East Portal Campground — Curecanti National Recreation Area

As others have noted, the first set of camping sites you encounter when you get to the bottom of 5 miles of twist turny 16% grade are more exposed but you drive right in, while the others are just a little down the road, you park in the sites facing the river, and walk your stuff down a little embankment to very cool, quiet, shady sites that I really liked. There are vault toilets here, there was potable water, tent pads, picnic tables, garbage and recycling bins, and bear boxes. No firewood for sale at the campsite, so get some at the little store right off highway 50 when you turn in toward the park.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison is stunning and not that heavily traveled. The East Portal, this camping ground, offers the only easy access to the river, since most of the roads and whatnot are a couple thousand feet up along the rim. The Gunnison here is gold medal trout water, being just below a dam, and there is about a mile of water fishable from shore / via wading from the camp site. Lots of big brown trout can be seen just hanging out a few feet from shore via the little path, and there are lots of beautiful riffles, pockets and holes to float your fly in. I didn't catch anything, but other anglers said they did. The one guidebook I consulted indicated that this water will see lots of angling as the season progresses, and especially on weekends, so the trout are wary and finicky. I didn't find them too spooky when I was casting to them, but I did find that they seemed to have no trouble resisting what I was floating past them.

Anyway, a beautiful site to catch some fresh air, fish some beautiful water, enjoy Colorado.

I've hesitated on if I wanted to post a review about this site or not. It's such a great site that not many seem to know about and sometimes you just want to keep those hidden/sorta secret sites to yourself. But since there is already another review guess I will add mine as well.

By far my most favorite site I've ever camped. It's quite the experience being able to camp at the bottom of this canyon after seeing it from the top side. The river is close for fly fishing, there is no RV's, mostly tent or van/truck camping due to the road being restricted to vehicles under 22'. There is a 16% grade and extremely sharp and narrow curves.

There is only 15 sites in two locations. One is a drive in and has about 8 sites. The other was closed when I arrived but looked like very nice sites as well. Only pit toilets in both and I saw no working water so bring in what you are going to need.

Saw and heard lots of wildlife. Deer for sure and a few bald eagles, the other critters heard and not saw, well who knows but mostly birds. There are bear boxes on site.

Picnic tables and fire rings.

I'm sure as the snow/cold weather comes in this campsite will be closed down due to road conditions so double check before planning a trip to be sure it's open.

And to top it off the fishing here is amazing. So many open areas to climb down to the river and just fish away with no crowds. It was magical! and then to have a Bald eagle watching you, couldn't ask for a better experience!

One last thing, you are at the bottom of the canyon so it is in the shade quite often so meaning it is a bit cooler down there than at the top.