West Chicago Creek

This campground is sorta remote, but also not. It's close enough to civilization that there was a LOT of activity both in the campground and at the nearby picnic area. Choose a site on the outside. The ones closest to the wilderness trailhead were by far the best. Do not choose site 8. There is no cell service. No drinking water (well ran dry). Host is nice. Bathrooms usually smelled okay inside (but they smelled like vault toilets normally do on the outside, so again, don't choose site 8).

Here's some quotes from my travel log:

"The last bit of the road to the campsite was super duper rocky and narrow. I’m sure all that soft-roading wasn’t great for the hole in the tire. We set up camp and soon it started raining. Luckily I had put up a tarp over the table so we sheltered under that. The campground had a lot of kids and it was noisy. I also stupidly chose a spot right next to both the ONE vault toilet (2 toilets, one building, for the whole campground) and the dumpsters which were the most excessively bear proof dumpsters you’ve ever seen (hard to use and thusly very loud). The bathroom doors were slamming all evening and the smells coming from both were there, loud and clear for the duration of our stay...

...I decided to go for a walk and saw that we were right next to a picnic area and trailhead for some Mt Evans wilderness trails. There was a very large group in the picnic area. It started raining and I headed back to the campsite. Once the rain calmed down people started doing fireworks. In a designated wilderness area. Come on people, really? Forrest and I went to town to grab some things and when we came back all the people had left and the fireworks were done. Forrest and I went for a little walk on the trail along Chicago Creek. It was beautiful. We saw some moose poop. When it was time to go to bed I took Forrest into the vault toilet and when we came out a baby moose zoomed past us right through our site! The neighbor mom was like,“It was a moose right? My husband doesn’t believe me!” I said yeah it had to have been and asked the other neighbors, an older couple who looked like they know a lot. He said, “Yup, it was a baby moose, watch out for mama.” It was an exciting Fourth of July surprise. That night there was an hour or two or more… It was a long night… where someone’s car alarm kept going off. We could not figure out what or why or where."

I totally forgot to take a tour video and pictures what with all the storms and the altitude sickness my son and I got from driving up to the Mt. Evans summit.

Overall, if I go back to the Idaho Springs area again, I'd probably stay here again, but I'd choose a better spot and not go on the Fourth of July (this was just a cooincidence on our roadtrip).

I love this place. The campground is full every weekend between Memorial Day and Labor Day due to reservations made at recreation.gov up to 6 months and more than 48 hours in advance, and being so close to metro Denver.

The campground has 16 sites; 4 Walk-In, 1 host and 11 are reservable. Check in after 2:00 and check out by 1:00. If someone has a reservation, like a hotel, their site is held until 1:00 the next day because of the Forest Service rule that the campsite must be occupied the first night and they could have had delays.

The campground is at 9600’ and the last mile of the dirt road is a bit rough, but I have seen low profile cars and 42’ Class A motor home with a towed vehicle. Well water normally supplies the campground to faucets, but has not been productive the entire 2019 season and there are vault toilets. Each site has its own bear box and fire ring. The creek is less than 100 meters from the campground and fishing this year was poor... water level was low. Lots of great hiking and climbing in the area. About a 40 degree difference between day and night. During the fire ban, dispersed camping is limited to just a few areas so the campground is a great place to stay and you might still be able to have a fire in the fire ring. Privately owned cabins can be seen as you walk through the woods. Hell’s Hole Trail is a few hundred yards from the campground. I’m looking forward to going back there as host next year.