Love everything about staying here and having camp at our takeout from the Arkansas/Browns Canyon run! Make sure you have your day and overnight permits displayed, Rangers will check!
This location will not disappoint! I had the place to myself in Feb 2021. The pit toilet was open, I stopped in and it was spotless.
You need to be 100% self contained. There are several beautiful campsites, many overlooking the River. The road approaching seems to be well kept. It was snow packed when I visited, but easily passable. I did use my 4 wheel drive, just be safe. Each campsite has a fire pit and table.
I’ll be excited to come back during white water rafting season, it’s a great place to launch your boat.
Awesome campground next to the river. Nice and quiet. The road coming in is pretty rough with washboards but I will happily come back again.
The reviews for this campground are accurate. This is a very nice place to stay for dry camping. The water and scenery is beautiful. The bighorn sheep are fun to watch along with hiking and biking. It’s fun just watching the rafters having fun. Many of the spots are on the water with great views. I do want to warn you though. I have a 40’ fifth wheel and it did fit in site 11. Problem is, the area on this end of the campground loop is very tight. I would not take a trailer of any sort over 30’ into these sites. I was lucky that site 12 was not occupied when I needed to leave and I utilized that site as the road.
This is a dry camp and should be corrected. Granted, you can get both water and shower in the river, it doesn’t not qualify as a conventional shower or potable water.
This was a beautiful camping spot for our family of four. We drove from Louisiana and loved the easy access to hiking trails that ran along the river.
Hecla Junction is one of my favorite sites. The campground is north of Salida Colorado on the Arkansas River. This is the busy spot at the end of the commercial river rafting run. You access the campground from the main highway along a windy dirt road. It takes about 25 minutes to reach the river and the campground which is next to the boat ramp. The campground has great facilities and well designed sites. They have a few sites with views of the river on north end of the site. Each campground site has boulders to define the site, gravel base for tents, picnic tables, and fire rings. The toilets are very clean and well maintained and a camp host is on site. The highlight here is the river. We had fast moving water this summer with class III and IV rapids. It’s a great run from Buena Vista down to Hecla Junction. If the Hecla Junction Campground is full, we counted at least 3 dispersed sites on road leading down to the river including a BLM dispersed site.
Nice campground for tents and small camper trailers (under 30”). Sights off the river are on a steep grade, which will require a lot of rise in trailer jacks-bring our blocks. Most sights have space for a trailer and tent. The camp group does not have water and spotty Mobile phone service for those who care. Nice relaxing place to visit.
Stayed here in August and it was beautiful! We drove to the area from Denver and got stuck in traffic on the way. We went to multiple campgrounds in the area and they were all booked! Luckily, someone had just canceled when we pulled into Hecla Junction. DO NOT GO HERE UNLESS YOU MAKE A RESERVATION!
The camp host was very friendly and nice! She told us that it fills up fast and that we were so lucky to pull in when we did. Overall it was a great trip. Cool river nearby and pretty views. I'm used to backcountry camping so sites seemed pretty close together.