Bassam Guard Station, Colorado.

The scenery around Bassam Guard Station in central Colorado includes rolling grasslands, rocky hillsides, pine forests and towering peaks. The Arkansas river and the town of Buena Vista are nearby.

 

Bassam Guard Station is a 14 x 16 log cabin built around 1911 and is available for the public to rent for $50 a night from www.recreation.gov.

The cabin is furnished with only one bed but there's plenty of open floorspace to set up camp cots and mattresses for others to sleep inside. The public might be better served if a couple of traditional Forest Service bunkbeds were installed here instead.

 

The cabin is equipped for cooking inside on a propane stove and a wood burning, pot bellied stove is available to provide heat. There's a table and chairs and battery operated lamps also for dining inside. 

Well water is available from a hand-pump located outside along with a picnic table and a firepit.

Firewood is not provided and there's little to be found around the cabin so its best to bring your own. 

A well built and equipped vault toilet is located behind the cabin, the path to which is lit at night by little solar lanterns in the ground. 

The nearby Arkansas River and the town of Buena Vista caters to river rafters and is a popular destination during the tourist season. 

The Arkansas River also draws many anglers to the area where public land and fishing access is plentiful.  

Hiking up the hill behind Bassam Guard Station at sunset can be rewarding.