If you have a late August or September reservation at Timber Creek Campground in Rocky Mountain National Park, it stands. The park’s campgrounds page, checked August 9, 2026, says the campground closes for the season at noon on October 5. A January news release still posted on nps.gov says it closes at noon on August 10, and that one is no longer current.
The campgrounds page settles it in three sentences. “Timber Creek Campground, located on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park, will remain open through the end of the 2026 summer season.” “In January 2026, the park announced the campground would close at noon on August 10, 2026, for a sewer system rehabilitation project.” “Timber Creek Campground will close for the season at noon on October 5, 2026.”
That is the park acknowledging its own earlier announcement and replacing it. The January release, dated January 27, 2026, has not been pulled and still reads that the campground will “close at noon on Aug. 10, 2026” and stay closed until the 2027 season.
Why the difference is worth eight weeks to you
Timber Creek is the only campground on the west side of the park. The other four the park lists, Moraine Park, Aspenglen, Glacier Basin and Longs Peak, are all on the east side. If you wrote off a west side trip in September because you read the January notice, you gave up a site that is open.
The rest of the season, from the same page: Glacier Basin and Longs Peak close September 8, Aspenglen closes September 28, Moraine Park runs to October 19, and Timber Creek to October 5. Timber Creek opened for the season on May 21.
Two details decide whether it works for your rig. The park lists a 30 foot length limit at Timber Creek, which rules out a lot of fifth wheels and most Class A coaches. And a camping reservation there carries park access with one hole in it: visitors with Timber Creek reservations “will have access to most areas of the park, excluding the Bear Lake Road Corridor.” Bear Lake needs its own timed entry reservation on top.
The part we cannot close for you
Two official NPS pages contradict each other right now. We are treating the campgrounds page as current because it is the page the park maintains for campground status and because it names the January announcement and supersedes it. That is a sound read, not a certainty.
The sewer rehabilitation project was not cancelled, only moved, and a project that slipped once can move again. A stale press release sitting live on a park website is exactly the kind of thing that costs someone a drive. Before you commit fuel and days to the west side, check the campgrounds page again, or call the park. The park’s current guidance beats a press release, and it beats us.
For camping outside the park boundary on the Colorado public land nearby, start with the Colorado free camping page. For how park campground booking and timed entry fit together, see national park reservations.