Hey friends, my wife and I plan to spend the first week of August camping and driving around Colorado. Do you know any particularly sweet Natl. Forest or backwoods camping spot? We plan to mostly camp within a short hike from the car, but we are totally self sufficient. We neither want nor need the 'facilities' accociated with most campgrounds. Just lookin to appreciate the great Colorado outdoors. Any recommendations?
bring a stove...no fires allowed these days. Golden Gate State Park is nice, don't know backcountry protocol, but you MUST reserve in advance. Along the Cach la Poudre river is gorgeous, lots of little riverside camps. Friends tell me Cedaredge area is good. Colorado is covered with national forest, state parks and don't forget RM National Park... although first snow could be coming for Trail Ridge Road. stay north, east (Routt NF should be the farthest west), or the San Luis Valley (south central). Have a great time!
Camping in Colorado... I have 6 years here, and still won't be able to cover it all. I can tell you several things that I do know, regarding camping in Colorado in early August: early August is monsoon season...so, expect hit and miss thunderstorms every afternoon anywhere from 2-7 pm. It will normally only rain 15 minutes max, and move on out, leaving amazing skies for photography, but keep that in mind when it comes to hiking...don't want to be above the treeline when a storm rolls in. As far as tent camping goes, I can suggest a few areas, but the one I'll most suggest this time of year, due to the wildflowers is the Crested Butte area. If you get on any of the unpaved forest service roads in the area (get you a Delorme map of Colorado for $20 at any sporting goods store), you will find several "rustic" campsites, that are just areas that people have pitched tents year after year on public land. Depending on the vehicle you're driving, I'd suggest heading up from Crested Butte through the ski area toward the town of Gothic (a former ghost town, which has re-developed in recent years), and past it towards Emerald Lake, Schofield Pass, then up towards the Paradise Divide, which has great views of the Ruby Range and Elk Mountains, with views of the backside of the Maroon Bells, with plenty of wildflowers and columbines, wild roses, and aspen groves along the way...that's a mouthful. We were just there two weekends ago, and there were many open sites along the roads. If you need details on the area, let me know, as I have a triplog of the roads we took...we saw sedans on the roads, but I would suggest an SUV or something with a little more ground clearance than say, my camaro (which we left at home for this trip). I can go all day about tent camping, because that's all we do...let me know if you want more info on other areas you may have "scouted" out.
Thanks everone for the input. We have begun to sketch some plans, and of course we will play it by ear. We want to check the progress on Bishop's Castle. This guy started building a castle in 1969 out of stone and iron and rough timbers. He is still buildin it and it is Amazing. many towers and spiral stairs and balconies and a dragon head that blows fire and smoke. That is not far from Pueblo and as we are coming up from OK we will begin with that. At some point we plan to pass through Nederland and see some friends briefly. On friday aug. 6th MMW is playing at the mish and we may catch that show. I grow increasingly giddy with anticipation. I am now processing the suggested destinations and how to fit them in. Thanks
There is a great kinda private hot springs 5 miles west from buena vista it is on cotton wood pass very cool you can get your own creekside cabin with a hot pool out the back door clothing optional and no kids in main pool after 12 open all night and they sell some cool shit like hemp food this is about 1 hour from denver maybee two.. very cool and good luck may you have all the pees in the world and corner the market for the rest of us
There are so many awesome places to camp in Colorado, but one that especially comes to mind is a place just to the north of a town called Salida, which is about 40 miles west of Pueblo. It's a high-elevation camp ground(at about 12,000 feet, that's nearly tree-line) at the foot of Mount Shavano. It's a rough ride up because the road was, apparently, an old logging road in the 1800's through the 1930's? and they haven't done much to fix it up, so I hope you have an SUV or truck of some sort, 'cause you'll need it to get up there! The ride is totally worth it though. The campground itself surrounds a crystal-blue lake, mountains all around it. It's just absolutely beautiful, I cant describe it. It's just something you have to see for yourself to understand. Hope this helps on your adventure. Happy Camping!!
I lived in a tent last summer in Winter Park. I made a super secret site just across from the ski resort. If you would like, i could hand the site over to you drop me a line at Staggerlee917@yahoo.com PS- be careful at the mish!
