★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Chaffee County
Drive-up · public land · Chaffee County, CO · 38.59139, -106.17973
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Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
A free campsite at the end of a spur off of a forest road at the base of the mountains. Surrounded by aspen trees and dandelions. Very grassy. Popular spot for other campers are RVers. Small stream runs through it. Lovely setting for hiking, walking, or mountain biking. No cell service and enough room for two or three vehicles. Not very private due to other campers. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 26 May 2018. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Chaffee County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 9,403 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Chaffee CountyNIFC · 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 Chaffee County · Pike and San Isabel 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
- GGrocery4 mi
- LLaundry4 mi
- FFuel7 mi
- HHardware8 mi
- EVEV fast charger8 mi
- MMechanic10 mi
- OOutfitter10 mi
- RxPharmacy11 mi
- @Mail11 mi
- AAir-up11 mi
- DDump16 mi
- +Urgent care17 mi
- ShShower19 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 4 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 — Chaffee County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
9,403 ft
Ground slope
8.1% · noticeable
County
Chaffee County, CO
Coordinates
38.59139, -106.17973
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Chaffee County · Pike and San Isabel National Forests · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurePlacer Creek · under 0.1 mi · USGS: intermittent stream
- Nearest townMaysville · ~5.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~3.6 mi
- FuelShell · ~7.0 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~16.5 mi
- GroceriesGrocery · ~3.7 mi
- PharmacySalida Pharmacy & Fountain · ~10.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicHeart of Rockies Regional Medical Center · ~16.8 mi
- HardwareTrue Value · ~7.7 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
No
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Chaffee County · Pike and San Isabel National Forests · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger7.9 mi straight-line SE — Poncha Springs, CO - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach7 within 25 mi · 14 within 50 · 219 within 100 · 465 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS10.7 mi — Salida, CO, Salida
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO11.6 mi — ES1 SALIDA PL2, Salida
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)9.8 mi — Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center, Salida, CO (at a hospital) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2024-11-06 · 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 122271 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Chaffee County · Pike and San Isabel National Forests · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomShavano/Tabeguache · ~1.0 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletAngel Of Shavano · ~2.2 mi W · USFS
- RestroomAngel Of Shavano · ~2.2 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletAngel Of Shavano · ~2.3 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Chaffee County · Pike and San Isabel National Forests · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Placer Creek as an intermittent stream, under 0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as intermittent — expect it dry for part of the year. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 8.1% — 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 Chaffee County elsewhere
Other camps near Chaffee County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Angel of Shavano Campground~2.3 mi · fee
- Browns Canyon National Monument~6.6 mi
- North Fork Reservoir~7.7 mi · fee
- Bootleg~8.6 mi · fee
The unit that manages Chaffee County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Chaffee County are set by Pike and San Isabel National Forests, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Porphyry Creek at 10,790 ft, about 11 miles away. It sits about 1,387 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 — Chaffee County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Chaffee County, CO). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
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
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 26 May 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Chaffee County
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.
- How many rigs actually fit
- 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 — Chaffee County
Camping at altitude →When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →