Agency-listedUSFSUnpriced · confirm
Thistledown Campground
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CO · 37.99325, -107.70070
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 — Thistledown Campground · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO
No MVUM road within a quarter mile of the pin; the nearest mapped segment is FR 853.1A (Angel Creek), 0.7 mi away. Access may be a county road or unmapped.
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 — Thistledown Campground · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO
- First come, first served
- Tent camping
- No trailers or RVs
- 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 Thistledown Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 8,767 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Thistledown 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 Thistledown Campground · 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
- GGrocery3 mi
- HHardware3 mi
- @Mail3 mi
- OOutfitter3 mi
- EVEV fast charger3 mi
- FFuel3 mi
- DDump6 mi
- LLaundry6 mi
- ShShower6 mi
- RxPharmacy7 mi
- WWater7 mi
- +Urgent care11 mi
- MMechanic33 mi
- PPropane54 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 3 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 — Thistledown Campground
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
8,767 ft
Ground slope
10.8% · noticeable
State
CO
Coordinates
37.99325, -107.70070
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Thistledown Campground · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWeehawken Creek · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Also mapped (OSM)Canyon Creek (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townThistledown · ~0.1 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~2.1 mi
- FuelConoco · ~3.3 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~6.1 mi
- GroceriesOuray Grocery · ~2.6 mi
- PharmacySunshine Pharmacy · ~7.2 mi
- Hospital / clinicTelluride Regional Medical Center · ~7.4 mi
- HardwareOuray Hardware and Mercantile · ~2.6 mi
EV charging — from Thistledown Campground · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger2.9 mi straight-line NE — HION NETWORK OURAY PL2 · 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 reach4 within 25 mi · 15 within 50 · 77 within 100 · 156 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)9.3 mi — Mountain Village, CO - Tesla Supercharger, Mountain Village
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)8.9 mi — TMV HERITAGE GARAGE, Mountain Village, CO · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Element 52 Residences - Tesla Destination, Telluride, 7.5 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
- 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 260039 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Thistledown Campground · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletThistledown · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletAngel Creek · ~0.7 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletNa-Gach · ~2.9 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletAmphitheater · ~3.0 mi NE · USFS
Coming out here — Thistledown Campground · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Weehawken Creek as a perennial stream, ~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 10.8% — noticeable. 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 Thistledown Campground elsewhere
Other camps near Thistledown Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Angel Creek~0.7 mi · fee
- Amphitheatre Campground~2.9 mi · fee
- Corkscrew~4.1 mi
- Ouray County~4.4 mi
The unit that manages Thistledown Campground
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Thistledown Campground 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 Idarado at 9,780 ft, about 4 miles away. It sits about 1,013 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 — Thistledown 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.
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 Thistledown 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.
- 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 — Thistledown Campground
When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →Finding water out here →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →