Miramonte Reservoir

South of Norwood in Western Colorado, the Miramonte Reservoir is a remote lake found within the Dan Noble State Wildlife Area. It is maintained by Colorado Parks & Wildlife. With a valid state hunting, fishing, or public land license, the Miramonte Reservoir is free to visit and extremely popular for overnight or multi-day fishing and hunting trips. On-site, there are 405 surface acres of fishing water with restrooms, parking areas, and primitive campsites. This is a small free day use/campground. Locals use the sites for day use picnics & fishing. Near the end of the afternoon, the campground empties out. Single & double sites, some with wooden picnic table shelters. Paths from sites lead to popular fishing spots along the bank of the reservoir. In addition to tables, the sites include fire rings. Vault toilet is nearby - not the cleanest, but usable. Need to bring your own tp. The night was quiet except for a nearby pump that was pumping water out of the reservoir; a local person indicated that this was unusual. Got reasonable AT&T & T-Mobile service. At first, this place gave me a weird vibe, but it turned out to be a nice visit.

first come first serve with easy access to the water not too crouded, large camp spaces with daily clean up.

Campground Review: We camped at Miramonte Reservoir over Labor Day weekend. We had been told that it's very busy and highly overused so we went out Thursday to put up a tent for when we could return on Friday for our weekend stay. We got up there late, the wind was blowing, it was raining and the ground was insanely hard! We weren't sure our tent would still be there when we returned so we threw a couple big logs in the tent to ensure it stayed until we got back.

The site was huge, we could see our neighbors but the site was still huge, backed right up to a path that led down to the reservoir. There were two pavilions with two picnic tables at our site, they were connected so it would have been great to have multiple people camping. One fire ring for the site which worked out fine. There would have been parking space for at least two cars, maybe more.

There really aren't any trees, maybe some sage and a couple bushes so the pavilion provided some much needed shade. Day time temps were easily in the 90's despite it being the first of September. Evenings dropped to high 50's to low 60's. The campfire was nice in the evenings and first thing in the morning before the sun came up over the mountains.

The views were great with Lone Cone off to one side, the reservoir was really pretty and the water was nice, the kids swam in it all weekend. We brought our canoe so that we could try and catch lunch for the couple days we were there. Of the three species of trout (rainbow, brown and cutthroat) we caught two rainbow trout and they were lunch both Saturday and Sunday. They were amazing. We were given the heads up that fishing is much better in October, we may return then to see if we can catch a little better.

The campground was the second developed area coming in from Norwood. The first really didn't have much but a bathroom and maybe a couple fire rings. The second though had pavilions and picnic tables and fire rings. There were ample toilets available but it was a BYOTP kind of weekend. Plus by the end of the weekend the main toilet for the campground no longer had a latching or locking door. Also, when you opened the door, lots of buzzing of flies and when you opened the lid to the toilet, even more flew out. Kind of icky but when you gotta go, you gotta go!

There were plenty of boat launches as well. We saw some motor boat activity, mostly in the afternoon when the sun was hottest. Otherwise we saw a lot of paddle boats and other small man powered boats, like our canoe. We put in at a launch site but ended up tucking the canoe under an overpass overnight so that we didn't have to haul it up and down nightly. No one bothered it one bit.

The campground appeared to mostly be used by hunters and crawfish fisherman but there were a few of the rod and reel type as well. Because the campground is unregulated (no host) generators were going all night. The campground is also free.

Coyotes could be heard frequently in the distance along with cows. Hopefully unrelated.

Overall, it was nice and we will return.

Product Review: As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time - today I am testing Green Goo Tattoo Care. I got my tattoo on Friday and immediately went camping. My artist wouldn't have been happy with me but I knew that I could keep it clean with a little work! I made sure to have along a natural baby wipe, anti-bacterial soap and water (there isn't any at this campground). I applied the Tattoo Care religiously through out my stay at the campground. When ever it felt dry, first thing in the morning and before bed and anytime I washed it if it started to get dirty. Honestly, my arm was probably the cleanest part of me when I returned home. The pic has progression from day zero (day I got it) when it was still red, swollen and bumpy. As time went on the red went away and by day four (the day I went home) it barely looked new anymore. It's still a little bumpy but other then that, it's looking really good! My artist did suggest A & D but said he was curious to know how this stuff would work. So I had A & D on backup but never opened it. In the four days that I was using it I used about half a small .7 oz container. Probably would have used less at home but being out in extreme heat and dryness I applied it frequently. It did a great job of keeping it moist. I will definitely be ordering some more to keep this tat looking great!