This Campsite was beautiful, nestled behind the trees and a bit off the road down a hill. Lots of activities from exploring the several mining towns, hikes (including several fourteeners), day camping by the lake, and exploring Buena Vista/Salida. We even made a quick trip into St. Elmo to make it a ghost town weekend.
The Milkyway was incredible at night even with the smoke and can't even imagine how beautiful this road would be covered in yellow at peak leaf peeping season.
However, we wouldn't camp here again unless they instated quiet hours or we opted to buy a lifted Jeep and went past Winnipeg (mile 12) down the 4x4 road to the right to escape some of the noise. It's not other campers, because our sites were pretty far off from any others but other sites weren't so lucky with group camping.
It was the fact the road was active ALL night and day. And I mean, be prepared for it to start before 4:30 AM. The Hikers start pouring down the road at this time, some even before to hit all three fourteeners in one day. It is rocky so it makes it even louder than a normal drive by and is almost impossible to sleep through even after the 3rd night when you are used to it and we are all heavy sleepers. If this road was paved it might not be that big of an issue. It does not quiet down in the evening either, with some explorers returning to camp at midnight if not later - we woke up to a stream of vehicles coming in at 2:30 a.m. one night.
It's unfortunate because without this, I would rate it 5 stars and want to come back every weekend. With it, good luck getting a good nights sleep and not being annoyed. If you are going to test it, I would recommend going as far down the road as you can. We were around mile 7/8 of 12.
