East Fork Campground, near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, is a fantastic spot for those looking to immerse themselves in nature while enjoying some comfort. The campground is known for its spacious sites, clean facilities, and friendly camp host, making it a welcoming place for both families and solo adventurers.

With easy access to drinking water and firewood, campers can settle in without hassle. Visitors have praised the cleanliness of the bathrooms, noting that they are well-maintained and bug-free. One camper mentioned, “The bathrooms were ridiculously clean pit toilets but so clean,” highlighting the attention to detail here.

For outdoor enthusiasts, the campground is surrounded by beautiful wooded areas and is just a short drive from various hiking trails and waterfalls. Campers have enjoyed the nearby river, with one reviewer stating, “Let the gushing waters put you right to sleep!” Whether you’re fishing, hiking, or just soaking in the views, there’s plenty to keep you busy.

While the campground doesn’t offer showers, many find the trade-off worth it for the peaceful atmosphere and stunning scenery. If you’re looking for a place to unwind and connect with nature, East Fork Campground is a solid choice.

## Overview

 East Fork Campground is located 11 miles northeast of Pagosa Springs, just off U.S. Highway 160, along the East Fork Road. Visitors enjoy the area for its fishing, hiking and scenic opportunities.
## Recreation

 The East Fork offers plenty of fishing opportunities upstream from the campground. Trailheads for the Coal Creek Trail and the Quartz Ridge Trail are at Sand Creek, 2-5 miles beyond the campground. 
## Natural Features

 The campground sits on a ridge overlooking the East Fork of the San Juan River. Some sites have views of the river, but it's a long way down the hill. Short, but steep trails lead down the hill, to the riverbanks. A forest of ponderosa pine and gambel oak trees shades the campground. At 7,700 feet, temperatures can be a bit warmer than at surrounding campgrounds. 
## Nearby Attractions

 Silver Falls is located a few miles up East Fork Road past the campground. A short trail leads to the base of the falls. Mountain bikers often ride to Silver Falls. Beyond its junction with Forest Road 684, the East Fork Road is negotiable only by 4WD. Off-road vehicle enthusiasts enjoy the upper section to Elwood Pass. Treasure Falls, located just off Highway 160 about five miles from the campground, is an impressive 100' waterfall with a short hike.
## Charges & Cancellations

 Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a campsite. Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. No-Shows A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite. Refunds Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Refunds will not be issued after the 7 days has ended. Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive. In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.

East Fork Campground

The Dyrt is here to help plan your best camping near Pagosa Springs. Pagosa Springs is a great camping destination for everyone. There are tons of nearby hikes, adventurous activities, and sights to see. You're sure to find the perfect spot for your Colorado camping adventure.

Pagosa Springs

The Best Camping Near Pagosa Springs, Colorado

We arrived at East Fork late in the evening, just in time to catch a beautiful sunset. Each site is equipped with RV hookups, picnic tables and a small grill - There are 2 restrooms on either side of the grounds as well. From our site (#11) you could hear the gushing river down below. The host was really nice and led us to a nearby waterfall and overlook the next morning as well! San Juan NF is gorgeous!! 

All you need 

It was lightly raining when we arrived, but that didn't dampen our delight at the absolutely stunning campground. We only stayed one night; we were stopping over to continue with our road trip. We do hope to return someday to further explore the area, but even our one night left a lasting impression!

Beautiful

The camp host was one of the most friendly I'd ever met. Multiple (20ish) sites, mostly personal. Sound of creek in distance. Toilets extremely well kept. MANY hikes w/in walking distance. Silver Falls 8mi drive away. Some free sites outside of campground along drive to Silver Falls.

Safe, Enjoyable car camping

This campground is pretty sweet. Set back from the main road, it is in a pleasant bend of the San Juan River. Sites on the outside of the loop are spacious and fairly private. If you can, the best sites are on the backside and back up to the river. If you don’t get one of these prime sites, no big deal as there are access trails from the campground that lead to the river and some nice fishing holes. Great place to camp if fly fishing is your bag. We had an inside the loop site and were very happy. The sites were well spread out and all had great hammock trees. The bathrooms were very clean and well maintained. The campground host, while she liked to sleep in late, was definitely putting in more than the required hours to maintain the campground. If you need a shower, head up the entrance road to the private campground and pay $5 for an unlimited time shower in an interesting cabin like shower house. The difference between the private campground and the forest service campground, besides the access to showers, are that the forest service campground is not available to RV’s or horse trailers. I’d definitely camp here again (as we extended our stay extra nights since we were so happy with the site).

Great camping next to the East Fork of the San Juan River

Very quiet, serene campground!  We are anglers and we chose site #26, which is closest to the river.  It’s a hike down but doable!  The probablemente was that the water was too high to fish.  We will come back when water levels are down.  There were some flies and mosquitos but better when the breeze came thru.  Very peaceful and nice campground in the middle of the forest.

Middle of the forest

It’s a great campground. Easy to navigate. Reasonably priced. The sites are nice with plenty of different places to put your tent. Fire pits great for cooking, and each site gets a table.

ONLY bad thing is no showers. Wasn’t a big deal to me, I was there a couple days. 

Highly recommend!

Awesome sites!

We made reservations for July 4th and 5th on-line because that’s all that was available. Came up on July 3rd found a First come first serve site, paid for the day. Marcy the “host” pulls up and immediately begins yelling at us to move back the rocks. We moved some rocks to back up into our site, she only allowed us to pull up to the site, so we agreed and continued to set up. We asked her if we could stay in our current site since we had already reserved sites for the next two nights. She refused to cancel our site for the next two days and told us we would have to pay again, and to talk to the new host coming in Sunday. Sunday arrives and we are woken up at 8:00 am with her honking outside our camper, then she sticks her face in the pop-up side where my boys were sleeping yelling “wake up!” “Anybody home!” Then she proceeds to bang aggressively on our door, the yelled at us to “hurry up”. My husband finishes getting dressed an goes out side to have her immediately start yelling at him for trying to pull a fast one. She’s yelling telling us that she knows what we’re up to, and she’s gonna leave a note for the new host so we don’t try and get away without paying. My husband explained to her that she said we can pay (again) on Sunday and still hadn’t gone to town to get cash as we weren’t leaving until the next day. She left still yelling making accusations. We obviously paid (double) and we’re spoken to like animals by this Marcy woman. As person of color, I felt mistreated, unwelcome, and degraded by the way she spoke to us in every encounter. We were very careful to remain calm and respectful because we had no phone service and felt helpless and sure she would kick us out if she so decided. I called rec.gove and they were appalled by her behavior as well as the rangers office. Her immediate boss tried to imply it was our fault she was so nasty because we moved the rocks. They need to train their “hosts” to show respect to all of their guests and that all human beings should be treated with respect and dignity!

Clean, Beautiful Place, Rude discriminatory Host Marcy! 

We loved our three days at the East Fork Campground. Its location provides easy access to Pagosa Springs (~10 minutes) and to Wolf Creek Pass. There are several waterfalls within a short drive to visit, including one just up hwy 160 toward Wolf Creek Pass. We stayed at site 15 and thought it was great- tucked away, spacious enough for our camper, a large tarp covering the picnic table, and a tent for our kids. I'd also recommend site 14 for many of the same reasons. The sites are well spaced out, so you have plenty of elbow room.

Nice, Spacious Campground

Great wooded campground at the foot of Wolf Creek Pass near Pagosa Springs. Stayed at site A10 which was spacious and shady.   Would love to stay here again.  Fantastic waterfall and creek access just a few miles down dirt road.

Notes:
Loop 20-26 all shady and nice
12 close to road (and on incline)
14 and 15 are close to the river but a very steep cliff to get there. 
19: probably an RV site; no place to put tent
Sites 1,2,3,4 all right on the road, small, no privacy

Beautiful Campground

I really enjoyed the campground with the river nearby and the close location to so many hiking opportunities and Pagosa Springs. 

I was able to get reservations and stayed my first two nights in spot 14.  It’s not terribly private but not close to the other sites.  Big area with lots of spots for level tents.  Sounds of the river nearby.  One negative is the sound of the road nearby.  It’s not a busy road but it has ruts that caused vehicles with trailers going by to make some loud rattling, even a little late into the night.  

My third night was at spot 24. Which was away from other spots a little more private and definitely quieter.  There was a trail down to the river there as well, which was nice to have at hand and brought others coming through during the day. 

The majority of spots didn’t seem to have a lot of privacy.  But there was plenty of shade and opportunity for a good camp setup. 

Good Wooded Spot

Camp location was as close to heaven on earth I could find! 10 min drive from town if needed— we were surrounded by forests and mountains. Couldn’t find any hikes walking distance from our camp— but drove to many. I highly recommend driving 15 minutes into the mountains and hike part of the Continental divide; it’s a twofer, breath taking views and experiencing a part of history! We got lucky with first come first serve at site #13! Right next to the river. Let the gushing waters put you right to sleep! The drive further in the Forrest to Del Norte was pretty gnarly terrain &amp;&amp; totally worth it. 

Incredible

We actually showed up with a downed tree blocking half the site from a recent storm, but the camp host quickly took care of it.  This site is thickly wooded with a beautiful river flowing close by. The campsites were clean and well maintained, and the campground did not feel crowded. My only regret is that we only stayed one night.

Beautiful site in the middle of the woods

Clean bathrooms, well for water wasn't working but area was awesome and little trails to explore were fun and a rock that was perfect to lounge on made the stay worth it. We were in our rooftop tent , worked out great. 

Lots of trails to explore 

One of the best national Forest campgrounds we've ever been to. The bathrooms were ridiculously clean pit toilets but so clean. No bugs in the bathrooms the host did a great job of keeping them clean and making sure the bugs stay out. The host was so nice he was retired army vet and he loved talking about the trails and where to go around the area. He was so helpful he was also kind about our needs and what we wanted to do considering we are from Wisconsin and we love beer. I rarely talk about a host at a campground, and I've been camping for 30 plus years. And this has been one of the best experiences ever. The sites give you 70 feet in-between so a good amount of privacy. Sites 2,3,6,12,13,16,17,19,20. Are all first come first serve. And site 19 was awesome. 

No showers but awesome host and clean bathrooms 

We stopped at this campground on our way from Denver to New Mexico and lucked out with the proximity to Pagosa Springs which we had plans to check out for the day. We stayed one night and snagged an unreserved spot #25 near the river. You have to climb down to get to the river but it’s do-able. My husband wasn’t able to fish because the water speed was very fast and strong. Camp host Dennis was friendly. Bathrooms were clean. Overall it was a pleasant stay in our rooftop tent with lots of shade trees and also a view of the stars at night. 

Pleasant camping experience

Spent one night on our way to Cinnamon Pass. Second time staying here. The campground is extremely well maintained, has accessibility to vault toilets, very spacious campsites. Quick drive to Cottonwood Cove for a hot shower (for a small fee). 

Comfortable camping in Pagosa

We had site 22 which is away from the stream. Quite steep front to back. Level side to side. We were at our limit of ability to level the TT. Almost every site is big and well spaced. The whole area is treed with TALL lodgepoll pines with a few TALL ponderosa pines as well. Absolutely stunning. If you need solar, this is not the place. Otherwise it’s lovely. 

Photos of East Fork Campground

Real photos from real campers