Mornings are when sites open up.
8 AMis the busiest hour: 321 of 3,186 openings.
Tap a bar for its count.
From 7 to 11 AM came 28% of everything. Overnight is quiet: midnight to 6 AM brought 117 openings, 3.7% of the total. A smaller evening rise peaks in the 6 PM hour (225).
What it means: if you check by hand, morning is when it pays off.
See every hour
| Hour (Mountain) | Openings |
|---|---|
| midnight | 18 |
| 1 AM | 15 |
| 2 AM | 19 |
| 3 AM | 8 |
| 4 AM | 25 |
| 5 AM | 32 |
| 6 AM | 72 |
| 7 AM | 162 |
| 8 AM | 321 |
| 9 AM | 206 |
| 10 AM | 203 |
| 11 AM | 209 |
| noon | 163 |
| 1 PM | 154 |
| 2 PM | 153 |
| 3 PM | 204 |
| 4 PM | 190 |
| 5 PM | 177 |
| 6 PM | 225 |
| 7 PM | 159 |
| 8 PM | 194 |
| 9 PM | 132 |
| 10 PM | 87 |
| 11 PM | 58 |
Openings bunch up in the last week.
6 daysbefore arrival is the typical opening. 54% land within 6 days.
That fits the rules: Recreation.gov’s cancellation cut-off is typically 0 to 4 days before arrival, so people let go just before it.
What it means: a full campground can still change, and it changes most in the last week.
One caution: these are the dates people chose to watch, so read this as a shape, not a law.
See the numbers
| Before arrival | Openings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Same day | 170 | 5% |
| 1–2 days | 580 | 18% |
| 3–6 days | 965 | 30% |
| 7–13 days | 808 | 25% |
| 14–29 days | 575 | 18% |
| 30–59 days | 88 | 3% |
Almost always.
96.7%of openings were still bookable when we looked again about 94 seconds later.
Before any alert goes out, the site is read a second time. 3,080 of 3,186 openings (96.7%) were still bookable at that re-check. The median re-check came 94 seconds after the first read; most landed between 48 and 103 seconds. The other 106 (3.3%) were already gone.
What it means: most openings last at least a minute and a half, long enough to book if you act on the alert.
A site somebody grabbed is still worth watching.
30%of site-nights opened more than once.
The 3,186 openings fell on 2,211 distinct site-nights (one site, one night). 659 of those opened more than once. 2 site-nights opened 11 times.
See the numbers
| Times opened | Site-nights |
|---|---|
| Once | 1,552 |
| 2 times | 460 |
| 3 times | 132 |
| 4 times | 45 |
| 5 times | 12 |
| 6 times | 5 |
| 8 times | 2 |
| 10 times | 1 |
| 11 times | 2 |
The 8 campgrounds in this report
Moraine Park (RMNP) accounts for 2,053 of the 3,186 openings (64%). The rest are much smaller samples. Pick one to see its numbers.
- 3,186 openings
- 2,211 site-nights
- 96.7% still open at re-check
Logged Sep 12 to Oct 1. Choose a campground to see its share.
All campgrounds as a table
| Campground | Openings | Site-nights | Still open at re-check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moraine Park (RMNP) | 2,053 | 1,384 | 96% |
| Timber Creek (RMNP) | 364 | 254 | 98% |
| Piñon Flats (Great Sand Dunes) | 349 | 296 | 99% |
| Aspenglen (RMNP) | 200 | 122 | 94% |
| Difficult (Aspen) | 119 | 80 | 98% |
| Redstone (Crystal River) | 61 | 42 | 100% |
| Arapaho Bay (Lake Granby) | 30 | 25 | 100% |
| Silver Queen (Maroon Bells) | 10 | 8 | 90% |
Rather not refresh all morning? Set a free watch on the campground and dates you want, and let Campsite Ranger do the checking.
The rules behind these patterns are in Recreation.gov cancellations: the rules and the timing.
Scope, method and limits
What this edition is based on. Alert checks at the campgrounds people were watching: the alert worker logs each opening at a campground someone is watching. 8 campgrounds, Sep 12 to Oct 1, 2026. A fuller edition, drawing on more of the 47 campgrounds Campsite Ranger covers, is coming soon.
What counts as an opening. A site-night at a watched campground that Recreation.gov showed as “Available” after it had not been bookable. The alert worker logs each one and reads it again before sending anything. 1,959 log rows with other statuses are left out.
Only 8 campgrounds. The worker reads only the campgrounds someone is watching, and only the months those dates fall in. This is 8 campgrounds, not all of Colorado, and Moraine Park (RMNP) dominates it.
Not every opening is a cancellation. A date going on sale for the first time can look the same in the log. This data does not separate the two.
Timing. In this window the worker checked about every 90 seconds at peak, every 3 minutes off-peak and every 7 minutes overnight. An opening booked between two checks is never seen, so real openings outnumber these.
Dates. Sep 12, 2026 at 1:37 PM to Oct 1, 2026 at 10:20 AM, Mountain time: 20 calendar days, the first and last partial. It covers mid-September to early October only, while many campgrounds were closing for winter. Summer will look different.
Day of week is not shown yet. This window has only 2 to 3 of each weekday, and a pattern needs at least 4. It will appear once there is enough data.
Source. Logged by Campsite Ranger from public Recreation.gov availability. Rules cited from Recreation.gov’s Rules and Reservation Policies. Free to quote or reuse with attribution to campsiteranger.com.