Ceran St. Vrain Trail Dispersed Camping

We parked in the parking lot and walked into the valley. After a while we found quite a lot of options with fireplaces already there. So you should mostly find something.

It is quiet, but also a popular spot for hikers so early in the morning, some people arrived. But you can camp far enough in the valley and away from the trail. Water is available if you have a purifier or filter system.

A short hike downhill to many dispersed campsites along the creek. Beautiful and easy! A must-see.

We went here with our 2 dogs for a quick overnighter-only about 45 minutes outside of Boulder. It was a Sunday morning and the lot was almost full when we got there around 9am. We packed it in and walked the whole trail looking for the best spot and ended up backtracking about half way to a site we saw across the St. Vrain. We crossed the creek by foot and set up right under what we later learned was a mountain lions apartment. We were far enough away from the trail that we were not bothered by day hikers. The stars were AMAZING and the sky was perfectly clear. Lots of firewood around-we brought our hand saw and cut enough feld wood to last until around 4am. We were about to go to bed around 11pm when our dogs started barking. My wife went to quiet them down and when I shined my head lamp toward the tent I saw a mountain lion perched above where we were camping on some rocks about 30 feet away. We yelled and made a lot of racket but it didn’t phase the lion. We threw rocks at it (something we had laughed at when we read about what to do in the event of an encounter) and that got it to slowly walk off into the night. About an hour later it came back and our dogs alerted us again. This time it was closer. We did the same thing-made a lot of noise and threw rocks at it until it went away. We stayed up making noise and being scared until our wood ran out and then passed out in our tent for a few hours until the sun came up. It was a scary experience but the next time we camp here we will stay closer to where everyone else stays at the beginning of the trail. When we got back to our car there was a big dusty bear paw print on our passenger side door. Colorado nature folks!

This campground is awesome if you're not trying to go to far. I went on Memorial Day weekend so there were a lot of people so I'm not sure how crowded it would normally be. Eventhough there were a lot of people, you feel pretty isolated in your campsite and would see hardly anyone at night. We camped on a pseudo island between the two streams and the running water helped drown out any noise too.

This is one of my boyfriend and I’s favorite places to camp. You have to park in the lot and then walk down the hiking trail to get to the camping spots. The camp spots are pretty spread apart. They are set up along the river with fire pits and plenty of trees around. The only thing that im not to fond of is the first few camping spots on the trail or so close to the trail that in the eary morning when hikers start coming in it can get pretty loud and had woke me up. Other then that I love it here!

I absolutely love this campground! This camping is spread along a hiking trail that follows the St. Vrain river. in order to get to the camp spots you have to park in the parking lot and then walk over a bridge and about a .25 mile down the trail until you hit the first camping spot. There are about 10-12 tent spots here. They are spread out pretty well to where there is a good amount of privacy between camps but in the morning the hikers start to come through. Tons of trees here andonhe river is absolutely breath taking.

My son and I joined a friend from Longmont and headed to this trail to camp for a couple days. Very accessible road, lots of spots to choose from (we showed up on Thursday, it did get a little busier on Friday and Saturday). Our spot was set back from the trail, right next to the stream. Just an amazing view, ample room for lots of tents, nice fire rings and huge logs around them for sitting. Fire wood abounds but it was all a little wet still from the rains they've been getting. Some folks didn't seem to be aware of the "leave no trace" rule when it comes to going to the bathroom, which was a little gross. Overall, great experience, pretty trail views, caught lots of trout (none big enough to keep). A great getaway.