way in, and the last stretch beyond it
- Whether the site itself closes on its own schedule — only the road's season is on record
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 — Bear River
Camping at altitude →When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Off-grid communication →All field notes →