White Mountain National Forest · New Hampshire

Cold River — how to get a site when it's sold out

Overview Cold River Campground is located in a rustic, remote part of White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire, about 15 miles north of Fryeburg, Maine. It is a small facility with access to hiking and mountain biking trails and proximity to a small pond for fishing and canoeing. The White Mountains boast pristine forests, clear mountain streams and rivers and the tallest peaks in the Northeast.

🏕️ 14 sites 🚐 Standard

Booking Cold River

Sites at Cold River are reserved through Recreation.gov. Sites here can be reserved in advance through the official system, and they are claimed fast — cancellations then trickle back all season, unannounced, at any hour of the day or night.

Site facts

Total sites14
Site typesStandard
Book throughRecreation.gov
Official listingRecreation.gov

The cancellation play at Cold River

Because sites are booked months ahead, a steady share of reservations get cancelled as trips fall through. Each cancellation instantly returns that site and those nights to the official calendar — first-come, first-served, no waitlist, no announcement. Refreshing the booking page yourself, every few minutes for weeks, works in theory. In practice, the people who get these sites are the ones who hear about the opening first.

ItOpened scans the Recreation.gov calendar for Cold River around the clock. When a site matching your dates and your vehicle opens, you get a text with a direct link to it. You book it yourself, in your own account, at the normal price. We never book, hold, or resell — your fee pays for monitoring, and openings are first-come, so speed is the whole game.

Other campgrounds in White Mountain National Forest

Dolly CoppCancellation alerts available
Campton CampgroundCancellation alerts available
Russell Pond CampgroundCancellation alerts available
Hancock Campground (NH)Cancellation alerts available
Covered BridgeCancellation alerts available
Sugarloaf 2 CampgroundCancellation alerts available
Sugarloaf 1 CampgroundCancellation alerts available
Waterville CampgroundCancellation alerts available
White Ledge CampgroundCancellation alerts available
Big RockCancellation alerts available
WildwoodCancellation alerts available
Hastings CampgroundCancellation alerts available
Basin CampgroundCancellation alerts available
Osceola Vista CampgroundCancellation alerts available
Barnes Field CampgroundCancellation alerts available
Black Mountain CabinCancellation alerts available
Dolly Copp Picnic PavilionCancellation alerts available
Doublehead CabinCancellation alerts available
Radeke CabinCancellation alerts available
Russell-Colbath BarnCancellation alerts available

Page data refreshed 2026-10-29. Site facts come from the official directory listing for Cold River; cancellation statistics come from our own scanning logs.