Camping near crested butte

We are thinking of tent camping near Crested butte next thursday hoping the fall colors would reach peak around there during that time.

We are going to be there 2 to 3 days. Want to cover Aspen, marble and crested butte areas. We don't have to be in a campgound.. an area with abundance of fall colors is nice.

How cold is it during the night? we are taking little children with us.

What do you suggest ?

TIA
Zilya

I am not much help with the camping information. But I can comment about the weather.

The long range guesses coming from the models suggest that there will be good weather over the next week. Looks like things can start to change as next weekend approaches and the ridge out west starts to break down.

Assuming that you will be around 7000 to 8000 feet MSL, I would expect highs around 70 lows around 30 early in the week (typical climate) as long as the high pressure remains in place. Definitely bring a coat for those cool morning, or you will be looking for a cheap sweat shirt.

Unfortunately, you are planning to be out looking at the fall colors just as the forecast models start to argue about the solution. While one might guess that the weather might start off good, I wouldn't be surprised to have things change quickly and the snow level to drop to around 10 thousand feet.

S

Colors should be quite good to excellent by then. Plenty of places to camp along Kebler Pass, all free, plus some pay NF sites also. Not many places around Aspen that aren't pay areas, Capitol Creek trailhead would be one that is free and accessible assuming no snow. But be aware others will be camping as well, so you might need to pick a spot in early afternoon. There is some free camping around the Ashcroft area near the beginning of some 4WD roads.

Keep in mind also that CB and Aspen are pretty close together as the crow flies, but it's quite a drive to get from one to the other.

Thanks for the replies.

I don't mind paying a fee .. it doesn't have to be free. Given that, what is the best spot ?

There are so many places to just pull off and car camp along the Kebler Pass road, Slate River road, Washington Gulch road, Gothic road, etc, that you just need to go look for a spot that strikes your fancy. If you need a pay campground with restrooms and the like, you're not really going to find any along this stretch. There might be some in town (CB), but having never needed one, I'm not sure where they'd be. That's kind of the beauty of the CB area, it's all open national forest land where you can pick your spot.

If you wanted to stay on the Aspen side, there are pay campgrounds along the Maroon Lake road. I assume there's also camping facilities at Paonia Reservoir State Park, which is north of the western terminus of the Kebler Pass road along Hwy-133. That would be a decent compromise position between CB and Aspen (although much closer to CB) from where you could shoot around McClure Pass, too. If you want facilities, this might be your best bet.

There is a Forest Service Campground at Lake Irwin about 10 miles west of Crested Butte.

It was closed when I went by the other day. (But I did forget about that one until you mentioned it!)

There's also the Lost Lake campground on Kebler, even farther west than Lake Irwin...I believe that one stays open until Oct 1, but you never know. :)

I was in Aspen this weekend, the trees are still very green. It was getting down to about 30 degrees at night so bring warm bags. I was going to camp but found a $50 hotel room and I was happy.

Just a quick update on the weather side. The models are now consistent that the high pressure over the rockies breaks down this coming weekend. I would expect highs to fall to more seasonable values. Probably a storm passing through Saturday afternoon into the day on Sunday.