Mapped · not agency-listedPublic land · dispersedFree
Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area
Drive-up · public land · CO · 40.01280, -105.49512
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 →A mapped lead, not an agency listing. Somebody marked this as a campsite; we could not match it to a land-manager record. Worth checking rather than counting on. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
What the record says about the site — Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
- Basic site, no services
- First come, first served
- Room for 15 parties
- Tent camping
- No drinking water — carry your own
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 8,727 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping AreaNIFC · 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 Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area · 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
- MMechanic3 mi
- @Mail3 mi
- FFuel4 mi
- GGrocery4 mi
- WWater4 mi
- HHardware4 mi
- ShShower9 mi
- LLaundry10 mi
- EVEV fast charger10 mi
- DDump10 mi
- +Urgent care11 mi
- RxPharmacy11 mi
- OOutfitter11 mi
- PPropane12 mi
- AAir-up14 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 4 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 — Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
8,727 ft
Ground slope
26.3% · steep
Nearest rail line
~5.9 mi · passing siding
State
CO
Coordinates
40.01280, -105.49512
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureGordon Creek · ~0.4 mi · USGS: intermittent stream
- Also mapped (OSM)Glacier Lake (water) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townLakewood · ~1.5 mi
- Nearest rail line~5.9 mi · passing siding
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~3.6 mi
- FuelFuel · ~3.5 mi
- Propane / LPGAmeriGas · ~19.2 mi
- Dump station~9.8 mi
- GroceriesKwik Mart · ~3.5 mi
- PharmacyPharmaca · ~11.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicAddiction Exchange · ~10.7 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~3.7 mi
EV charging — from Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger9.6 mi straight-line SE — UNITED POWER COAL CREEK 1, Golden, 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 reach61 within 25 mi · 271 within 50 · 370 within 100 · 433 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)12.6 mi — Boulder, CO - Tesla Supercharger, Boulder
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)2.8 mi — TERMINALS NEDERLAND BUS 1 · 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 145146 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletSourdough · ~1.9 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletRainbow Lakes · ~3.9 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletRainbow Lakes · ~3.9 mi W · USFS
- RestroomBrainard Lake Welcome Station · ~5.2 mi NW · USFS
Coming out here — Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Gordon Creek as an intermittent stream, ~0.4 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 26.3% — 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 ~5.9 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 Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area elsewhere
Other camps near Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Gordon Gulch~0.4 mi
- Ruby Gulch Dispersed Camping~2.3 mi
- Rainbow Lakes~3.9 mi · fee
- USFS dispersed camp — CO~4.2 mi
The unit that manages Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area 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 Niwot at 9,940 ft, about 3 miles away. It sits about 1,213 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 — Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
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.
Agency page
fs.usda.gov — the land manager's own page for this site. Fees, seasons and closures are stated there first; if it disagrees with this page, it wins.
How it was placed
no road or trail found nearby — check manually
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
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
Contributed, not agency-listed. A mapper marked this as a campsite. We have not matched it to a land-manager record, so it stays at Likely.
What we don’t know about Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area
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.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 — Gordon Gulch Dispersed Camping Area
When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Finding water out here →Reading your camp page →All field notes →