Best Equestrian Camping near Alamosa, CO

This campground is in a secluded lovely valley on the south fork of the white river. Good fishing opportunities and trails for hiking and horseback riding. Spring cave is open seasonally April 15-aug15 with permit required to protect the bats from White nose syndrome. The cave is beautiful, and also wet and cold. Helmet and lights and good warm clothes are essential!

Campsites are close together, some smaller and some better or groups. Site#5 can fit 4-5 tents. Pit toilets which are kept very clean by camp host. Equestrian trailer parking available.

The campground won't accommodate fifth wheels only horse and rv up to 30 or so. Many of the sites in the 30,s up are useless other than a van. Tent sites are not good. Very uneven pads. The 40,s are much better and all mostly tents. The sites below 30 to 1 are pretty nice. Must say the hosts for the new concession explorUS were doing a bang up job.

Nestled next to the Rio Grande River hand its gorgeous. This is the Rio Grande in Colorado so there's plenty of running water for tubing, rafting and fishing.

The website listed for this campground is correct Ponderosa campground Antonito, CO.

Phone 719.376.5857

This is a very relaxing place to stay and it seems like most of the people there have been there many times before. The drive in is easy on Route 17 and does not require a vehicle with high ground clearance. They do allow campfires, they have clean bathrooms and a shower house. I stayed in a backpacking tent after driving all day arriving on a Friday at about 4:00 PM. The campground is set-up for small campers and has some cabins for rent too. The bathrooms with showers are clean and comfortable. The sites have fire rings with grates and picnic tables. The owner manager is great, providing quality fishing advice, conversation and even a free cup of coffee in the morning. Hiking on the CDT is near the campground and fishing is right in the campground. The steam train is right up the pass and I happened to be there the night before opening day catching a photo when I drove over the pass to Chama New Mexico. The Cumbres and Toltec Train traveling between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico. This is a very nice drive and Chama is a cool place to visit, it is a trail town on the CDT.

I will visit this campground again for sure.

I absolutely love this area of Colorado. It's breathtaking no matter which direction you look. Decent campground that was a bit too big for my taste. I agree with another reviewer: choose your site wisely! Dirty vault toilets. Water spigots that were almost all dripping (some almost running). I believe it should be posted at time of reservation if there are STEPS involved to set up camp. This site had maybe 10 steps, some in desperate need of repair. As a senior solo camper, this was challenging.  This site was not my choice but the only one available for my time-frame (right next door to the camp host and on the main/incoming road). When we were there, no availability of firewood from camp host, but a load did arrive while we were there. Really noisy campground (plenty of barking dogs), PLUS,a helicopter was doing a training mission two of the days we were there and flew directly over the campground, low-level, 3-5 times each day. 

No bear boxes. (there was a hiker/bear interaction on the Venable trail on June 17th.)

Positives were wildlife, scenery, wildflowers, awesome hiking both directions out of the campground, nice fellow campers (those we met).

In hindsight, I would have been really upset if I'd paid full price.

Views are amazing! Very quiet and the star gazing is some of the best. Stayed right on the water. Host was knowledgeable of area and things to do. Red Lake hike was awesome and easy.

They were super responsive to all our questions! It was a beautiful property along the river. Definitely recommend camping here!

I actually deleted my other review because I thought I had the wrong campsite but I checked and it’s all good. The only amenity we had was a vault toilet with a nearby water pump, a fire pit, picnic table and bear boxes. The vault toilets were probably the nicest I’ve been too. They were clean and didn’t smell at all.

The view was beautiful and it’s a short hike down to wade in the cool water. I really enjoyed the quiet here. There were only a few other campers and it mostly felt like we had the place to ourselves.

Nice, clean privately owned campground with lots of amenities. Hot showers, bath house, ice and few supplies sold in the office. Campsites right along the river. Very friendly staff. Campsites are a little too close for our liking but worked out well for our stay. Close to lots of fishing and hiking in the area. Beautiful place to watch the sunset and the stars at night. Nice and quiet at night.

This campsite is only accessible via boat. There are two fire pits. The land is flat compared to other sites at the Reservoir. Most of the ground is covered with sand. The mosquitoes were not too terrible even though we were right by the water. There are no bathroom facilities just nature. It is a nice quiet cove with amazing views. The stars and the moon light up the sky. I highly recommend staying there if you have boat access. It is secluded and private.

Overnight with One of my dogs had a great time very nice no bugs dark night

Spots right on the river are pure bliss.  Full hookups and the sound of the Rio Grande to lull you to sleep.  How great is that? 

Full hookups were great.  Owners were fantastic and friendly. 

The town of South Fork is very small but you can get groceries and gas.  South Fork is on the East side of Wolf Creek Pass, which is a beautiful, steep, drive.  The best part about the area is the ample amount of fishing.  This area is an anglers dream, reservoirs in every corner of the map with the Rio Grande at your fingertips.  Fishing dreams made!

Campground spots were well positioned but a tiny bit close.  I would highly recommend any of the ones on the river, you have plenty of space to spread out between the picnic table, fire ring and grassy area by the river's edge.

Liked the camp spots (ours was 14). Mark (the camp host) kept everything clean. Beautiful star viewing. 4 mile dirt road was a bit rough bringing my camper. Verizon coverage had 1 bar at the south end.

This was a beautiful peaceful camp ground. Very quiet. It has a pit toilet which was decent - better than having to use or portable. No cell phone service.

Easily navigable fire road leads to great creekside campground. Nice facilities. Incredible mountain and creek views. Only complaint is we couldn’t stay longer.

Camp site is basic. Simple sites, some with a better set up for tents than others. It was late in the season but the outhouse was still open. There is water from the stream, I didn't see a fresh water spigot.

No access to electric or water. Road to camp is rough. Beautiful scenery. Short drive to Chucara and Stonewall.

The area surrounding Purgatory is GORGEOUS. It’s straight out of a movie or picture book. The roads to get to the campsite were pretty rough and many of the lower campsites had standing water on or near them. Our site was steep to get to, but level and felt separated from the other sites.

The nearby towns are VERY small and don’t have much to offer for activities, restaurants or supplies if you forget something. Several beautiful small lakes nearby though!

Didn’t stay here but visited it while in the area to review and also scout for next trip to the area. Not sure how the listing can state fresh water when there isn’t any. This is a very basic and primitive campground so don’t expect too much.