Mapped · not agency-listedPublic land · dispersedFree
Buckles Dispersed Campground
Drive-up · public land · CO · 37.08688, -106.83828
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 →A mapped lead, not an agency listing. Somebody marked this as a campsite; we could not match it to a land-manager record. Worth checking rather than counting on. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
What the record says about the site — Buckles Dispersed Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO
- Trailers and RVs fit
- Listed as a backcountry site
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Buckles Dispersed Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 8,372 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Buckles Dispersed CampgroundNIFC · 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 Buckles Dispersed Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel4 mi
- @Mail4 mi
- GGrocery13 mi
- MMechanic15 mi
- WWater16 mi
- EVEV fast charger16 mi
- LLaundry17 mi
- DDump17 mi
- RxPharmacy18 mi
- OOutfitter18 mi
- HHardware18 mi
- +Urgent care19 mi
- PPropane57 mi
- ShShower58 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 4 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 — Buckles Dispersed Campground
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
8,372 ft
Ground slope
11.2% · noticeable
State
CO
Coordinates
37.08688, -106.83828
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Buckles Dispersed Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureTwin Lakes · ~0.7 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Sappington Reservoir (water) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townChromo · ~3.5 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~3.6 mi
- Propane / LPGPropane · ~28.5 mi
- Dump station~17.2 mi
- GroceriesJicarilla Supermarket · ~13.4 mi
- PharmacyCity Market Pharmacy · ~17.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicJicarilla Apache Health Care Facility · ~14.0 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~19.9 mi
EV charging — from Buckles Dispersed Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger15.6 mi straight-line NW — CENTENNIAL PARK PAGOSA SPGS PL2, Pagosa Springs, CO · ChargePoint Network · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach3 within 25 mi · 8 within 50 · 64 within 100 · 193 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO15.6 mi — CENTENNIAL PARK PAGOSA SPGS PL1, Pagosa Springs
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)15.2 mi — ROSE MOUNTAIN ROSE MOUNTAIN 1, Pagosa Springs, 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 257795 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Buckles Dispersed Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletBuckles Lake · ~3.6 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBlanco River · ~4.7 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletOpal Lake · ~9.1 mi NE · USFS
- RestroomChama Basin · ~16.1 mi E · USFS
Coming out here — Buckles Dispersed Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Twin Lakes as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.7 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 11.2% — noticeable. 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 Buckles Dispersed Campground elsewhere
Other camps near Buckles Dispersed Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Blanco River Campground~4.7 mi · fee
- Dispersed Camping~16.2 mi
- Jackson Dispersed Campground~19.2 mi
- East Fork~20.0 mi · fee
The unit that manages Buckles Dispersed Campground
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Buckles Dispersed Campground are set by San Juan National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Chamita at 8,360 ft, about 13 miles 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 — Buckles Dispersed Campground
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
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
auto: drive (road/trail right there)
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
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
Contributed, not agency-listed. A mapper marked this as a campsite. We have not matched it to a land-manager record, so it stays at Likely.
What we don’t know about Buckles Dispersed Campground
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 — Buckles Dispersed Campground
When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Finding water out here →Reading your camp page →All field notes →