How this picture was made
Photorealistic landscape photograph at golden hour in south-central Colorado: dramatic snow-streaked alpine peaks and ridgelines rising above a broad flat high-desert valley floor of sagebrush and grass, a clear headwater river winding out of the mountains, warm low sun, no people and no buildings or signs. 35mm lens, natural color, faint film grain.
Rio Grande National Forest
Camp here — Rio Grande National Forest
52 camps mapped in this forest, 10 of them free. Tap one for its topo and aerial, the weather, the water, and how far you will be from fuel and a shower.
- FreeElwood Cabin
- FreeDispersed Camping
- FreeHansons Mill Dispersed Campsite
- FreePass Creek Dispersed Campground
- FreeDispersed Camping
- FreeOld Elk Creek
- FreeTrail Creek Camping Area
- Free30 Mile Stock Unloading Area
Where dispersed camping is listed — Rio Grande National Forest
The Forest Service lists dispersed camping as an activity at these 18 places. That is the agency saying it is allowed somewhere in the area — not a campsite we have mapped, and not a spot we can put a pin on. Read their page, then check the district for the rules that apply on the day.
- Adams Fork Trailhead, Trail 713
The trailhead is on FDR 247, about 1 mile above Platoro Reservoir. The trailhead parking is to the left of the road, the trail is across the road to the right. This area is open to dispersal camping, the space is limited.
the Forest Service page for it → - Antonito, CO
Located on US highway 285, 25 miles south west of Alamosa. Junction of State highway 17 is just south of Antonito.
the Forest Service page for it → - Archuleta Trailhead - Trails # 741 & # 740
The Archuleta trail is composed of 2 segments. Trail 741 is 4.3 miles long. It begins at Forest Road 121 and ends at Forest Trail 740.1. Trail 740.1 is 6.99 miles long. It begins at Trail 740 and ends at the Forest Boundary with…
the Forest Service page for it → - Blanca Peak Trailhead - Trail # 886
Blanca Peak is the fourth highest peak in Colorado. Spectacular views along the way are the rule rather than the exception. Side trips can be made to two other 14,000 feet peaks, Little Bear Peak (14,037') and Ellingwood Point…
the Forest Service page for it → - Chama Basin Trailhead - Trail # 738
The Chama Basin Trailhead is at the beginning of Forest Service property at the end of FDR 121. It gives access to the Archuleta Creek and Chama River trails. Dispersed camping is allowed there.
the Forest Service page for it → - Chama River Trailhead - Trail # 738
The Chama River trail is 4.9 miles long. It begins at Forest Road 121 and ends at Orel Cabin. Trail 740 begins approx. 2 miles up trail 738. This trail follows the Chama River to the confluence of the West and East Forks, a…
the Forest Service page for it → - Duck Lake Trailhead - Trail # 732
The Duck Lake trail is 3.7 miles long. It begins at Forest Road 128 and ends at Duck Lake. The trail is a fairly gentle walk that offers scenic vistas of the Conejos Valley and gives access to several small fishing lakes. The…
the Forest Service page for it → - Elk Creek Trailhead - Trail 731
The Elk Creek trailhead is at the end of FDR 128, west of the turnoff to Elk Creek Campground. There is access to both Elk Creek and Duck Lake from here. The meadow is open to dispersal camping.
the Forest Service page for it → - Hansen Mill Dispersed Camping
Elevation: 10,800' This small, isolated dispersed (HORSE FRIENDLY) campground is located 16.8 miles east of Creede on Forest Road 600. Campers will find this to be a good vantage point for viewing vistas of distant mountains.…
the Forest Service page for it → - Middle Frisco Trailhead #879
The Middle Frisco trail is 6.3 miles long. It begins at County Road 13 and ends at Frisco Lake. The trail is open for the following uses: Foot Travel, Horse Travel, Mountain Biking
the Forest Service page for it → - Natural Arch Trailhead
Natural arch formed in a volcanic flow.
the Forest Service page for it → - Poage Lake Fishing Site
The Poage Lake Fishing site consists of a large parking area, a short trail to the lake, and the lake itself, a small impoundment that is regularly stocked in summer with Cutthroat Trout. You can disperse camp next to the parking…
the Forest Service page for it → - Red Lake Trailhead, Trail #733
The Red Lake trailhead is on FDR 114, approx. 2 1/4 miles from Highway 17. The parking area is large enough to accommodate horse trailers and other vehicles. There is also another smaller turnaround on FDR 114 at the dead end.
the Forest Service page for it → - Rito Hondo Reservoir Boating Site
Rito Hondo Area Rito Hondo reservoir is currently refilling. Fish stock is young and not fishable for 3-5 years. This site is a small reservoir that is also a natural fishery for Brook Trout. Small boats and electric motors are…
the Forest Service page for it → - Ute Creek Trailhead #819
Access to the Weminuche Wilderness The toilet at the parking area is closed to public use. Access to the trail is still open.
the Forest Service page for it → - Valdez Trailhead, Trail 717
The Valdez trailhead is on FDR 250, 1 1/2 miles north of the Pinnacles. Parking space is limited.
the Forest Service page for it → - West Fork Rio Chama Trailhead - Trail #740
The West Fork Rio Chama trail is 1 1/4 miles long. It begins at Forest Trail 738 and ends at the junction with Trail 741. Trail 741 was formerly numbered as Trail 740 from this junction on. The West ChamaTrail provides access to…
the Forest Service page for it → - West Frisco Trailhead #850
South of Del Norte
the Forest Service page for it →
Where the camps cluster
The place
The Forest Service describes this one as a forested ring around the San Luis Valley, and that is exactly the shape of it. The valley in the middle is enormous -- about 122 miles long and 74 miles wide, averaging around 7,664 feet, commonly called the largest alpine valley in the world -- and it is high, flat, and dry, taking only about 7 to 10 inches of precipitation a year, which is desert numbers. The forest is the rim: you leave potato fields and sagebrush flats on the valley floor and within a few miles you are climbing through ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir into subalpine spruce and fir, and then out of the trees entirely onto alpine tundra somewhere around 11,500 feet. The Continental Divide runs along most of the western boundary. Terrain here goes from the high peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Range to rugged canyons and ancient calderas, and the forest is split into three ranger districts -- Conejos Peak, Divide, and Saguache -- spread across nine counties, with the headquarters down in Del Norte. It gets cold: the weather station at Rio Grande Reservoir has recorded 89 degrees in July and 46 below zero in December.
History
This is Ute homeland, and the name of the forest's biggest wilderness still says so -- the Weminuche is named for the Weminuche band of Utes who lived in this country. Hispano families moving north from New Mexico settled the valley beginning in the 1850s; the town of San Luis, laid out in 1851, is the oldest town in Colorado, and the valley still holds the state's largest concentration of native Hispanic population. Then came silver. Rich strikes in Willow Creek Canyon in 1889 turned a canyon camp into Creede, renamed in 1891 for Nicholas C. Creede, who found the Holy Moses Mine, and the boom drew better than 10,000 people plus the usual cast of characters -- Bob Ford, who had shot Jesse James, Bat Masterson, and the confidence man Soapy Smith all turned up. The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad came in to serve the mines, and those mines ran continuously from 1890 all the way to 1985, shifting from silver to lead and zinc after the Silver Panic of 1893. The national forest itself was established July 1, 1908. That same December, Theodore Roosevelt set aside the strange eroded ash formations northeast of Creede as Wheeler National Monument -- the first national monument in Colorado -- though it proved so hard to reach that Congress abolished the monument in 1950 and handed the ground back to the forest.
Wildlife & plants
The high country here carries a full deck of Colorado big game: elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep, moose, black bears, and mountain lions you are very unlikely to lay eyes on. Canada lynx, reintroduced to the southern Colorado mountains, are back in the spruce-fir; mountain goats are established up on the high rock too, though they are not native here. The signature fish is the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, native to the Rio Grande's tributaries in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico and the official state fish of New Mexico -- it is a fish of real conservation concern, rated vulnerable and a candidate for Endangered Species Act listing from 2008 to 2014. Be ready for a lot of dead standing timber: between 1996 and 2023 spruce beetles infested some 617,000 acres of spruce-fir on this forest. That outbreak has since collapsed back to normal background levels -- largely because the beetles ran out of mature spruce to eat -- and the most active bark beetle on the Rio Grande in the mid-2020s is now the Douglas-fir beetle, most visible in the mid-elevation forest between South Fork and Creede. Gray snags mean falling-limb and blowdown risk, so pick your tent spot with your eyes up.
Notable features
The one everybody wants is the Wheeler Geologic Area, about 10 miles east-northeast of Creede at 11,960 feet -- a badlands of pale, wildly eroded volcanic ash spires standing in the middle of nowhere. Getting there is the whole point and the whole problem: an 8.4-mile hike on the East Bellows Trail (FS 790), or a rough 14-mile four-wheel-drive road. That ash came out of the La Garita caldera, an extinct volcanic monster 22 by 47 miles across centered near Creede. The forest holds pieces of four wilderness areas -- La Garita, Sangre de Cristo, South San Juan, and the Weminuche, which at 499,771 acres is the largest wilderness in Colorado and which it shares with the San Juan National Forest across the Divide; the Continental Divide Trail runs 83 miles through the Weminuche alone. On the pavement, Wolf Creek Pass carries US 160 over the Divide at 10,857 feet, with Treasure Falls below it and the Lobo Overlook at 11,760 feet above, and Colorado 149 -- the Silver Thread -- runs about 75 miles from South Fork up past Creede to Lake City, shadowing the young Rio Grande and passing North Clear Creek Falls on the way. Platoro Reservoir anchors the Conejos Peak district in the southwest corner.
Camps are sourced from public U.S. Forest Service recreation data and have not been personally visited. Roads shown are Forest Service passenger-car routes (maintenance level 3–5) and may be seasonal or gated. Always confirm access, fees and fire rules with the ranger district before you go. Found a fee where we show free? Tell us on the contact page.