Agency-listedUSFSFeeOpen todayRoad season: open (MVUM)
Dowdy Lake
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CO · 40.79730, -105.56807
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.
Can I go now? — Dowdy Lake · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
Open today Year-round per the agency record.
U.S. Forest Service record: “Year-round” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Dowdy Lake · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 218 (Dowdy Lake Cg), 0 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as asphalt surface and maintenance level 4 – moderate degree of user comfort.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 218 (Dowdy Lake Cg), 0 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 218 (Dowdy Lake Cg): “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 Dowdy Lake
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 8,196 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Dowdy LakeNIFC · 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 Dowdy Lake · 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
- WWater0 mi
- ShShower5 mi
- GGrocery5 mi
- @Mail16 mi
- FFuel18 mi
- HHardware25 mi
- MMechanic26 mi
- OOutfitter26 mi
- PPropane28 mi
- +Urgent care28 mi
- LLaundry28 mi
- RxPharmacy28 mi
- EVEV fast charger29 mi
- AAir-up30 mi
- DDump31 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 5 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 — Dowdy Lake
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
8,196 ft
Ground slope
5.8% · gentle
State
CO
Coordinates
40.79730, -105.56807
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Dowdy Lake · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSnake Lake · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townRed Feather Lakes · ~1.3 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~0.2 mi
- FuelFuel · ~18.4 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~31.1 mi · Larimer County Open Space
- GroceriesHill Top General Store & Antiques · ~1.3 mi
- PharmacyKing Soopers Pharmacy · ~28.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicEstes Park Health Urgent Care Center · ~28.9 mi
- HardwareJosephs' Hardware & Home Center · ~29.0 mi
EV charging — from Dowdy Lake · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger28.7 mi straight-line S — Estes Park, CO - Tesla Supercharger (at a hotel) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 7 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 reachnone within 25 mi · 46 within 50 · 310 within 100 · 411 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS29.0 mi — DC CORRIDOR ESTES PARK PL1, Estes Park
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO29.0 mi — DC CORRIDOR ESTES PARK PL1, Estes Park
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)1.2 mi — Red Feather Lakes Library (at a library) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2024-01-09 · hours: 10am-6pm daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveLevel 2, restricted access — Mountain Campus (seasonal), Bellvue, 15.7 mi · J1772 · hours: Contact campus gate for station availability; seasonal campus
- 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 102083 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Dowdy Lake · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletDowdy Lake · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletDowdy Lake · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletDowdy Lake · ~0.3 mi E · USFS
- Flush restroomRed Feather · ~0.3 mi SW · USFS
Coming out here — Dowdy Lake · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Snake Lake as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.2 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 5.8% — 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 Dowdy Lake elsewhere
Other camps near Dowdy Lake
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- West Lake~0.6 mi · fee
- Bellaire Lake~3.2 mi · fee
- North Fork Poudre~7.5 mi · fee
- Kelly Flats~9.2 mi · fee
The unit that manages Dowdy Lake
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Dowdy Lake 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 Black Mountain at 8,940 ft, about 8 miles away. It sits about 744 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 — Dowdy Lake
Open season
Year-round
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 2026-08-24: rates here are seasonal and split by hookup, so read this before you book. PEAK season: $30 per night for a single non-electric site, $41 for a single electric, $81 for a double electric -- and the forest-wide status table adds $70 for a double non-electric. NON-PEAK: $20 single non-electric, $20 single electric, $47 double electric. Three Arapaho & Roosevelt NF sources agree: the campground page (updated Apr 24 2026, status Site Open), the forest-wide campground status table (updated Aug 20 2026: 62 sites, 40-foot maximum spur, reservable, $30/70 and $41/81 for electric sites) and recreation.gov, which prices peak as May 15 to Sep 19 2026 and charges non-peak rates either side of it, year-round. Loops A, B and C are open year-round; loops D and E run May 15 to Sep 20. Watch the recreation.gov labels: its 'STANDARD ELECTRIC' type is priced at the DOUBLE electric rate ($81 peak, $47 off), not the $41 single. Canyon Lakes Ranger District, Red Feather Lakes. Source: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/recreation/dowdy-lake-campground, https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/conditions and https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/231854.
Season
Read from the agency's own season / closure text in this record (data/conditions.py) and checked against the calendar. The words we read are printed under the verdict at the top of the page.
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 Dowdy Lake
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
- 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 — Dowdy Lake
When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Camping near a reservoir →Leave no trace →All field notes →