Best Equestrian Camping near Ault, CO

You must first stop at the base to check in this is where very friedly people checked us in explained the bear behavior and bear safty. The site have bear boxes. We then paid the 9 dollar a day use fee . When we reserved we had already paid 43 dollars a day for dry camp. This is my only reason for 4 stars instead of 5. There is a short drive over a tall hill to a valkey with 3 camp grounds. Hermits hollow, Bob cat and kruger equestrian . Hermits hollow is better for small rigs and tents. Some sites are not level but all are nice. Bob cat is better for your midsize rigs and seems a bit more managable. Kruger equestrian is for hourse trailers. There is a great hike up to the top of kruger rock thats not to hard. Your not far from Estes Park a tourist town that has shops food and fishing.

This is a KOA journey, meaning it’s great for a stopover, and it is located next to a horse farm. If you are used to smelling farm life, then the smell won’t be a problem. This KOA is also one with long term/monthly residents but I will say the office, laundry and bathrooms were absolutely spotless! We spent 2 nights in our RV and a full day driving Poudre Canyon and it was perfect just for that. The staff was very accommodating! Office is open 8a - 8p.

After driving for nearly 4hrs to find a spot in any of the first come first serve camp grounds up Poudre Canyon we started to head home only to pull into Pingree Park for one last cry for help... we stumbled upon Jack’s Gulch, a little hidden gem, tucked inside a cute mountain trek to the CSU campus at Pingree Park. It didn’t have any “water features” like a stream or a river but it was a quick car ride to find that. The spots were clean, noise was minimal, and there were bathrooms if you needed them. A lot of options as far as camping goes - electrical sites, walk up sites, equestrian sites, and mixed use (what I like to call a mixture of tent and RV). There were also trails all around the campsite that were accessible for bikes, or hiking. It was definitely a Father’s Day to remember. Oh yea, some coyotes at night definitely woke us up! I don’t believe they made it to the campsite but they were close 😳

Hermits Park is a great spot to know about. Anyone coming from afar is going to search for federal and state parks, but won't know to check for county parks. This used to be a private retreat for Hewlett Packard employees (HP=Hewlett Packard=Hermits Park). It's very spread out so once you enter and stop and check in, you'll continue on a slow curvy road on to either Hermits Hollow or Bobcat Gulch for your campsite. There is also a loop of cabins which can be rented fairly inexpensively. We stayed in H-11, and it's a very large site and nicely secluded from its neighboring sites. All the sites were pretty large, and there are nice rock outcroppings and large trees throughout the park. A few sites are right up on the road, but most offer nice large lot.

In spite of the many large trees, hammocks are not allowed. It is also not allowed to have any glass containers or any alcohol above 3.2%. This is a bear area, and all food or scented items need to be stored properly. Each campsite has a very large bear box large enough to accommodate anything you'd have, including coolers.

It would be nice if the county could put water in, there are two places to fill containers/rvs-one right by the entrance and another at the entrance to Bobcat Gulch. The toilets are very clean pit toilets, and of course there are no shower facilities. Even the cabins have outhouses. If this was a joint county/state park it would be amazing-lottery money could allow for modern facilities, but what is there is very clean and well maintained. It appears they are doing construction to build another camp area between the two existing areas (June 2018).

There is a large group pavilion which would make a beautiful spot for a wedding. Another area is an equestrian camping area, and there are many trails in the park.

We needed a stop on the way out of Colorado and grabbed a quick night here in a tent site. Water was off for weather but stoves made much needed coffee in the cold.

**Campground Review: **

We really enjoyed our stay at Estes Park at East Portal! I can’t say enough good things. We passed so many parking lot campgrounds and were so happy we chose here. We had trees! Our space was large enough to accommodate our 20 ft travel trailer with our truck next to it, still leaving plenty of room for the picnic table and a chair circle around the fire. We chose to park next to the camper so as to not obstruct the view. Water and electric and a large bear box were provided. Our spot A66 overlooked a little field that every morning a little fawn would come up out of and sniff around. My kids enjoyed playing with sticks and rocks in this little field-something every kid should get to do! We had beautiful views in 3 directions(bathroom behind us). Speaking of bathrooms, they were large and clean! Auto flushing toilets, toilet paper and hand soap! A cleaning crew came in often and quickly. Individual shower rooms make for a comfortable and private hot shower very welcomed at the end of a day of nearby hiking. Mule deer came through every evening right by our camper to eat grass. One morning 3 large Bull Elk and a young bull came through the valley and up through the campground. It was so surreal! The stars were stunning too. We saw shooting stars and even the northern lights (flashing kind not curtains). Then on our last day, a rainbow could be seen right next to the campground. We could not have asked for anything more! The camp hosts were all awesome and very helpful. The location was central to most things that we wanted to do. No cell service and it was glorious! But if we did need it, about a mile down the road we picked it back up. There is a geocache very near to the campground right by a hiking trail-my boys enjoyed marking it off their list . I could watch them walk to it from the site. On our first hike we saw horse back riders from the YMCA and stunning views including a small waterfall. Wildflowers were scattered across the mountainside and there is a small reservoir for fishing-though we didn’t. The air was so clean and you could smell the pines. The site next to us was a walk-in I believe as it cycled through a few times in a week. The playground was small but my kids were satisfied. There was a rock climbing wall and swings. My husband said the dump site was not positioned perfectly for our camper but we were so happy they had one. The office has a small little store with maps brochures and some essentials or souvenirs. If we go back to Estes Park, this is definitely where we will camp again.

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Product Review: 

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time and this time we chose to review  Fiber Light.

https://fiberlightfs.com/collections/fire-starters-tinder/products/original-fiber-light-fire-starter

My husband has been showing our 12 year old some camping how to’s and this was a fun thing for them to mess around with. They used a spark wheel to get it going (survival mode they said lol) and it lit quickly and burned for a long time! We timed a large pinch and it burned for over 5 minutes. Lights immediately with a flame lighter. Comes in a large fully packed round tin with a thick rubber band around it to seal out moisture. My son was the first to try and was not able to get lit with his Firebiner (first time using that too), but my husband got it lit right away lighting the kindling and a log. I was impressed with how much time we had to get the rest of the fire set up! This will definitely be useful in a survival or long hike situation. Thumbs up from us!

Easy drive from Loveland Colorado. The check In was very easy and the trails are right outside of the camp grounds. The park does have hook ups for water and power.

Late season camping in wonderful Wyoming is always a risk worth taking and the wife and I were treated to a great final outing for 2020 with our first visit to Curt Gowdy State Park.  We knew we were in for a good weekend during the second weekend of October when we met the staff at the visitor center.  She was helpful, knowledgeable, and even recommended her favorite spot on the water in the Tumbleweeds Campground, one of several great places to camp in the park. 

We were pleasantly surprised to find the favored spot open since it is walk up only in the park this late in the season.  The campground had a fair amount of people at the sites, which are remarkably well spaced and spotlessly clean.  We found the bathrooms that were open in the same condition, and trash receptacles were still available and being emptied. 

Our spot was perfect in every way, with easy access to the water, and a great view of the entire lake.  We set up camp in a brisk Wyoming "breeze" of about 20mph, but the weather was warm.  By nightfall the breeze was a 40mph "blow" but the sunset was a warm orange and gold tinged with smoke from wildfires in both Wyoming and Colorado. 

The next day we spent hiking the area trails and bike paths and recommend the jaunt along Crow Creek to Hidden Falls.  By Friday night into early Sunday morning the blow had turned into a full fledged gale of about 70mph and inside our camper was akin to being in the space shuttle on re-entry!  The wife was planning escape routes should we trade wheels down to wheels on the side.  But by Saturday afternoon the wind was gone and a perfect fall afternoon and evening was served up.  Sunday Morning greeted us with freezing drizzle and a skiff of snow making our Wyoming weather experience completely enjoyable.  This place is a great visit.

We stayed at Estes Park Campground at East Portal when we visited Rocky Mountain National Park this past July 2018. At first I was disappointed that we could not Moraine Valley or Aspen Grove campgrounds within RMNP, but I am SO GLAD we ended up staying at Estes Park Campground at East Portal! While it is a private campground and is more expensive than a State Park, National Park, Forest Service or BLM campground ($35 for a standard tent site without hookups…it increases with equipment hookups), I think it was well worth the extra money.

Estes Park Campground at East Portal is a short drive away from both RMNP and the city of Estes Park, so you are nearby everything. The camp hosts were extremely friendly, and shockingly, while there was a fire ban in place inside RMNP and outside the park near the Grand Lake area, campfires WERE allowed at Estes Park Campground at East Portal, so long as they were small and contained within the fire ring (which did have a grate for cooking!). The hosts at Estes Park Campground at East Portal had firewood for sale, and even dropped it off for us at our campsite! They also had ice for sale.

The sites are not extremely private, but are all surrounded by tall, thin trees. The trees are perfect for hammocks, so if you have a hammock, bring one! Also, the trees would be useful for handing extra tarps if a thunderstorm was to pass through the area; we had tarps and bungee cords and ropes at the ready in case a storm came. We were lucky, a HUGE storm had rolled through the night before we arrived, and another started just as we had finished packing up the car to leave Estes Park.

Each campsite has a newly build, raised tent pad to set your tent up on - the management is extremely strict that campers MUST place their tents only on the designated tent pad. I did not have a problem with that, as the tent pad is nice and flat, and has some compacted sandy soil which helps keep the dirt out of your tent. The sites are separated by thin logs placed on the ground.

WARNING: You ARE in bear country, so be bear safe and use the shared bear bins available in the campground! Our party had two adjacent campsites, so we were able to share the shared bear bin amongst just our own party. The neighbor on the other side of us had a bear bin, and it didn’t appear that he had to share his with if his neighbors. Try to lock all of your food and toiletries inside the food locker - they are large, and we have always been able to fit our big cooler into locker. If you do have to leave a cooler in the car, I was once told by a ranger in Yosemite NP that bears can recognize coolers when peering into car windows - he suggested putting put a towel and gear over your coolers when keeping them in the car overnight in bear territory.

The best part about this campground is that it had hot FREE and clean showers!!!! As a California girl who’s used to the extreme drought conditions, having a hot free shower available was absolute heaven while camping. There was also a big farm sink outside the bathrooms for dish washing and water bladder filling - it was extremely convenient.

There is only one trash receptacle area in the campground, up towards the entrance near the playground. Even though the campground is fairly small, we were lazy and kept our trash in the cars at night, and dropped it off in the morning when we were headed out to RMNP. There is also a water spigot near the garbage bins - it was a good reminder that we hadn’t filled up our water bladders for a day of hiking.

Estes Park Campground at East Portal is located at the very end of a road, so it is nice and quiet, without noise pollution from traffic. The campground is only about 20 minutes away from Moraine Park inside RMNP. It was easy to get to and from the NP, where we went each day to hike and search for moose.

We found moose at Sprague Lake, around dusk! A momma moose and her yearling twins came down from the wooded hills to graze on the water plants growing in the shallow lake. They were pretty unconcerned by the crowd of people watching them, but it’s important to still give them their space, as they are very large, wild animals (ESPECIALLY during mating season, and when a momma is with her young babies). The moose were truly an amazing site to see, nobody in my party from California had ever seen a moose before this trip to Colorado.

The camp hosts said moose and elk will occasionally make an appearance at the Estes Park Campground at East Portal. We did not see either while at camp, but we frequently deer and fawns running through the woods directly behind the campground.

WARNING: in the woods behind the campground there is a NO TRESPASSING zone where there are piles of chopped, dead trees - those tree piles contain the remains of the trees that were infected by the pine beetle epidemic that has killed so many trees in the area. The piles will be burned in the winter and should not be touched or disturbed.

CAMPSITE SPECS

Fees: $35/night

Plumbed Toilets: Yes

Drinking Water: Yes

Showers: Yes (no coins needed!!)

Picnic Table: Yes

Firepit: Yes

Cooking Grates: Yes

Shade: Yes

Cell Service: Yes

Animal Bins/Food Lockers: Yes (shared)

Trash: Yes

We stayed at this KOA on a road trip. We got in late and honestly had a not so great night. The campground is located directly next to a farm and the air had the stench of recently laid manure. The cabin was in pretty rough shape as well. Maybe we just stayed on a bad night, but we regretted not staying in a hotel.

Lots of long term semi-dilapidated rv’s here. It’s near a ranch, so there are some animal smells and quite a few flies. We also had a lot of earwig bugs at our site. New playground equipment was nice, and the store was well stocked. Try to get one of the spots closer to the playground side as they seem better maintained.

Clean, well-kept campground with full outdoor kitchen, pool and play areas. The staff were extremely kind. One of the best KOA’s we have stayed at. As a couple reviewers have mentioned, there may be a livestock smell depending on the wind direction, but we only noticed it once and it was bothersome.

We were extremely happy to find a site on Labor Day wkend with full hookups. The workers are very helpful. The laundry was excellent & provided an ironing bd & iron on request. Nice campstore for basics. But NO fault of KOA campground but there is a very large feedlot just down the road & if wind is in the wrong direction you will have odor & flies. We are retired dairyfarmers so we were accustomed to it.

RV site not level at all. Picnic table covered in bird poop, tree branches hanging low our TT barely fit under them. Cow smell was terrible and lots of flies. Would not stay there again.

We stayed on our way to the northwest. It was a welcome sight to have a level site with full hook-ups.

Enjoyed the camping, the Bison train, and the Senators Steakhouse with live music on Friday and Saturday nights!