Kelly Dahl

This was a beautiful campground. we got there as the Aspen Trees were hitting their peak. It was just beautiful there.

Thus is a primitive campground. it has lots of very well maintained vault toilets. There's regular trash pickup and water at the site.

There ate lots of great trails to explore an the rocks are very colorful. People like to balance rocks there ... its local thing I guess.

Also its very peaceful and quiet there. The skies are dark and full of stars. It's a very serene place to visit.

BTW, there is no internet and no cell service. The closest dump station is 16 miles away at the KOA in Black Hawk, CO - $15

The closest internet and shopping center is in Nederland, Co. its a cool little artsy place to visit.

Campsite max rv length is 30tt. Site 36 is not recommended for rv's

We got a spot at 6 pm on a Saturday, but it was one of the last first come first serve spots and nothing special. All others were previously reserved. But the manager was great! We set up camp before we spoke with him, but he let us know he had a few cancellations on the reserved spots which were really pretty compared to what we had. Recommend trying that if you can’t find anything! Bathrooms, bear boxs, fire pits, and firewood for sale, but costs money to stay

Kelly Dahl is a nice campground to get away from the heat of summer and be near Nederland and Blackhawk Colorado. It is quiet during the week and busy on the weekends. Vault toilets and drinking water are well placed around the campground. Several camp sites look to be so far out of level that they are unusable for RV camping. I can recommend the following: 022, 024, 025, 026, 027, 031, 032, 035

Nice camp sites and dogs are allowed. Bathroom stalls were clean. Some trees and separation between sites but still close to hear others etc.

Sites:  46   20 sites FCFS

Reservation:  877-444-6777 or recreation.gov

Sites that fit tent, trailers, RV's

Open Mid May - Mid Oct

Firewood from camp host, picnic table, fire ring/grill, bear box at tent sites, pit toilet, water, trash, no electric, hookups, dump station or showers

Sites are very small

Great sightseeing to check out.  Several historic mining towns and some great hiking trails.  Views of the surrounding mountains are totally amazing.

AT&T and Verizon service but it is spotty.

The Mountain Pine beetle is decimating the forest and it is so sad to see.  The forest service is working very hard to keep up with the removal of dead trees and it is creating expansive open area.  The plus side of the removal is for solar.  They are also removing the stumps thank goodness.  Be very careful while walking in the forest for falling limbs or trees.

Directions:  About four miles south of Nederland, Colorado, on Colorado Highway (CO) 119, watch for the entrance to Kelly Dahl Campground on the east side of the highway at mile marker 22.

LNT

Better than when you found it

Stay safe and happy travels

Clean restrooms and potable water. Sites are separated adequately. Great weather in the summer. Both reservation and first-come sites are available. Mountain biking and hiking are nearby. Nederland Colorado town is nearby (population about 8k) for supplies.

Nice sites, somewhat secluded from others. Beetles did eat out some trees but still some shade available. Decent views, especially from entrance. Killer night skies.

We have camped here twice. Both before the pine beetle-killed trees were felled by Forest Service. However, it is great if you want to be up in the mountains with proximity to Nederland and Black Hawk as well as phenomenal hiking in the National Forests and easy day trips to Boulder, Estes Park, Georgetown, etc.

Be careful where you hike around this campground. There is an active mine above this campground. New fencing & signs will be put up this summer! Trespassers WILL be prosecuted! The campground is small most of the land around it is private property!

Only a few minutes outside of Nederland and just over an hour to Estes Park. Hosts were very pleasant and helpful and the place was nice and clean. They cut down a lot of dead trees so there are some sunny sites that would be tough for hammock camping but gave great views of the night skies.

We found this campground for back to back weekend getaways from Denver.  Only an hour away, Kelly Dahl feels like its much farther from the city.  Nothing fancy here but nice to see recent renovations with new restrooms and bear lockers.  The camp hosts take great pride in keeping the restrooms very clean 3x a day.  

Most sites are exposed  due to fire wiping out the trees but there are some sites that were spared and much preferable to those with no cover.

Sites are spread out.  All in all a very nice FS campground.

We spent two nights at Kelly Dahl in our Class C motorhome and it thoroughly met our needs. The site is clean, orderly and not crowded. Apparently, in season it's tough to get a spot, but we had no problem getting one in the first come first serve section. Sites 1 - 20 are fcfs and 21 - 46 can be reserved. There are vault toilets and water. The sites each have a picnic table and a flat area for a tent, or in our case, a screened sitting tent. We didn't spend much time at the campsite. It's so close to outstanding hikes that we spent our days away visiting local mountain trails and hanging out in Nederland. (My wife found a small boutique that she enjoyed a lot.) Great pizza place and it's just ten minutes from the campsite, but feel like many more miles away. We recommend it highly.

This camp ground is great for a base camp when the next night you might be backpacking deeper in the Rockies. You can get here from the city after work Friday and still have light to set up a tent. The site manager is friendly and has fire wood for $5 that’ll last the night. There’s a concrete bathroom. The views are majestic at night.

If you’re looking for a good base camp to hike James Peak Wilderness or Indian Peaks this is it. Close to Nederland, clean, and family friendly - with a nice playground.

Nice campground bathrooms were very clean, not a lot of hiking or things to do. Prices fairly steep for no hookups ($23.00) per night. Good places for younger kids, nice little playground.

We stay at Kelly Dahl when we get to Denver.  Favorite campground for us and our niece and her husband.  

WIFI...non-existent and phone coverage (Verizon) is very sketchy.

Did not see any staff during our two days there....except to tell us that the campground closed for season on the following day.  (We knew this.)

No showers.

Vault Toilets only...Very clean.

Sites are not always great, and some of the larger campers are going to have problems with size, and level-ness of pads.  I think that they are all dirt pads.

Lots of good space in the campground.  

A shame that the beetles have done so much devestation in the area.

Very open campground, we camped in a tent but probably better for an rv

Nicely maintained campgrounds. It is paid camping, but it also gives you access to nice amenities like trash disposal and restrooms. However the camping costs per week did seem a bit over priced in my opinion. They close their campgrounds in the middle of September unfortunately, so if you're going to enjoy the fall weather your best bet my be dispersed camping.

Nice peaceful campground on the weekdays. Near Boulder Canyon. Easy access to bike trails, hikes, rock climbing and scenic drives.

Looks like this place got torched, or they removed a lot of beetle kill. Hardly any shade, which depending on the time of year isn't the worst thing. We got caught in a rain storm and most of the sites got flooded, luckily we were on higher ground. We ended up here since all the other campground in the area were filled up. They have bathrooms and trash. Is kinda a cool site but needs some restoration.