Best Tent Camping near Aurora, CO

Sites:  46   20 sites FCFS

Reservation:  877-444-6777 or recreation.gov

Sites that fit tent, trailers, RV's

Open Mid May - Mid Oct

Firewood from camp host, picnic table, fire ring/grill, bear box at tent sites, pit toilet, water, trash, no electric, hookups, dump station or showers

Sites are very small

Great sightseeing to check out.  Several historic mining towns and some great hiking trails.  Views of the surrounding mountains are totally amazing.

AT&T and Verizon service but it is spotty.

The Mountain Pine beetle is decimating the forest and it is so sad to see.  The forest service is working very hard to keep up with the removal of dead trees and it is creating expansive open area.  The plus side of the removal is for solar.  They are also removing the stumps thank goodness.  Be very careful while walking in the forest for falling limbs or trees.

Directions:  About four miles south of Nederland, Colorado, on Colorado Highway (CO) 119, watch for the entrance to Kelly Dahl Campground on the east side of the highway at mile marker 22.

LNT

Better than when you found it

Stay safe and happy travels

My husband went to this campsite with a group of Scouts and took me and our 1 year old a few weeks later. I had never been backpacking up until this point because I was always intimidated by the experience. This was an excellent "beginner" foray into backpacking!

This semi-primitive campsite requires a permit from the Open Space Office of Jefferson County, CO. The permit is free, however you must pick up the permit in person at their offices. Be prepared with a valid ID. This is a popular campsite for Scout Troops, so calling ahead for availability is a great idea.

There is an exact address available on the website and at the Open Space Office that you can put into your GPS and drive straight to the parking lot of the trailhead.

My husband and I came in through the West Trailhead. It is a 1 mile, easy hike. The first 1/3 of a mile is dirt, the remainder is gravel. It is fairly hilly, but easy enough that we actually opted to push our Jogging Stroller with our kid the entire way (which is very doable) whilst wearing our backpacking gear.

The campsites are well maintained and quite spread out from one another. So although there was a group of scouts, a group of friends, and a bigger youth group who all hiked in, it did not feel crowded or noisy.

We brought our dog, as pets are allowed on a leash. We set up our tent on the graveled pad at each site and boiled up some soup on the provided picnic tables. The website as of 2018 will tell you that fires are permitted in the designated fire rings, however a permanent fire ban has recently been put into place (which is too bad!) and all the fire rings and wood piles have been removed from the area - so really, NO FIRES ALLOWED. The pit toilets are very accessible and clean. It is technically Bear Country, so bear boxes and trash cans are provided for the overall campground.

My favorite thing about our particular campsite (site 15) was the view. At night you can see all the city lights of sprawling Denver, but then have a perfect view of the sunrise in the morning. Witnessing the sunrise from this spot will always be one of my favorite memories. Seriously so amazing!

We hiked out the next morning, simple as that, but realized we had misplaced our car keys...after 2.5 hours of searching and walking back and forth between the campsite and our car, we found our keys in the bottom of our tent. So really, if I could offer one piece of advice, always know where your keys are! Despite this incident, the location was great and the experience worthwhile! And I feel like it gave me a good taste of what to expect when backpacking in the future, which is exactly what I was looking for.

This campground is set a couple miles down road 550 after all the free recreation area campsites.

The sites are pretty close together but there are well maintained pit toilets as well as a dumpster on site for trash. The surrounding area is filled with hiking and biking trails, including the Colorado Trail. 

The campground is over 7k feet of elevation and a lot of trails intersect so make sure you keep track of where you are and what trail you are hiking on for the day. Not many are loops on their own. 

There are a couple pit toilets places throughout the campground. Clean fire rings and picnic tables at all the sites. 

Keep your eyes out for ticks and mosquitos. We found a couple of ticks on the dogs after they ran through the tall grass and the creek. 

Across the road is a creek that is great for water hangouts and light fishing. We were here in May and the weather was about 70 during the day and 35-40 at night with plenty of shade and wind protection. It has sites for RV’s, tent, or van stay.

Beautiful lakeside camping just outside of Denver. Campsites are a bit close together, but great for groups! No hookups here but you have bathroom facilities and a visitor center where you can buy firewood. Campfires allowed in the fire pits. If you have an RV beware quiet hours from 10pm to 8am, no generators allowed. Lake is perfect for paddleboarding, kayaking and fishing and you will most likely have phone service if you are with AT&T or Verizon. Many day use areas, however vehicles and individuals are charged. For campers, if you bring more than one vehicle you will be charged daily for any additional ones. No drinking water is available, you must bring your own. Dirt roads to the lake are rough and narrow. Close to Deckers for incidentals. Intersects with the Colorado trail for hiking and biking and close to the Colorado River for tubing!

CAMPGROUND REVIEW: COLORADO CAMPGROUND PIKE NATIONAL FOREST

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/colorado-campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70684

Colorado Campground is one of several campgrounds less than 10 miles north of the city of Woodland Park off Route 67 in the Pike National Forest.

Situated at 7800 feet elevation, even summer nights get cool. Nearby 5 acre Manitou Lake is a trail walk away. You can toss your canoe or kayak in, but unless you are simply trout fishing, it’s tiny size doesn’t offer much variation.

Numerous foot trails lead into the National Forest, offering wonderfully quiet hikes and exploration.

There are 81 sites available, but some are adjacent to highway 67, so periodic road noise will be heard. The ponderosa pines assist in muffling highway noise.

Neighboring sites are visible across the entire campground, but they are situated in such a way that you are not directly on top of each other.

The back loop sites are larger and set deeper (Site 19, 20,21, 22, 23) which are my choice. Sites can be secured on www.recreation.gov. There are double sites which garner double fees. At the time of this review, sites are $23.00 nightly (a bit pricey for no showers or modern facilities). When there during the week, not including the host and groundskeeper, only four sites were filled. Most sites were reserved for weekends and upcoming Labor Day holiday.

No RV/Campers over 36 ft permitted. Parking pads are gravel, a few are pull-through. Sites are non-electric with no hookups…no showers Water spigots, metal trash containers and pit latrines are spaced out through the campground. Each site has one stationary picnic table and a fire pit. Most sites appeared fairly level. No specific tent pad locations.

With the towering ponderosa pines, there is ample shade.

Plenty of trails permit mountain biking as well as the paved centennial bike path that runs along highway 67 from Woodland Park 15 miles north…that you can walk, in-line, cycle and even ebike.

You have plenty of local activities to keep you busy, including the Red Rocks a couple miles south…or drive east on Rt 24 to Pikes Peak, or further into Manitou Springs for the Incline, Red Rock Canyon Open Space, Garden of the gods and more!

Just six miles south into Woodland Park offers every food or shopping option.

All in all, a nice, clean campground in a great location.

Came here with my roommates in July after only dispersed camping earlier in the summer. Nice spot with a metal fire pit (good for stage 1 fire ban), picnic table, and tent pad. Tent pad was big enough to squeeze two 3-person tents and a 6-person tent (barely). Walking distance to vault toilets. Some nice foresty hikes between Aspen Meadows and Reverend's Ridge. We could see some other campsites but didn't feel too squished. There's an actual parking lot but we just parked next to our campsite, off the road enough to let other cars pass by easily.

We stayed at sites #27 and #28 over Memorial Day weekend, 2021 which are on the outer loop. Both sites had tons of space for tents, large picnic tables, large bear boxes, and grated fire rings.

There was one site kind of close to us, but they never showed up so we had a lot of privacy. Site 28 I believe is the one that is further back and more private.

Parking was kind of confusing for the tent sites. There were 7 designated spots in a small lot for 4-5 sites that could each have two cars. While there are other places cars can park on the side, the host told us you could get ticketed by park rangers. We didn’t have any issues, as the lot got full and one person had to park there, but we still were unclear of where our allowed two cars could go. There is a huge OHV lot not far you could probably park in overnight. I think the sign said no camping, but not sure about overnight parking. When we arrived at 11AM we saw that there were still 5-6 first come sites available for the weekend (although rain was forecasted and probably had an impact).

I was the only one with cell service (1 bar with T-Mobile). The host was really nice and came by to say hi. They sell firewood at the host site. Usually there is water, but they had a temporary outage when we went.

The road getting to the campgrounds is pretty bumpy, but lots of RVs and cars made it fine.

If we went again, we would probably get an RV site so we knew we’d have enough car space. Less than an hour from Denver and nicely maintained, would return again.

We didn’t have any issues with noise like some reviews state. We were up until about 2:30 AM each night and couldn’t hear any other sites still up (although they probably kept things quiet after hours like we did).