Agency-listedUSFSFeeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Byers Creek
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CO · 39.87641, -105.89751
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 — Byers Creek · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 160 (Saint Louis Creek), 0.1 mi from the pin. The MVUM lists it as native material surface and maintenance level 3 – suitable for passenger cars.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 160 (Saint Louis Creek), 0.1 mi from the pin, open to passenger vehicles Jun 15 – Nov 15. That season ends after Nov 15.
MVUM record for FR 160 (Saint Louis Creek): “06/15-11/15” 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 Byers Creek
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 9,336 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Byers CreekNIFC · 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 Byers Creek · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater4 mi
- HHardware6 mi
- EVEV fast charger6 mi
- GGrocery7 mi
- OOutfitter7 mi
- @Mail7 mi
- FFuel7 mi
- ShShower8 mi
- MMechanic8 mi
- AAir-up19 mi
- RxPharmacy19 mi
- LLaundry19 mi
- PPropane19 mi
- DDump21 mi
- +Urgent care22 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 7 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 — Byers Creek
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
9,336 ft
Ground slope
4% · gentle
Nearest rail line
~6.1 mi · main line
State
CO
Coordinates
39.87641, -105.89751
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Byers Creek · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSaint Louis Creek · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townFraser · ~5.9 mi
- Nearest rail line~6.1 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~3.8 mi
- FuelConoco · ~6.8 mi
- Propane / LPG7-Eleven · ~19.4 mi
- Dump station~21.1 mi
- GroceriesGrocery · ~6.6 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~19.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicCentura Health Primary Care Idaho Springs · ~22.5 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~6.5 mi
EV charging — from Byers Creek · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger6.5 mi straight-line NE — TOWN OF FRASER LIONS PONDS · ChargePoint Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach26 within 25 mi · 156 within 50 · 371 within 100 · 439 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)14.2 mi — 420 E Park Ave, Empire
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)6.0 mi — Trailblazers, Fraser, CO · AMPUP · J1772 · 10 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2024-05-09 · hours: Contact site for information
- 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 169944 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Byers Creek · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletSt. Louis Creek · ~3.8 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletIdlewild · ~6.6 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletJim Creek · ~7.3 mi E · USFS
- Portable toiletMidland · ~7.9 mi E · USFS
Coming out here — Byers Creek · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Saint Louis Creek as a perennial stream, under 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 4% — gentle. 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.
- Rail line mapped ~6.1 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. The atlas also records Amtrak service on it. 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 Byers Creek elsewhere
Other camps near Byers Creek
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- St. Louis Creek~3.8 mi · fee
- Idlewild~6.6 mi · fee
- Midland~7.9 mi · fee
- Robbers Roost~8.1 mi · fee
The unit that manages Byers Creek
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Byers Creek are set by Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Fool Creek at 11,130 ft, about 2 miles away. It sits about 1,794 ft higher than this camp, so treat it as a guide rather than a reading for this spot. 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 — Byers Creek
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 2026-08-22: no rate published by the agency. Byers Creek Campground is on the Sulphur Ranger District of the Arapaho & Roosevelt NF, but it appears in none of the three channels that price every other ARP campground in this audit: it has no fs.usda.gov recreation page (every slug probed returns 404), it is absent from the forest-wide campground status table at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/conditions -- the Sulphur district list runs Arapaho Bay, Cutthroat Bay Group, Denver Creek, Green Ridge and on, with no Byers Creek entry -- and it has no recreation.gov listing at all. The forest's camping index https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/recreation/camping-cabins does not name it either. The Forest Service recreation-site record carries no fee amount. Note the ARP conditions page does mention 'Byers Peak', but that is a dispersed-camping road entry, not this campground -- do not borrow a rate from it. Call the Sulphur Ranger District. Checked https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/recreation/byers-creek-campground (404), https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/conditions and https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/recreation/camping-cabins. | Fee 2026-08-22: no rate published by the agency, and we could not find an agency page for it at all. Every slug probed on the Arapaho & Roosevelt NF returns 404, and -- the stronger evidence -- crawling the forest's complete paginated recreation index (321 entries) turns up only Byers Peak Trailhead and Byers Peak Wilderness, no Byers Creek campground. It is also absent from the Sulphur Ranger District campground status table on the forest's Current Conditions page (updated Aug 20 2026), which lists all fifteen of that district's campgrounds by name, sites, fee and season. A fee campground the managing forest does not list anywhere is worth a look before the next publish. There is no recreation.gov listing either. Checked https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/recreation (full index) and https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/conditions.
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 Byers Creek
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 — Byers Creek
Camping at altitude →When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Power off-grid →All field notes →