Agency-listedUSFSFeeOpen todayRoad season: open (MVUM)
Tunnel
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CO · 40.67279, -105.85570
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.
Can I go now? — Tunnel · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
Open today Season Jun 12 – Oct 11. Closes after Oct 11.
U.S. Forest Service record: “June 12 - Oct 11” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-27; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Tunnel · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 192.0 (Tunnel Cg), 10 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 192.0 (Tunnel Cg), 10 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles Jun 13 – Oct 11. That season ends after Oct 11.
MVUM record for FR 192.0 (Tunnel Cg): “06/13-10/11” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-27; 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 Tunnel
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 8,594 ft.
Fire & smoke — around TunnelNIFC · 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 Tunnel · 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
- WWater0 mi
- @Mail9 mi
- GGrocery18 mi
- ShShower18 mi
- DDump22 mi
- FFuel23 mi
- MMechanic23 mi
- LLaundry23 mi
- +Urgent care23 mi
- EVEV fast charger27 mi
- RxPharmacy27 mi
- OOutfitter27 mi
- HHardware38 mi
- PPropane39 mi
- AAir-up41 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 18 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 — Tunnel
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
8,594 ft
Ground slope
8.3% · noticeable
State
CO
Coordinates
40.67279, -105.85570
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Tunnel · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLaramie River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townRed Feather Lakes · ~17.3 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~0.1 mi
- FuelWalden Conoco · ~22.6 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~22.5 mi
- GroceriesTrading Post · ~18.0 mi
- PharmacyRocky Mountain Pharmacy · ~26.9 mi
- Hospital / clinicNorth Park Medical Clinic · ~22.7 mi
EV charging — from Tunnel · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger26.6 mi straight-line SE — Estes Park, CO - Tesla Supercharger (at a hotel) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 7 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 34 within 50 · 317 within 100 · 410 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS27.1 mi — DC CORRIDOR ESTES PARK PL3, Estes Park
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO27.1 mi — DC CORRIDOR ESTES PARK PL3, Estes Park
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)16.5 mi — Red Feather Lakes Library (at a library) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2024-01-09 · hours: 10am-6pm daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveLevel 2, restricted access — Mountain Campus (seasonal), Bellvue, 15.5 mi · J1772 · hours: Contact campus gate for station availability; seasonal campus
- 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 102083 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Tunnel · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletTunnel · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletWest Branch · ~0.4 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletTunnel · ~2.5 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBig South · ~3.7 mi SE · USFS
Coming out here — Tunnel · Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Laramie River as a perennial river, ~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 8.3% — 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 Tunnel elsewhere
Other camps near Tunnel
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Big South~3.7 mi · fee
- Aspen Glen~4.2 mi · fee
- Sleeping Elephant~4.4 mi · fee
- Chambers Lake~5.4 mi · fee
The unit that manages Tunnel
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Tunnel 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 Rawah at 9,100 ft, about 8 miles away. It sits about 506 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 — Tunnel
Open season
June 12 - Oct 11
Source
U.S. Forest Service recreation data
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
Developed FEE campground (not free) - review | auto:usfs-fee 2026-08-20: US Forest Service developed campground, agency coordinates, agency states a fee. No dollar amount in the agency record -- expect a charge and confirm the current rate before you go. Not field-verified. | Fee 2026-08-22: $28 per site per night, first-come first-served, 49 sites with a 40-foot maximum spur, operating Jun 12 to Oct 11 2026. Two Arapaho & Roosevelt NF sources agree: the campground page (updated Jun 12 2026, status Site Open) and the forest-wide campground status table (updated Aug 20 2026, the freshest agency source in this audit). No recreation.gov listing -- pay on site. Canyon Lakes Ranger District, Poudre Canyon. Source: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/recreation/tunnel-campground and https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/conditions.
Season
Read from the agency's own season / closure text in this record (data/conditions.py) and checked against the calendar. The words we read are printed under the verdict at the top of the page.
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 Tunnel
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
- 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 — Tunnel
When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →What “dispersed” means here →Reading the aerial →All field notes →