★ Field-verified · Dave's ownUSFS · dispersedFreeRoad season: open (MVUM)
San Isabel National Forest
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · Las Animas County, CO · 37.24462, -105.10094
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 U.S. Forest Service land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
A small, high elevation primitive campsite, with fire ring, in San Isabel National Forest. This is in a valley with decent protection from the elements. Some tree coverage. Lovely and private with enough room for a couple of vehicles and no cell service. May be other similar campsites near this one along forest road. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 20 March 2018. No agency publishes a season for this site itself (the road season below is the road's), so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — San Isabel National Forest · Pike and San Isabel National Forests · CO
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 34.C, 10 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 34.C, 10 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 34.C: “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 San Isabel National Forest
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 9,404 ft.
Fire & smoke — around San Isabel National ForestNIFC · 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 San Isabel National Forest · Pike and San Isabel National Forests · CO
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- GGrocery8 mi
- FFuel18 mi
- LLaundry18 mi
- +Urgent care18 mi
- MMechanic19 mi
- @Mail19 mi
- EVEV fast charger19 mi
- HHardware22 mi
- DDump30 mi
- WWater39 mi
- AAir-up40 mi
- OOutfitter41 mi
- ShShower41 mi
- RxPharmacy44 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 39-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 8 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Propane. Plan those before you head up.
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 — San Isabel National Forest
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service · dispersed
Elevation
9,404 ft
Ground slope
3.7% · gentle
County
Las Animas County, CO
Coordinates
37.24462, -105.10094
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around San Isabel National Forest · Pike and San Isabel National Forests · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureNorth Fork Purgatoire River · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Also mapped (OSM)North Fork Of The Purgatoire River (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townMonument Park · ~4.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelTrailhead General Store · ~18.3 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~29.7 mi
- GroceriesSan Luis Peoples Market · ~18.2 mi
- Hospital / clinicFresenius Kidney Care Qualicenters Walsenburg · ~28.6 mi
- HardwareHardware · ~22.0 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from San Isabel National Forest · Pike and San Isabel National Forests · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger19.2 mi straight-line N — La Veta Country Store (at a public site) · RED_E · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 15 within 50 · 66 within 100 · 158 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)31.9 mi — Walsenburg, CO, Walsenburg
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO32.7 mi — Walmart 962 (Trinidad, CO), Trinidad
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)22.0 mi — HISTORYCO FG MUSEUM SOUTH, Fort Garland, 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 320689 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around San Isabel National Forest · Pike and San Isabel National Forests · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomPurgatoire · ~0.8 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBlue Lake · ~5.1 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBlue Lake · ~5.4 mi N · USFS
- RestroomCuchara Day Use #1 · ~6.0 mi N · USFS
Coming out here — San Isabel National Forest · Pike and San Isabel National Forests · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps North Fork Purgatoire 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 3.7% — 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.
- 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 San Isabel National Forest elsewhere
Other camps near San Isabel National Forest
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Purgatoire~0.8 mi · fee
- Blue Lake~5.1 mi · fee
- Bear Lake~6.0 mi · fee
- Cordova Pass~8.3 mi · fee
The unit that manages San Isabel National Forest
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at San Isabel National Forest are set by Pike and San Isabel National Forests, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Whiskey Ck at 10,260 ft, about 2 miles away. It sits about 856 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 — San Isabel National Forest
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 (Las Animas 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.
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
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 20 March 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about San Isabel National Forest
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
- 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 — San Isabel National Forest
Camping at altitude →When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Reading your camp page →All field notes →