Agency-listedUSFSFreeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Priest Lake Designated Camping Area
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CO · 37.83520, -107.88120
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 site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. 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 — Priest Lake Designated Camping Area · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 628.1A (Priest Lake Camping Area), 70 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as native material surface and maintenance level 3 – suitable for passenger cars.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 628.1A (Priest Lake Camping Area), 70 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 628.1A (Priest Lake Camping Area): “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 →
What the record says about the site — Priest Lake Designated Camping Area · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO
- First come, first served
- 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 Priest Lake Designated Camping Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 9,583 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Priest Lake Designated 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 Priest Lake Designated Camping Area · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- WWater1 mi
- ShShower1 mi
- @Mail2 mi
- GGrocery7 mi
- EVEV fast charger7 mi
- FFuel8 mi
- RxPharmacy8 mi
- HHardware8 mi
- OOutfitter8 mi
- +Urgent care15 mi
- DDump20 mi
- LLaundry20 mi
- MMechanic39 mi
- PPropane42 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 7 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 — Priest Lake Designated Camping Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
9,583 ft
Ground slope
23.1% · steep
State
CO
Coordinates
37.83520, -107.88120
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Nearby & resupply — around Priest Lake Designated Camping Area · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurePriest Lakes · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townOphir · ~3.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~0.6 mi
- FuelConoco · ~7.8 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~19.5 mi
- GroceriesThe Market at Mountain Village · ~6.9 mi
- PharmacySunshine Pharmacy · ~8.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicTelluride Regional Medical Center · ~7.9 mi
- HardwareTimberline Ace Hardware · ~8.0 mi
EV charging — from Priest Lake Designated Camping Area · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger6.9 mi straight-line N — Mountain Village, CO - Tesla Supercharger · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach5 within 25 mi · 18 within 50 · 67 within 100 · 144 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS14.6 mi — PURGATORY PURGATORY PL2, Durango
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO14.6 mi — PURGATORY PURGATORY PL2, Durango
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)7.0 mi — TMV GPG1, Mountain Village, 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 201303 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Priest Lake Designated Camping Area · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletPriest Lake · at this camp · USFS
- Portable toiletMatterhorn Nordic · ~0.6 mi N · USFS
- Flush restroomMatterhorn · ~0.6 mi N · USFS
- Flush restroomMatterhorn · ~0.8 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — Priest Lake Designated Camping Area · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Priest Lakes as a perennial lake or pond, 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 23.1% — 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.
- 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 Priest Lake Designated Camping Area elsewhere
Other camps near Priest Lake Designated Camping Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Matterhorn Campground~0.7 mi · fee
- Sunshine Campground~3.8 mi
- Alta Lakes Campground (Dispersed)~3.9 mi
- South Mineral Cg~6.1 mi · fee
The unit that manages Priest Lake Designated Camping Area
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Priest Lake Designated Camping Area are set by Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Lizard Head Pass at 10,190 ft, about 3 miles away. It sits about 607 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 — Priest Lake Designated 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
auto: drive (road/trail right there)
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.
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 Priest Lake Designated 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.
- 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 — Priest Lake Designated Camping Area
Camping at altitude →When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →