Elbert Creek — Psicc

Sites look spaced out. Alot of them backed up to a nice sounding creek thou its not the most accessible topo wise.

Somewhat nice if you aren't bothered by traffic and idiots. The 14ers bring in tons of nighttime traffic 2-4am so try to get as far off road as possible. These sites fill up with moderately dumb rednecks with ATVs they mostly use to go to dinner in town. Many of these ATVs will sit in the road until you pull a crossover off road for them to go by. This means the daytime traffic on the one lane road is very annoying. If you try to pull over for someone, people from both directions pass you and punish you for being nice. Expect the travel time to double during peak camp arrival times.

We saw some weird groups building pirate themed rubbish piles/forts at different campsites. Not sure id bring my friends and family here for a relaxing weekend but if you need a Basecamp for a hike it'll work.

Road was very passable with 8 inch clearance and road tires but you'll need to drive with half a brain or you'll def bang your under carriage. We heard a couple Ford expeditions knock the heck out of their under carriage.

Beware, some real toolbags will park in the middle of the road so they can go hike. We had to scrape our car on branches to get around a couple.. i hope no one messed with their tires...

This is a bout 1 mile from the half moon campground and is equal in every way. There is a large open area big rigs can easily fit into which can also accommodate some groups. Go past the open area and there are several more sites each with a fire ring that offer more privacy. It’s 15 minutes to the Mt. Elbert trail head if that is what you are looking for. If not kick back and enjoy this beautiful National Forest. Your close enough to Leadville to make excursions into town. The area is well kept, one fire ring had a couple beer boxes in it but everything else was very nice. The only exception is a fire ring right in the middle, there was quite a bit of broken glass around it, so I would avoid this site. That truly was the exception though, if I’m in the area again I will be camping here.

Access is by gravel road which has a few potholes and rumbles but nothing that any car couldn’t handle. We pull a 30’ trailer with a pickup and it was easy. There are several sites along the road close to the creek on the way to the site as well, there were mostly tents in these but a few were large enough for small motorhomes or trailers.

If you go please leave it cleaner than you found it, I would hate to lose this gem.

Elbert Creek Campground is a perfect spot for those looking to climb Mt. Elbert. It is situated directly across from the trailhead. The trailhead for Mt. Massive is just up the road. There is also a beautiful lake, Emerald Lake, just a short half mile hike from the campground.

The spots are spaced out and each has plenty of room for multiple tents. Each spot has a table and fire pit. There are a handful of spots that can handle smaller RV’s. We tucked out 25ft Lance 2185 away just fine into spot #9 and still had room for multiple tents. There is a Vault toilet as well as a water pump. Sites are $20 a night or $10 with a National Park Access Pass.

The campground was sparsely populated mon-we’d but started filling up rapidly by Thursday and was packed all weekend. If the campground is full there is a plethora of dispersed spots along the road so I wouldn’t worry about finding a place.

Be prepared for cold and wet weather even in summer months. I’ve been snowed on here in June and our last day during our July trip it was cold and rainy

Had a successful summit push with a team from The Warriors Keep. Will definitely continue to use this campground when we’re in the area.

We spent a night here prior to hiking Mount Massive via the N. Halfmoon Creek Trailhead approach. The sites are in overall great condition and offer standard campground amenities. We arrived fairly late on a Friday night during the summer and there were still plenty of sites available. Staying here prior to hiking one of the two highest mountains in Colorado, Elbert and Massive, is a great option as you can get an early start to your hike without a long drive to the trailhead and it allows your body to acclimate to the high altitude a bit. We ended up staying the night after hiking as well and left our tent and some belongings set up, nobody seemed to mind at all and it was great to come back to our base after a strenuous hike. The only downside of this campground is the traffic. Due to the proximity to popular 14er trailheads and the road leading to them, there are cars driving up and down the road at all hours of the night and morning. This didn’t bother me whatsoever, however light sleepers may want to bring some ear plugs and/or a sleeping mask for the passing headlights and noise.