Agency-listedUSFSUnpriced · confirmRoad season: open (MVUM)
Madden Creek Campground
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CO · 37.38743, -108.07651
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.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Madden Creek Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 571.D1 (Madden Creek Cg), 30 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as native material surface and maintenance level 2 – high-clearance vehicles.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 571.D1 (Madden Creek Cg), 30 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 571.D1 (Madden Creek 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 Madden Creek Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 8,999 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Madden Creek CampgroundNIFC · 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 Madden Creek Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail10 mi
- GGrocery12 mi
- FFuel12 mi
- MMechanic12 mi
- RxPharmacy13 mi
- ShShower13 mi
- LLaundry13 mi
- OOutfitter13 mi
- EVEV fast charger13 mi
- WWater14 mi
- PPropane16 mi
- HHardware16 mi
- +Urgent care17 mi
- AAir-up36 mi
- DDump39 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 12 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 — Madden Creek Campground
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
8,999 ft
Ground slope
7.7% · gentle
State
CO
Coordinates
37.38743, -108.07651
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Madden Creek Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLa Plata River · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townLa Plata · ~1.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelSpeedway · ~12.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesP&D Grocery · ~11.9 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~12.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicAnimas Surgical Hospital · ~14.8 mi
- HardwareLewis True Value Mercantile · ~28.2 mi
EV charging — from Madden Creek Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger13.3 mi straight-line SE — CITY OF DURANGO TC-DCFC-1 · 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 reach7 within 25 mi · 18 within 50 · 44 within 100 · 119 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)13.3 mi — Durango, CO - Tesla Supercharger, Durango
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)12.0 mi — MANCOS1 BOYLE PARK · 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 259752 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Madden Creek Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletMadden Creek · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletMiners Cabin Dispersed Area · ~0.4 mi S · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletLa Plata City Dispersed Area · ~0.6 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletKroeger · ~0.8 mi S · USFS
Coming out here — Madden Creek Campground · San Juan National Forest · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps La Plata River as a perennial river, under 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 7.7% — 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 Madden Creek Campground elsewhere
Other camps near Madden Creek Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Miner's Cabin Campground~0.4 mi
- La Plata City Campground~0.6 mi
- Kroeger Campground~0.8 mi
- Snowslide Campground~1.1 mi
The unit that manages Madden Creek Campground
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Madden Creek Campground are set by San Juan National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Columbus Basin at 10,780 ft, about 5 miles away. It sits about 1,781 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 — Madden Creek Campground
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.
How it was placed
auto: drive (road/trail right there)
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 Madden Creek Campground
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
- Whether the site itself closes on its own schedule — only the road's season is on record
- 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 — Madden Creek Campground
When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Finding water out here →How to read this page →All field notes →