Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Aguilar, CO

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!

As I start this, the manager Crystal is a very polite and wanting to make your stay is comfortable. The high point of my stay.

If I was told sooner that my service dog was just considered a pet to the owners, I would have canceled my trip to here. It was three days when one of the owners made what I consider as a put down of me as well as my service dog. If I was told sooner than the three days, I would have canceled my trip all together and gladly lose only $20, instead if I canceled on that day I would have lost nearly $450.

Ask any veteran if their service dog is only a pet. For those who do not realize this, but a veteran and their service dog is just one entity. The service dog being considered a pet is like telling someone with an artificial limb if that part of the vet is a"pet". The service dog is a part of the veteran and has specific duties to that veteran and is trained to do those duties to assist the veteran.

My service dog has 8 specific jobs to help me live my life, he is never to be considered just a"pet" as I had been told. This is sent out to my brothers and sisters on just how unwanted we are going here, as well as The Lodge@ San Isabel Lake and Aspen Acres.

Realistically, all I wanted was some sort of acknowledgement that it was an honest mistake in saying that, but when there is silence that screams louder than what words could ever say.

Would give five stars, but right on the main road through the San Luis Valley so it's a little loud, and bright at night. That said, it's still peaceful, and the people are nice. Has shower and laundry for guests, and full hookups for RVs. It's $30 per night or $199 a week, we stayed two days, and would stay again. They allow pets, but have a strict "no pit bulls" dog policy. So unless your "pit bull" is a service dog, they can't stay. Unfortunately dog breeds and temperaments are still misunderstood, but that aside, good people, and nice little place to stay.

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!

My relatives live in nearby Trinidad, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs. This site is convenient to all three. We wanted to stay at the state park in Trinidad and in the summer, we definitely would do that. But it’s December and it’s cold and this park has full hookups unlike the state park (electric only). And we are staying for a week. We picked a spot near the building with bathrooms but on arrival we were told that building was closed so we ended up being at one of the furthest spots from the office (which also has bathrooms and showers). Their website says that they “are open and fully functional” and we would have chosen a spot closer to the office building if the closed bathrooms were indicated. I told the check in lady this at check in and she didn’t have anything to say, didn’t offer us a closer spot, and the website still doesn’t mention the closed facilities five days later.

The site 6E has a sewer hookup that is fairly far from the electric and we needed our 20 foot sewer hose to reach it. It’s on a slight uphill slant so some creative engineering was required to dump. The water was frozen at our site because the provided heat tape wasn’t functioning. I had to re-tape it with some heat tape I brought and it thawed out and has worked fine all the other nights. The neighboring site (empty) was not frozen. Bad luck. The only dumpster is near the office and it’s a long walk and was very full one day.

That aside, the park is good for our needs. The office bathrooms have a code and are clean with hot showers and very few people using them. That’s one of the best parts of this park. I’ve included a couple photos for your reference. WiFi works fine. Can’t get the cable to work but that’s probably me. There’s also a nice playground and some interesting looking cabins in various styles. Since it’s December, it has snowed and it is beautiful. The sites aren’t very busy in December so we’ve had quiet neighbors. Some people look to be full time but the sites are clean and uncluttered. The park feels safe and while it isn’t very close to any shopping except a couple of gas stations, and is surrounded by fields on this side and the highway in front, the isolation keeps it quiet and pleasant compared to some other parks we saw in neighboring cities. Very dog friendly and most dog owners keep their dogs on leash and the off leash ones were supervised well. Easy access to Trinidad (check out Purgatoire River Trading Co for some cool shopping, also the town has great artwork), Pueblo (about 30 minutes away), and Colorado Springs.

This State Park is beautiful, with hiking/fishing/historic walks galore. We arrived late on Friday, June 23 after a 10 hour drive from Arkansas. We were in Site #23 in the Soda Pocket Campground.  Every site had a covered picnic table and was relatively level.

Sites 20-23 have spectacular views of the canyon, but you trade that for some serious wind and neighbors as there is no natural shade.  Sites 1, 3, 14 and 16 have shade and a little more distance.  Bathrooms were in great shape, and there is a free shower near the park entrance which had good water pressure and was very clean.

The visitor center is small but with a lot of good exhibits, and adjacent to the hiking trails of the abandoned coal camp and mine.  The coal camp trails have lots of informative stands explaining what everything was, how the people lived, etc.  The two lakes (Lake Alice is more like a pond) have nice walking paths. There is another lake just across the Colorado border and you can drive to the parking area just a mile or so away.

There are numerous nature hikes, and I did the short (.5) miles Vista Grande Nature Trail which has a beautiful bench for a sunrise view.  Uphill some but not too strenuous and with lots of information.

A really beautiful hike is the Little Horse Mesa Trail which takes you to the top of the mesa you can see to the north of Soda Pocket Campground.  It meanders a bit but at some point the trail builder said "I've given you all the switchbacks I can, you'll just have to go straight up" and the last 50 yards are pretty much straight uphill.  When you get to the top though it's like another world.  It's a pasture like setting with trees, and beautiful views from a trail that follows the cliffs. You'll have to make your own way over to the Lake Maloya overlook but it's well worth it.  Highly recommend this.

The camp hosts and visitor center people were great, and the ranger came by one night and showed a group of kids a mountain lion pelt and a bear pelt. There was a report of bears on the road up to Soda Pocket Campground but we did not see any.  The road was a typical dirt road, and not in bad shape at all.

I'm not a fisherman, but could easily spend two full days here hiking alone, much less fishing or kayaking Lake Maloya.

Lovely weather while I was here very early December 2021. 60s for highs and close to freezing at night. the dry camping loop and loops A B and C are closed for the season. There are very few people here. Only a few other sites are occupied. One day I rode 10 miles on my E bike just on the paved roads around the lake. The next day I rode another eight just on the very smooth and flat concrete sidewalk that also goes all the way around the lake. There are a lot of places that are accessible to wheelchairs. Some sites are very nice, tucked away in the trees, some with a beautiful view of the Spanish peaks. A few sites even get a glimpse of the lake. Some sites are wide open with neighbors that would be right in your face. One night the sunset was totally stunning. I think all sites in loops ABC and D have electricity. There are water Spicket's for everyone's use around the loops. But they are not meant for anyone to hook up a long hose to their RV. When it gets really quiet you can hear Colorado 160 road traffic in the distance. It's quietest in loop D and quite noisy in the dry camping loop.