★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Gilpin County
Drive-up · public land · Gilpin County, CO · 39.91100, -105.59938
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.
A pull-off along a mountainous forest road in the mountains west of Denver. Great view. Good cell service. Limited space. Room for two vehicles. Recommended due to view, and cell service, but property boundary questionable. A good place to sleep if you're just passing through, but not a destination campsite.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 19 June 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 Gilpin County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 9,374 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Gilpin 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 Gilpin County · 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
- MMechanic5 mi
- @Mail5 mi
- WWater6 mi
- HHardware6 mi
- FFuel6 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- EVEV fast charger8 mi
- LLaundry8 mi
- ShShower8 mi
- DDump8 mi
- OOutfitter10 mi
- +Urgent care13 mi
- RxPharmacy13 mi
- PPropane20 mi
- AAir-up20 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 6 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 — Gilpin County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
9,374 ft
Ground slope
52.9% · steep
Nearest rail line
~0.6 mi · passing siding
County
Gilpin County, CO
Coordinates
39.91100, -105.59938
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Gilpin County · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureKarel Park Lake · ~0.4 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townEldora · ~3.4 mi
- Nearest rail line~0.6 mi · passing siding
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~5.6 mi
- FuelGasamat · ~5.9 mi
- Propane / LPG7-Eleven · ~19.6 mi
- Dump station~8.3 mi
- GroceriesB&F Mountain Market · ~5.9 mi
- PharmacyPharmacy · ~12.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicCentura Health Primary Care Idaho Springs · ~12.6 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~5.8 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
Had a signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
No
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Gilpin County · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger7.6 mi straight-line E — GILPIN COUNTY GILPIN LIB L3B, Black Hawk, CO · 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 reach37 within 25 mi · 261 within 50 · 381 within 100 · 431 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)11.3 mi — 420 E Park Ave, Empire
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)2.1 mi — ELDORA ELCP2203, Nederland, 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 420257 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Gilpin County · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Portable toiletEast Portal · ~2.5 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletKelly Dahl · ~5.6 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletPickle Gulch · ~6.0 mi SE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletPickle Gulch · ~6.2 mi SE · USFS
Coming out here — Gilpin County · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Karel Park Lake as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.4 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 52.9% — steep. 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 ~0.6 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a passing siding. 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.
- 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 Gilpin County elsewhere
Other camps near Gilpin County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Gilpin County~0.5 mi
- West Magnolia~5.0 mi
- Kelly Dahl~5.6 mi · fee
- USFS dispersed camp — Boulder County, CO~5.7 mi
The unit that manages Gilpin County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Gilpin County 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 Lake Eldora at 9,700 ft, about 2 miles away. It sits about 326 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 — Gilpin 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 (Gilpin 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 19 June 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Gilpin 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 — Gilpin County
Camping at altitude →When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →