Best Glamping near Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests Pawnee NG, CO

This is one of my all-time favorite places to hike and camp in Colorado. I have not yet stayed in any of the campgrounds but have backpacked to the top of the American Lakes Trail. Not only is this hike fantasticly beautiful and full of wildlife (tons of moose especially) but there is great dispersed camping along the trails. You simply cannot find more scenic and free camping in Colorado. I would highly recommended camping anywhere in State Forest State Park!

Also, there are quite a few huts, cabins and yurts that can be rented year round in SFSP!

This is not 'glamping'. This is a pitch your tent, start a fire, watch the deer walk thru type campground. Beautiful views of the Rockies, trails for all levels of hiking. My only tip--bring your own TP, they kept running out. And a jacket, nights are chilly at this altitude. No trailers, RVS allowed as tiny, winding dirt road to get there.

I can't give any KOA a 5 star. It's the extreme of glamping. The only reason we stayed here cause my husband was running a marathon and hotels were booked and other camp grounds were booked. This was our last option. The people were amazing, the bathrooms super clean, lots to do for families with kids. But like I said it's just about too close to other campers. But you can see the mountains, enjoy the fresh air and go else where to have your mountain outdoor fun! :)

I’m a mountain girl! Like grab your back pack and hike in! Then we had kids and splurged on a camper... and now this place has me over here laying pool side... drink in hand, head over heels about glamping. Seriously I loved this so much. They have an amazing pool! Bowling alley, arcade, restaurant, bars (yes more than one!) they had live music, they have fishing, and dog parks, bike rentals, daily trash pick up from your campsite, firewood delivery, play grounds, golf carts... it is a little close together with out any trees of coverage BUT the pros far (FAR FAR FAR) out weigh that one con.

Fee box at entrance with all current information.

"Reservation Only" 800-244-5613 or cpwshop.com or come to the Moose Visitor Center Campground is very open. Gravel sites with picnic table 

Electric $36.00 plus reservation fees Basic and tent $28.00 plus reservation fees Dispersed $18.00 plus reservation fees Small cabins $90.00 Large cabin $120.00 Yurts & Huts $80.00-$275.00 Backcountry no charge 

The park encompasses almost 71,000 acres. You will find a visitor center 187 campsites for RV and tent and over 60 dispersed sites, 15 cabins and yurts, boat ramps and 94 miles of hiking trails. There are all types or recreation throughout the year.  The park forest is being decimated by the Mountain pine beetle so the dead trees are being removed. This leaves a very stark deserted look. It is very difficult to observe the devastation that the state of Colorado is dealing with.

LNT 

Better than when you found it 

Stay safe and happy travels

YMCA of the Rockies, Snow Mountain Ranch near Granby, Colorado was a great place for us to spend a couple of weeks while visiting friends. The Y has cabins, yurts, and primitive and developed campsites. Some of the developed campsites have electricity, some electricity and water, and a few full hookups. The campground is dirt with little privacy between most of the sites, but great views of the surrounding mountains. The bathhouse is old, but very well taken care of by the volunteer caretakers. There is a nice commom area with picnic tables, umbrellas for shade, and very busy bird feeders and hummingbird feeders. The staff is welcoming and friendly and the campground volunteers are some of the best we've come across. The Y offers a variety of activities included in the camp fee and publishes a weekly schedule of activities. We enjoyed the Y's hiking trails, excellent disc golf course, and introduction to pickleball. They have lots of activities for kids. While the campground lacks spacing and privacy, the beautiful setting, great staff, and variety of activities made for a memorable stay.

I stayed a week here for a backpacking trip in July last year. It was absolutely beautiful! I especially enjoyed the American Lakes trail up to Michigan and Snowy Lakes. That amazing landscape will forever be a special place to me. They were doing a lot of work while I was there, preparing for a potential fire and recreating a trailhead. I saw more heavy equipment along the Kelly Lake trail than I would have liked but such is life. The staff at the info desk are really helpful and local. They helped me plan my trip and answered a lot of questions for me. You are allowed to camp off trail (.25 mi) so you can pick your campsite really well. I unfortunately found a few old fire pits along the way but I didn't have to pick up garbage after anyone. I'm considering going back with my family to stay in one of the yurts or cabins scattered throughout the park. Highly recommended!

Campground Review

This campground is located in the Poudre Canyon area of Colorado. This is a private, 420-friendly campground. While many will be drawn to that allure, there is a lot of other features this campground offers that makes it a lovely place to stay. There’s communal fire pits, a jungle gym for kids, and hiking trails into and up the Poudre Canyon. It’s also a good place to bunk if you like to fish, with access into the rivers just across the road and so many other spots just a short drive away. Across the road is a general store for any last-minute camping supplies, munchies, booze, and ice. There’s also the Poudre Canyon Grille – a tiny, well-kept trailer serving up burgers, fries, and other fast food sandwiches. Near the office, there’s a large covered patio that has a cell and WiFi booster and in the summertime is a lounge area with a TV. There are two areas that have a bathroom with shower – both single use. When there are nearby music festivals, Canyonside has been known to shuttle festival goers to and from areas of greater access to help you enjoy the show. Speaking of shows, there are sometimes laser light shows where the hosts reflect their displays off the rocky canyon walls, and up the canyon there is also a small ampitheatre.

To learn more about what may be going on near the time of your stay, just call the campground. Which is also what I suggest you do before you book, especially if you’re interested in renting one of their really cool themed cabins (there’s a few, are different sizes, and each have a unique décor theme and were all incredibly clean). There are a few factors like the day of the week, amount of people, and amount of dogs you have that will affect your nightly rate. Ask about the dog policy when you call too, as not all sites allow for pets – like the tent sites – and there is a pet waiver that should be read.

One thing I noticed that was neat for tent dwellers was that one area of the tent sites (there are two sent site locations on either side of the park) had a hammock or swing chair and access to water to do dishes (there is also communal dishware) in addition to your typical flat plot, fire pit, and picnic table. There is also poured concrete sites for RVs with electric and water hookups, but I don’t remember seeing a dump station.

Not sure you want to go all the way in on a cabin but don’t want a tent site and you don’t own an RV? That’s OK as there’s also a pop up trailer on site that can be rented as a “glamping” option. It was a pretty neat little place, but due to the size and chance of trapping pet dander, dogs aren’t allowed in there either.

The hosts are very accommodating and want to help you enjoy your stay. They are approachable and can point you to resources to help you make your stay a 420-featured one, if that’s your thing. I understand they’re looking to add more tent sites and shaded areas and continue to tweak their internet to help it cover more of the grounds. I look forward to returning to see how the place evolves. I do like that there’s so many ways the hosts are there to accommodate you, and one thing that I would love to hear about is that they’ve added drinkable water access. Water is there for you but bring your own drinking water on site.

I want to give this place a 5 out of 5 because of how nice the hosts are, how well kept the grounds are, how many camping options there are, and how many activity options you have, but it gets a 4 out of 5 from me because of the water access, pet restrictions, and add-on fees (pet, extra guest), plus possible fines for any ‘dog infractions’. If you plan your trip ahead, you will have a great time here and really enjoy the atmosphere. 

Product Review

As part of the Dyrt Ranger program I am given camping gear to test from time to time, and today I was reviewing a new kind of spork, the Morsel Spork XL. This company makes 3 kinds: The regular sized spork, then the XL, and a spoon XL. I have the morsel XL spork. No better place to review a munchie-curing tool like a 420-friendly campground! I’ve used a lot of sporks over time, and there were three things about this one that I really liked. 

• it is long. At first I was like, “Why do I want a spork this big?” until I started using it with my rehydrated meals. I eat those right out of the bag and when you get near the bottom, with other sporks being shorter your hand starts picking up the juices/sauces from the dish when you start to really dig deep into the bag. This spork kept the pasta sauce on the food and away from my hands. 
• It had a flat edge end on the spoon side. I’ve seen this feature before and it’s an important one because it helps you dig down into the bottom of those bag meals better than a rounded spoon. May not seem like a big deal, but when you’re backpacking and those foods are your fuel, every morsel (see what I did there?) of food counts and a utensil that’s doing a better job than another is the one I’ll want to pack. 
• The rubberized outer coating. This creates a spatula-like effect and – again – helps with getting the most food on your spork, but also now has an argument as to why it could be used when cooking. I wouldn’t want a plastic spork stirring my eggs in case that thing melts into my food, but I’ve been using this morsel one on the stove top to mix simple meals and it does the job better than my JetBoil folding spatula because its rubberized and not as flimsy. 

These sporks are nowhere near the lightest sporks on the market, but their added weight gives them more durability. They aren’t indestructible, but they won’t snap when they get shoved in your pack either. It is technically also a knife because of the ribbed edges of the fork, but I didn’t have a lot of success cutting with this. I love how it’s dishwasher safe and BPA free! Their versatility for camping makes them a better all-around solution for satisfying your hunger than what you’re using now. 4.75/5 because of the whole knife thing not really working super great.

We camped in Willow Creek Campground for one night this passed July 2018 on a road trip from California to Granby, CO. We camped in State Forest State Park the previous night, which was about an hour or so North of the town of Granby. We spent that morning roaming around highway 14 near SFSP looking for moose - and found two! After seeing the moose we decided to head down to the Granby area to try to find a campsite for the night - we were meeting up with family the following afternoon to check into a rental house for a wedding. As we were driving down highway 125 towards Granby, we spotted our third moose of the day! He was skittish and ran away upon seeing us approach him.

Willow Creek Campground was the first stop on our list of potential camp spots - it is a first come first served campground, and we lucked out, there were a few open sites. This is one of those areas that you need pay for both a park pass AND a campsite, but our Interagency Pass qualified for the park pass. The campsites are reasonable at $22 per night.

The campground is near a reservoir, alongside a small river. The sites are fairly primitive, with no hookups available - each site has a picnic table, fire pit, and some had a tent-pad area (ours did). Some of the sites were next to the reservoir or the river; most sites were grassy, good sized, and spread out, but there was very little in the way of trees for shade or privacy. This is an area of Colorado that has been hit by the pine beetle epidemic, so a lot of the pine trees had been cleared from the park, especially in the Willow Creek Campground itself. A lot of the trees across the river were dead and brown - it’s sad that that is such a common site in Colorado these days. There were, however, some very healthy aspens in the area around the park and the reservoir. Because there is so little shade and trees available, I would suggest bringing an easy up, if you have one. This area can get hot in the summer, and thunderstorms happen frequently enough. Willow Creek Campground had drinking water available, and had well maintained vault toilets.

At the time of our road trip, the state of Colorado was in various stages of fire restrictions/bans - in the week that we were traveling around Colorado we stayed in parks with fire bans in full effect, and some with only fire restrictions, all within an hour of each other. Willow Creek had a stage 1 fire restriction, so we were able to burn charcoal and firewood in the designated firepit in the site.

WARNING: You ARE in bear country and there were no bear bins in the campground - be bear safe and bear smart, lock all of your food and toiletries inside your car at night. I was once told by a ranger in Yosemite NP that bears can recognize coolers when peering into car windows, so we always put a towel and gear over our coolers when keeping them in the car overnight.

The campground was nice and quiet, without much noise pollution from the nearby road. The campers were all considerate with their noise levels, so it was a very peaceful stay. The park is very pretty, with lots of small trails. We found little clusters of aspen trees, and saw deer and foxes on an evening walk. I got up early the next morning to see if I could photograph any wildlife, and found the foxes again!

When talking to our neighbors, they suggested that we visit Grand Lake over Granby Lake - they felt Grand Lake was prettier, and they talked up the little village area near the lake. After we broke down camp, we drove to Grand Lake and hiked some the North Inlet Trail - we probably went a mile passed Cascade Falls, then turned around to go back. The hike is fairly easy, moderate, in parts.

The little village of Grand Lake is charming and quaint, and is reminiscent of a boardwalk. There are a lot of gift shops and restaurants along a main road, and we spent a little time roaming in an out of stores. For the rubber ducky lovers out there, Grand Lake has an ENTIRE STORE dedicated to rubber duckies called the Quacker Gift Shop! I collect rubber duckies, so I was pretty excited - they even had a Grand Lake moose “rubber duck” - I had to get him, since we had seen three moose the previous day. He is one of my favorite trip souvenirs ever!

We decided on ice cream for lunch - SUCH A GOOD CHOICE. The ice cream from Grand Lake Chocolates was some of the best ice cream of my life!

After our morning hike and visit to the Grand Lake boardwalk, we headed over to Granby Ranch, a ski resort near the rental house we would be staying in. The ski lifts were operating for visitors and downhill cyclists, so we took the ski lift up to the top of the little mountain - it was a fun ride with gorgeous views! We roamed around on some of the paths for a while, until it started thundering overhead. We raced back to the ski lifts, but they had already been shut down. The resort personnel took us to a yurt that’s used as a warming hut in the winter, and had us stay in there until some stuttle vans could come and take us down the mountain. By the time we got down to the lodge it was about time to check into our house, so we left.

CAMPSITE SPECS

Fees: $22/night + recreation pass fee

Plumbed Toilets: NO - vault

Drinking Water: Yes

Showers: NO

Picnic Table: Yes

Firepit: Yes

Cooking Grate: Yes

Shade: NO - limited

Cell Service: Limited

Animal Bins/Food Lockers: NO

Trash: Yes

This is true wilderness camping at its best overlooking beautiful Colorado waters with the Mountains peaking down upon you is where you will find yourself camping with great amenities and water available with just short walk away from your camp. You have to purchase parking pass in the park but it is totally worth it!

We found State Forest State Park on a whim this past July 2018. We were on a road trip from California to Colorado for a wedding in Granby, CO. We were camping in Utah at Dinosaur National Monument, but due to the smoke from a nearby wildfire and the high heat of the summer, we decided to cut our stay one day short, and head over to the Rockies a day early. We wanted to be fairly close to our final destinations, Granby then RMNP, but wanted to go somewhere we hadn’t been before. My boyfriend and I are both animal lovers, and our dream was to finally see a moose on this trip out to Colorado. In researching moosey areas on the internet, we found the Moose Visitor Center at State Forest State Park. We figured that a place with a Moose Visitors Center was as moosey as it comes, so we reserved a site online and headed out to Colorado.

It was late afternoon when we arrived, but since we had already eaten, we didn’t have much to do besides set up our tent and sleeping pads for the night. Getting to the campground and visitors center is easy as they are both right off the highways 41 and 14, but it is quite a drive to get to, in general. The scenery is so pretty, that we did not mind the drive to or from SFSP. North Michigan Campground is right by a lake, it is pretty.

The sites are primitive - each site had picnic benches and a firepit, but at the time we visited there was a Stage 2 fire ban in place, so we couldn’t have a campfire. The fire ban included the burning of wood and charcoal - using a propane stove was OK.

There were pit toilets, and they were well maintained. The sites appeared to have once had more in the way of trees and shade, but it looks as though SFSP was hit by the pine beetles, like so much of Colorado. It’s sad to see the destruction the beetles left in their wake, and fewer trees mean less privacy and less shade for tent campers. We would have had a hard time setting up extra tarps in case it had rained that evening. Bringing an easy-up or canopy would be smart in the summer to protect against sun and heat, or a passing thunderstorm.

WARNING: You ARE in bear country and there were no bear bins in the campground - be bear safe and bear smart, lock all of your food and toiletries inside your car at night. I was once told by a ranger in Yosemite NP that bears can recognize coolers when peering into car windows, so we always put a towel and gear over our coolers when keeping them in the car overnight.

We packed up early and arrived at the Moose Visitors Center when they opened. The visitors center was educational and interesting, and the staff was friendly and knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. After studying some maps of the area with the rangers, we decided to try our luck driving along Highway 14 towards Fort Collins.

We stopped at various spots along the highway, and ended up walking around the Joe Wright Reservoir for a while. Thunderheads were rolling in, and some rain and thunder started, so we decided to start making our way back towards SFSP then head down to Granby, our next stop. We were around Cameron Pass and had given up on seeing any moose when we saw traffic slowing and cars stopped alongside the road - there were two young bull moose snacking by a small river on the side of the road! We pulled over, turned our hazard lights on, grabbed the camera, and jumped out to see our first moose. The moose seemed unconcerned by their growing audience, and continued to chomp away on their lunch - there was a small ravine between the moose and their human audience, so neither moose nor humans felt threatened.

According to the staff at the Moose Visitor Center, there are only about 1,000 moose in the entire state of Colorado - and here we stumbled across two moose at once! We were ecstatic, and so happy we made the impromptu, unplanned trip out to State Forest State Park! We returned to the Moose Visitors Center to share the experience with the rangers (they record the specifics of moose sightings in the area on a board), and the ranger gave us a high five for spotting our first ever moose.

I would like to return to the area someday to hike, I imagine the nearby trails must be goregous!

CAMPSITE SPECS

Fees: $18/night

Plumbed Toilets: NO - pit

Drinking Water: Yes

Showers: NO

Picnic Table: Yes

Firepit: Yes

Cooking Grates: Yes

Shade: Limited!

Cell Service: NO

Animal Bins/Food Lockers: NO

This is a really well run campground. They have tons and tons of activities on site and you could honestly spend your entire trip just at the campsite. They have horseback rides, ATV rentals, an animal farm, social events, pickle ball court, volleyball court, a nice general store, clean showers, bathrooms, laundry rooms, really everything you could ever want. The only downside is that it’s quite pricey, basically double what I would normally expect. But given the amount of amenities they have, it’s not surprising.

A cool fact is that you’ll be right next to the Colorado River. This is not far from where the river begins so its journey starts around here as a fairly unassuming creek.

A lovely wooded campground literally on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park - we even saw moose from the back window of our RV!  Options for everyone from cabins, to FHU RV sites (limited and not the ideal locations, but still nice), water/electric sites and tenting areas.  Even Conestoga wagons!  There is horseback riding on site and we loved watching the horses run in and out each morning/evening and you just have to cross the road for a pretty hike along the Colorado River in RMNP (no dogs on the trails).  We camped with our Great Dane - very dog friendly with bag stations around the park.  Friendly and helpful staff, a small shop with supplies and souvenirs, a cute little petting zoo with goats, sheep, and pigs.

This is a beautiful campground with lots of family-friendly activities to do.  They have direct access to the headwaters of the Colorado River.  We visited a little late in the season (August) to catch many fish, but we still had fun.  We found some tailwaters below the big lakes and caught some trout on the fly rods.  

This site is minutes away from an entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.  We got up early and hiked a trail in RMNP and had a few moose walk right past us.  It is also close by to the major lakes of the area.  

They rent ATVs and lots of people bring their own horses to this campground to enjoy the many back-country trails that begin at the back of the property and go high up into the mountains.  

Facilities were well kept and clean.

This campground is part of State Forest State Park but used to be a KOA.  As we understood (from talking with the park rangers), the State Park bought the rundown KOA and is doing repairs as they can.  The campground is on Park Property.  

The good:  The scenery is unbelievable, truly exactly how Colorado is portrayed in movies and dreams.  You will probably see wildlife-deer and moose are common.  The fishing in the park is awesome.  The sites are well spaced a very level.  You have privacy and lots of room to roam. 

The bad:  The bathrooms/showers were rundown from the leftovers of the KOA.  The State Park is a haul to get to.  There are no real towns of any significance nearby.  Be prepared to come into this park and stay here for the weekend!  

No hookups but the views are worth it!

Word to the wise-we were there in late June and we saw about 6 inches of snow overnight.  It was cold!