Best Glamping near Aguilar, CO

I stayed in this campground in mid July for 3 nights.  The campground is pretty rustic but clean. It does have electrical hook ups which made it nice for our dog to enjoy a air conditioned trailer when it got hot during the day. The sites are a little close together and positioned so it you have a trailer where your awning comes out is in direct view of the other campers. Also we brought our kayaks to enjoy the Lake. The only kicker is you are not allowed to park where the ramp is to walk your kayaks down to the lake unless you rent them from them. So you have to use the many flights of stairs that wind back n forth all the way down to the lake. They are lined with rail road ties sometimes stacked 5 high.   So you have to lift your kayaks above the ties as you walk down. If you have a heavy kayak is almost dangerous of injury.  I feel like if they have a ramp you can walk them to if you pay for the campground you should be allowed to park your vehicle there to do so.

This was a delightful experience for us. There are sites for every type of camper: tent, trailer, RV, glamping and cabins. This is a somewhat small but well maintained private campground with lots of simple amenities. All is the wooded back-in sites have full hook-ups (30A) and there are pull-thru sites (Ithink they are still 30A). The center wooded area is perfect for tents. A small dog park gave our girls the chance to run free for a little. There is a shower house with bathrooms that are well maintained. Trash is kept tidy and didn’t smell even on the 97 degree day. Very easy to access but no road noise (at least not at our site).

We have a 26’ trailer and stayed in site 18. It was near the end of the row and relatively quiet. We only wish we had a longer power cable. (Our next purchase!) Our port is at the back and the outlet was way up front. To reach, we had to set up near the front of the site which limited our parking. Just pointing that out for others who might be ill prepared too.

We were too far away to take advantage of WiFi which is fine, we just wandered up near the office to check our texts once daily. It might be more accessible if you are located closer to the office. No cell service for Verizon. Personally, I was happy to be unplugged for a couple of days!

Although we had a fire ban in effect, we were able to rent a propane fire pit from the office. Be super cautious and check fire restrictions for Custer County. (http://oem.custercountygov.com/firecon.htm)

Aspen Acres has a lot more staff than I expected and they patrolled frequently. Very helpful and friendly.

5 minutes from Bishops Castle and 10 minutes from Lake Isabel ($7 day use fee). Easy drive up from I-25 but fairly steep in spots if that is problematic.

We will stay again!

It was hot and I was probably a little cranky when we arrived here but state parks, in general, are charging more and more and for $38 (including the required $10 Colorado State Parks day use fee), I believe we did not get much value for our money at this campground. Access to the campground is down a long, bumpy washboard dirt road. 

The South Shore Campground has ten non-electric sites within supposed walking distance of the lake, although we did not go to the lake. Sites 101-104 and 107-109 are wide gravel driveways and 105, 106, and 110 are pull-throughs. Although sites are decent in size, there is no physical separation between them.

There were only vault toilets (which were clean) and no showers (I had really been hoping for a shower!). 

Each site has a bbq grill, fire pit, and covered picnic table. However, it was so windy when we were there and because of the direction the wind was blowing, the cover was useless, we had to use our van as a wind block to cook dinner, and eat inside the van. 

One of the rules was only 3.4% alcohol allowed. Fishing appeared to be popular here and there is a path along the dam, but it is a far distance from the campground. 

State parks used to be our go-to option, but we are finding we are using them less and less often as the prices continue to increase.

One of the very few camp grounds that is within a National Forest.  I truly loved the experience I had up there and am looking forward to get back up there again.  Although with the COVID-19 virus going around the folks camping seem to be a little light and it does fill up fairly well on weekend campers it's a diamond in the rough for a place to be away from the ruckus of everyday life.   There are three tent campsites along with I have no idea RV/Motor Home sites, 8 cabins with 6 of them being only sleeper cabins.  The other two have running water and a toilet but no hot water.  One also needs to remember while camping there that San Isabel National Forest is under Extreme Fire Danger so camp fires and any type of open fires are not allowed.

The Raton KOA is conveniently located off I-25 in Raton, NM. The campground offers of a mixture of back-in and pull through sites that are a mix of mostly live gravel and dirt. Most sites have 20/30 amp service, water, and septic hookups, although less expensive sites with fewer amenities are also available.

The campground offers a fenced in dog park where the pups can run off leash. There is also a nice grassy walking path around the perimeter of the property with trash cans and dog waste stations positioned every 100 yards.

The campground owner, Grant, is great to work with. He helped us get setup with the park WiFi and was super responsive to any questions we had. Don’t forget to ask him for the WiFi access code when you check in!