Pa-Co-Chu-Puk Campground — Ridgway State Park

The park was well maintained, and patrolled by park staff. The sites were well spaced and generally level. The sites next to the highway received a lot of road noise 24 hours a day. Beware that Colorado State Parks charges a $10 per day vehicle fee on top of the camping fee. It is not included when you make a reservation online even though it asks for the number of vehicles you have. You must pay the vehicle fee onsite.

Great place to stay. Spacious spot for larger RVs. Quiet and clean. Restrooms and laundry facilities were great and clean. Campground hosts were very friendly and helpful. Firewood and ice available for sale.

Love this campground and Ridgway SP. Facilities with showers, laundry and power and water at site. Campground hosts are top notch along with the volunteers working there. Close to Montrose Ridgway and Ouray CO.

What a great place to stay! The Staff(including the Camp Hosts) are very friendly and helpful. Thank You All for what you do! It is greatly appreciated. Anyway, there is much to do here and in the surrounding area. Fishing, hiking, biking or just sitting and enjoying the campground is wonderful. Or you can venture out and find all kinds of hikes, bikes, drives to see lots of beautiful scenery!! It was spectacular this time of year!

We were just passing through for a night but this place was great!  Well-kept state park on the river with lots of facilities, and town nearby for groceries.  Lotsss of people fly fishing the river.  Had a nice pull-through site 217 with full hookups.

We stayed in site 290 in the H-loop, part of the walk in sites. There is a steep hill to this site that you have to wheelbarrow your gear up to, not featured in many pictures of the site. Overall, campsites were fairly close together and didn't feel very secluded. There is only one short trail to access from this campsite - we picked the site thinking there would be many hiking trails from the campsite. Our cooler also didn't fit in the bear box provided, it's a 52 quart cooler and a picture is included for reference.

We love visiting here when we visit the western slope. The campsite has great hiking and a beautiful creek that is so nice to sit by. The bathrooms are also close and super clean.

I absolutely love the Ridgway area, and this is a convenient place to stay. Great views, easy access to trails near the reservoir, and well maintained. We staid in the RV lot which didn’t offer a ton of privacy. But the tent/rv camping on the hill above does and has even more stunning views.

Stayed here for 3 nights, October 3, 2020. Very clean campground. Hosts were friendly. Great fishing in the tailwaters below the dam, 5 minute walk from campground to the river or two stocked ponds. River is catch and release.

River sites are absolutely fantastic. The entire facility is very well and beautiful setting. We’ll stay here again!

The walk to the river was short and there even is a parking area for those who are not camping but want to fish.

Sites were well maintained, restroom and showers were as well.

Picnic tables, fire ring and grill at all sites. Deer wandered around freely and was an extremely restful night.

They offer pull in sites or walk in tent sites. I chose a pull in even though I was tent camping. Had to check out a few sites to be sure there was level/cactus free spot to pitch the tent.

We stayed at the Pa-Co-Chu-Puk Campground IN Ridgway SP in Late April as a spot to stop for the night on our way to Mesa Verde NP. The campground during this time was very empty, we saw a few other people there and they were all in RV's or Trailers. This made sense as the temperature got down to 6 degrees that night. I would say our time there was short, we showed up in the afternoon and left by 7 am.

The spot we stayed in was fairly large, as you can see by the picture, we had plenty of room for 3 tents. Picnic tables, fire rings and stand up charcoal grills were available at every spot as well. I would like to go back down that way and visit in the summer as the lake and surrounding area look like they could be a lot of fun and Black Canyon Np is only 40 minutes away. Maybe next summer i will be able to add to this review.

The Paco Campground at Ridgeway SP is probably my favorite in the SP system. It’s down river from the lake and is tucked in rolling canyon of the Uncompahgre River. The river is a tailwater and has been restored by Trout Unlimited as a Catch & Release section. That bears repeating, especially for our Texas friends- Catch & Release... Sadly on 4 different occasions I’ve assisted Rangers in citing folks from there for keep trout.

The Campground is spacious and beautiful. There’s everything from tent sites to full hook ups. Facilities are spotless and the hosts are outgoing.

Bonus tip- Killer Thai food in Ridgeway. And daytrip for a soak in Ouray.

We did a hike in camp site. We crossed the river and hiked up. They have little wheel barrels that you can take your stuff up with. The site was spacious. Plenty big for having some fun. They don't allow anything on the trees, no hammocks, no hanging trash bags, no pets tied to trees, nothing. They do provide a solid bear cabinet to keep food in. The views are astounding! We ended up biking what we thought was a bike trail, turned out it was not so we tackled stairs on our bikes but the views were well worth it. There was a playground and several fishing ponds in addition to the river. There was a bear when we were there. It crossed the river but we didn't see it we were told by the ranger. Definitely use the bear cabinet. Interestingly, the ranger told us (which we weren't very bear savvy) that even the clothes you cook in should go in the bear cabinet. Don't take any of that in to your tent. They can smell it and may greet you during the night. Great place to be.