## Overview

 West Chicago Creek Campground sits along its namesake creek at the base of Mount Evans and is located off Highway 103 on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in central Colorado. It is a popular facility for hiking and fishing enthusiasts.
## Recreation

 The area provides easy access to many hiking trails that lead into the Mount Evans Wilderness. West Chicago Creek offers good fishing for rainbow, brown and brook trout.
## Facilities

 There are 15 sites available all suitable for RV and tent camping. Each site contains a tent pad, picnic table, charcoal grill and fire ring. Other amenities include a vault toilet, water spigot and trash dumpster. There are no RV hook-ups. Firewood is available for sale during peak season at the campground.
## Natural Features

 The campground sits at an elevation of 9,600 feet in an aspen and lodgepole pine forest. The Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland are located in the foothills and slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The forests and grassland cover 1.5 million acres and extend north to the Wyoming border, south to Mount Evans and west across the Continental Divide. The area encompasses mountains, lakes and five scenic byways, designated by Congress for their scenery, wildlife or history, including the highest road in North America. Mount Evans Road, also known as Colorado Highway 5, allows visitors to drive from 10,500\' to 14,130\' above sea level in just 14 miles. 
## contact\_info

 For facility specific information, please call (530) 529-0578. 
## Nearby Attractions

 Nearby Idaho Springs, a former mining town, makes for a nice outing. History buffs will appreciate the Argo Gold Mine and Mill Museum.

West Chicago Creek

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.

Great place to stay, but Mt. Evans is 10 miles away 

I always end up at Chicago Creek after spending an evening in the Denver/Boulder area and attempt to head west afterwards. Only an hour-ish from the city, this campground is perfect for people heading west from Denver and are looking to be immersed in mountains. The road up to the site is a bit sketchy, so try to arrive before nightfall, although I've always arrived after dark. If the campground is full, quite often people camp just past it, at the end of the road. There are signs that say "No Camping" but I've never had an issue and there are tons of people there. Afterwards, enjoy breakfast in Idaho Springs or continue up the road to Mt. Evans summit!

Camping at Chicago Creek

Good location overall, close to other mountain amenities but the campsite itself was nothing special.  Site was spacious, well maintained, and seemed in good order with no problems at a high level.  Bear boxes were a great amenity that I wish more camps had!

No water (website said it has water) (COVID?), absent host, and nearby lake turned out to be private ownership. 

Nice but could be better

What an amazing campground, such beautiful scenery and very quiet. Roughly 16 very spaced out sites. Fire pits with grill top and picnic tables at each location. Sites have bear boxes for protection and safe keeping.

Self Retreat

Decent little campground not far away from Denver. Idaho Springs is close for a meal or other things you might want. Sites were clean, some pretty spacious but the ones in the middle were on top of each other. A nice hike right out of the campground. No where else to drive on the road, so it’s nice and quiet at night! No water, no cell service. 

Nice spot close to town

This had to be the cleanest campground that I had ever been to.  The host was amazing, very nice and had the cleanest outhouse toilet I've encountered!

Great 9 mile hike down Hells Hole Trail, with picnic spots and a creek to filter water from.  At the end of the road so pretty quiet as far as traffic is concerned.  16 sites, spread out decently, trees for hammocks and fire pits.  

Clean and great location

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).