Backcountry Camping in Colorado: Permits, Routes, Bear Notes

colorado backcountry is the kind of thing where if you plan it three weeks out you get a permit, and if you wing it you sleep at a trailhead in Patricia and start hiking at 5am hoping a walk-up slot opens. ive done both. one is better.

this is the post i wish someone handed me before i drove into Aspen at 11pm thinking id grab a Conundrum Hot Springs permit the next morning. spoiler. you cannot.

heres what actually matters if you want to do real backcountry camping in CO without getting turned around by a ranger or eaten alive by mosquitos at 11,200 ft.

the permit situation, honestly

colorado is a patchwork. some wildernesses require permits year-round, some only in summer, some never. the rule of thumb i use: if the trailhead is famous, assume permit. if you have to ask a forum where it is, probably no permit.

the heavy hitters that DO require backcountry camping permits:

• Rocky Mountain National Park — backcountry permits via Recreation.gov, lottery opens early in the year, walk-ups exist but are slim in July
• Indian Peaks Wilderness (east side, summer) — permits through the Boulder Ranger District, not Rec.gov last i checked
• Conundrum Hot Springs in Maroon Bells-Snowmass — Rec.gov, books out within minutes when the window opens
• Four Pass Loop overnight permits — also Rec.gov, also gone fast
• Chicago Basin in the Weminuche — no permit but you need the Durango & Silverton train ticket to get in, which is its own racket
• Mount Evans / Mount Blue Sky Wilderness — check before you go, rules shifted recently

the rest of the national forest backcountry — Holy Cross, Eagles Nest, Lost Creek, Mt. Zirkel, most of the Weminuche — you can just show up and camp, as long as youre 100ft from water and not in a posted closure. confirm at the US Forest Service recreation page for the specific ranger district. they update closures every season.

state parks are a different beast. most CO state parks dont allow dispersed backcountry camping at all — its established sites only, booked through CPW direct. their site works better than it has any right to, ngl. the booking-fee racket on third-party sites is real, go direct.

routes that are worth the drive

i wont pretend ive done every wilderness in this state but ive done enough to have opinions.

Four Pass Loop (Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness)

26ish miles, four passes over 12,400 ft, starts and ends near Aspen. if you can get the permit, do it. if you cant, dont try to sneak it — rangers patrol and they know what youre up to. the second pass (Frigid Air) is where most people break. bring more snacks than you think.

Chicago Basin (Weminuche Wilderness)

access is the weird part: you take the Durango & Silverton narrow-gauge train to Needleton, then hike in 6 miles. three 14ers from one basin. mountain goats will try to lick your trekking poles for the salt. mosquitos in July are brutal.

Lost Creek Wilderness loop

south of Bailey, way underrated. granite domes, easy water, no permits needed, almost nobody there compared to the Front Range stuff. i did a 28-mile loop from the Goose Creek trailhead and saw maybe six people in three days.

Sky Pond / Andrews Glacier area (RMNP)

technically you camp at designated backcountry sites nearby, not at the lake itself. but the permit + the climb up Timberline Falls is one of those trips that lives in your head. AllTrails Colorado has the mileage breakdowns and theyre mostly accurate, though elevations skew low sometimes.

for more route-planning starting points check the trails section — we keep notes on what worked and what didnt.

bears. what you actually need to know.

colorado is black bear country. no grizzlies. that doesnt mean you can be sloppy — a black bear that learns campers = food is a dead bear eventually, and your stuff gets shredded in the meantime.

the rules vary by area but heres the practical version:

bear canister required in parts of RMNP backcountry and a few specific zones in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness (Conundrum especially). canisters, not Ursacks, not hangs. the rangers check. i use a BV500, fits about 5 days of food if youre disciplined about packaging.

hangs are still legal in most national forest backcountry but honestly above treeline a proper PCT-style hang is hard to execute. if youre going somewhere alpine, just bring the canister and stop fighting it.

cook 100+ yards from your tent. standard triangle: sleep, cook, hang. dont eat in your tent, dont keep toothpaste in your tent, dont sleep in the clothes you cooked in. ive been lazy about this and gotten lucky. dont count on luck.

also: moose. were not talking about them enough. moose in the Never Summer range, in State Forest State Park, in parts of the Zirkel — they will mess you up faster than any bear. give them 50+ yards and dont let your dog off leash.

gear that matters at altitude

im not gonna pretend i havent shivered through a July night at 11,500 ft in a 40-degree bag thinking "well this was stupid." colorado backcountry is colder than you expect, even in summer. afternoon storms are a daily thing from about late June through early September.

the short version:

a 20-degree sleeping bag is the floor for shoulder season, and honestly i still bring mine in July if im going above 11k. a 3-season tent that can actually handle wind matters more than weight — i learned this in Eagles Nest when a freestanding dome tried to become a kite. and a canister stove is fine in summer but isopro performance tanks below freezing, so for September trips i switch to a remote-canister setup or a liquid fuel stove.

full kit notes live on the gear page if you want the deep dive. one thing i will say: dont cheap out on a rain shell. youre going to use it every afternoon.

cell service, water, and other reality checks

service drops the second you leave the trailhead in most CO wilderness areas. Verizon is the least bad. AT&T is fine on the Front Range and useless past Leadville. download your maps offline before you leave town. i use Gaia + downloaded AllTrails as a backup.

water is generally plentiful in CO above 9,000 ft until late August, then it starts thinning out. the Weminuche is wet. parts of the San Juans south of Silverton can be dry by September. always filter — giardia is real and beavers live everywhere.

parking at trailheads is its own sport. Maroon Bells now requires a shuttle reservation in summer (book via the Aspen Chamber site, not Rec.gov, confusingly). Brainard Lake / Indian Peaks east side has a timed entry as of recent seasons. check before you drive 4 hours.

and the altitude. if you flew into Denver yesterday and youre starting at 10,000 ft tomorrow, youre going to feel terrible. sleep one night at 8,000-9,000 first. its not optional, its physiology.

what we'd actually do

if i had one week in CO and wanted real backcountry: id skip the permit lottery entirely and head for Lost Creek or the eastern Weminuche. no permit hassle, fewer people, water is reliable, and the scenery holds up against any of the famous stuff. id park Patricia at the trailhead the night before, sleep in, start at sunrise.

if i had to do a "name brand" trip, id throw my name in for Four Pass Loop the second the Rec.gov window opens and have Lost Creek as plan B. dont build a trip around getting a walk-up at Conundrum. youll be disappointed and youll have spent your hiking energy refreshing a webpage.

also check the parks index for what state parks allow drive-up car camping near your trailhead — sometimes the night before a big push is better spent at an actual campsite than at a Walmart in Glenwood Springs. though that Walmart is, vibes-dependent, fine.

anyway. go camp. the state has more wilderness than youll ever cover, and most of it doesnt need a permit at all.