★ Field-verified · Dave's ownFederalFree
Chaffee County
Drive-up · public land · Chaffee County, CO · 38.88138, -106.14645
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 →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.
Turtle Rock Campground is a free camping area near Buena Vista, Colorado. Mostly tent sites with fire rings, but a few spurs suitable for vehicle-supported camping. Awesome, rolling rock formations. Setting similar to Alabama Hills. Great for bouldering and climbing. Surrounding wilderness area ripe for vehicular exploration. Good cell service. Enough room for one or two vehicles. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 30 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 8,296 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 · public land · CO
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- LLaundry2 mi
- ShShower2 mi
- @Mail2 mi
- GGrocery2 mi
- HHardware2 mi
- EVEV fast charger2 mi
- FFuel2 mi
- +Urgent care2 mi
- OOutfitter3 mi
- DDump5 mi
- WWater14 mi
- RxPharmacy25 mi
- MMechanic26 mi
- AAir-up26 mi
- PPropane52 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 2 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 — Chaffee County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
8,296 ft
Ground slope
7.5% · gentle
County
Chaffee County, CO
Coordinates
38.88138, -106.14645
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Chaffee County · public land · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureArkansas River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Also mapped (OSM)Fourmile Creek (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townBuena Vista · ~2.8 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelShell · ~5.2 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~5.1 mi
- GroceriesLaGreese · ~2.6 mi
- PharmacySalida Pharmacy & Fountain · ~25.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicHospital · ~3.7 mi
- HardwareRocky Mountain Lumber & Hardware · ~2.3 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
Had a signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Chaffee County · public land · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger2.1 mi straight-line S — Electric Era Charging Station, Buena Vista, CO (at a public site) · ELECTRIC_ERA · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach6 within 25 mi · 26 within 50 · 350 within 100 · 467 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO3.1 mi — SDCEA SOUTH MAIN L3, Buena Vista
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)2.7 mi — SDCEA RIVERFRONT PARK, Buena Vista, 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 428659 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Chaffee County · public land · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomTurtle Rock Restroom · at this camp · BLM
- RestroomCounty Road 375 (Fourmile) Restroom · ~0.5 mi S · BLM
- RestroomAhra - Railroad Bridge Restroom · ~3.1 mi NW · BLM
- RestroomAhra - Collegiate Peaks North Restroom - Double · ~5.5 mi SE · BLM
Coming out here — Chaffee County · public land · 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 7.5% — 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Cottonwood Lake~10.3 mi · fee
- Collegiate Peaks~10.3 mi · fee
- Stone Cabin~10.7 mi
- Bootleg~11.8 mi · fee
Who holds the land at Chaffee County
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Royal Gorge Field Office, manager on record: Bureau of Land Management (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Rough And Tumble at 10,420 ft, about 11 miles away. It sits about 2,124 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 30 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
When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Finding water out here →Power off-grid →All field notes →