News: BLM will end free camping at western Colorado’s Rabbit Valley by next spring

[Inukshuk]

BLM will end free camping at western Colorado’s Rabbit Valley by next spring​

With fragile desert terrain at risk, officials are replacing dispersed camping with formal campsites at the park that’s popular with the motorized vehicle community

BLM will end free camping at western Colorado’s Rabbit Valley by next spring

Permits now are required to camp at Rabbit Valley in McInnis Canyons NCA west of Fruita. Fees will be charged when 75 campsites are built.

coloradosun.com

We stay there the night before Kokopelli trail starts for Cruise Moab so this will be a change. We stay on a Sunday night and trip 2 stays on a Monday night so there generally is space - but not always. On weekends I would already not bother trying to stay there. Some will stay there and pay the fees, some will go farther remote. I hope they add more camping areas.

 

[Hulk]

That's a bummer. I've enjoyed camping there.

 

[nuclearlemon]

 

[DaveInDenver]

The local article.

BLM moving away from dispersed camping in Rabbit Valley

The Bureau of Land Management announced Tuesday it is implementing a camping permit system for Rabbit Valley in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area.

www.gjsentinel.com

It's been designated for a while and as I've mentioned before that's not been followed super well. So you get the fee and online reservations.

Up at 18 Rd people have been better about not ignoring the designated camping (also reserved online). But that was literally a shitshow (e.g. human feces right on the trails and parking lots) the past couple of years and there was no choice. The camping they built there is about maximizing sites more than finding solitude.

Which, bee tee dubs, is an important thing. The BLM is taking comments on the changes until June so you could still have a say on the fee or at least the size of the fee. The designated camping change isn't AFAIK up for comment. But the camping at Rabbit Valley isn't an big quasi RV park like 18 Road, so it would seem zero or at least a reduced fee is appropriate.

 

[Corbet]

We will see similar changes in the San Juans soon. I don't have a problem with the fees if the money is used to directly manage the area that's collecting them.