Best Tent Camping near Clifton, CO

Plenty of areas for tent camping. But as for fifth wheels it’s not good.

Headed East and used this campground as a stop over. Tent sites at $22 were booked wound up with electric at $36. A bit pricey but hopefully the showers will make up for it.

Nice campground, except some noise from highway. The tent sites are not free unless it is off season you may be able to get away with it. I stealth camped here in a parking spot and paid for a day pass.

Absolutely gorgeous spot. Grabbed a FCFS spot with an amazing view, particularly of the sunrise. No fires, which was sad for my 7 year old, but the stars were out and the weather was perfect. Only drawback was the rocky ground which made tent camping uncomfortable no matter how much air I got in my sleeping pad.

We got site 51. Apparently sometimes I can't read and it was a walk in tent site, we have a lot of stuff, luckily they had wheelbarrows you could use. The site has a clear view over a pond and to the left you can see Colorado National Monument. The sites are so well maintained, the camp hosts were at the sites next to us within 10 minutes to rake the areas. No trash anywhere. Heated bathrooms. Trash cans available. Will gladly reserve here again!

Large designated area for dispersed camping.  Ground is lumpy, I wouldn't want to tent camp.  Several existing fire rings.  Solid Verizon service.  Lots of pit toilets in the area.  Nearby roads can become extremely difficult to travel after a light rain due to slick peanut butter mud.  I wouldn't come here just to camp, this is more a spot for people looking to do activities in the vicinity.

Pioneer Campground was a great place to camp. We used a walk-in tent site. The trail for the sites was clear, clean, and the sites were the same. Bathroom was clean and did not smell at all, water from the spigot was clean and cool. Most sites were nicely shaded to provide privacy, but the one we stayed in had a beautiful view of the lake. The tent platforms were raised which was helpful. Bug spray is necessary as mosquitos are pretty rampant in June-July.

Not wilderness camping by any means, but a fun stop for a road trip for sure! Big B’s has a full restaurant (the chili cheese fries were amazing), lots of cider varieties on tap and to go. Live music some nights.

You can tent camp amidst the apple trees (literally in the rows nestled under the trees), park your rig in a grassy field with picnic tables and fire pits, or even stay in a cabin. Shower house with flush toilets near the shop. The store sells firewood.

We had fun!

We liked the setting and the campground was nice and clean. However sites were very close together and the tent sites were on top of each other. We were asked to move our site for a new camper at like 9 am even though check out was around 12. Other than that we liked the campground there is a nice playground a wonderful fishing pond and a swimming hole. There are showers however they are $1 for 4 minutes so bring your change.

Driving for a few miles along a fairly compact but slightly washed out dirt road will drop you off right at a vista above the CO river. 2WD is probably fine but low clearance vehicles will likely struggle on the occasional deep rut. There are many, many sites, both along the river and further inland. Each site has a groomed, level tent site, picnic table, and fire pit. Dry toilets nearby are well maintained. Surprised we had the entire campground to ourselves.

This place had great reviews but I’m not quite sure why? Just an big open RV lot with hook ups and a picnic table. No trees or shade in the RV lot. Maybe the tent camping by the river is nicer? Yes there is a winery and an orchard boardering the property and test the rocky outcrops nearby are beautiful- but overall I felt that $72 for a night of hookups in a parking lot was a bit of a rip off.

I will say they had a very well organized self registration board for late night arrivals without reservations and there is Cornhole!

We visited this campground because it was close to home. We had a birthday party there and camped the night. The tent sites we were in were walk in and it seemed good. The site was nice and had a fire pit and what not. Plenty of space for our tent. But as the night went on, we realized that there was a sewer treatment plant near by, the highway was too close and the light from the town was abundant. I woke up several times thinking morning had come only to find it was light pollution. I remember thinking it was eternal dawn with all the light. The smell was too much and the noise just made it that much more unenjoyable. We won't be returning.

We stayed in this area for several nights on our way to/from Moab. It’s beautiful and open BUT there isn’t camping where this GPS pin is FYI. See the Jouflas campground for specifics of where we camped. As you enter the Rabbit Valley area there is a self registration station and board with rules etc. on the right. Road to the left leads to RV/Tent camping. Road straight ahead leads to Jouflas campground and then on to Knowles Overlook Campground. Roads were a bit rough but very drivable with most any car. Kokopelli road needs 4WD/High clearance and does not have camping. There are lots of signs indicating camping in designated sites only. Area is very clean and quiet. Lovely area to stay in.

My bf and I recently stayed at a tent site here, we arrived right at sunset and the view driving in was amazing. The bathrooms were close by and seemed well maintained. There are plenty of trails close by, so waking up early for a cool morning hike was simple and a great way to start the day. There were plenty of outlook points that allow you to overlook Grand Junction. After our hike in the morning we were able to take a short drive North East to Little Book Cliffs where we enjoyed a nice long hike to see some wild mustangs.

Overall, this site is well maintained, with plenty of activities in the area for everyone to have some fun.

Campground Review: I've stayed at Island Acres a few times, three times in the last months. All three times have been different. I wanted to do a secondary review for this particular trip. We arrived mid day on a Friday and there were plenty tent sites remaining. There are only six in the whole campground that are tent only sites. We originally were assigned to number 38, which is a more desirable site, we were excited. It is shaded and back in a corner along the river. But when we arrived to our site, there was a park ranger that asked us to change to site 36 because he had a sprinkler project he wanted to finish. While we had the right to say no, we disappointedly took site 36, which has little to no shade. It has two small trees that provide minimal shade during the heat of the day. This particular weekend hit high 90's. He also informed us at the move that they forgot to give us our card back when we registered.

So we went about our trip and set up camp late in the day and there were still no other tents there. This weekend, however, was a much busier weekend then most of the others we have stayed. Therefor, more people and more chaos. One site came in and set up around 1:30 am, with air mattresses and lights shining. The site on the other side of us left around 1:30 am. So again, a lot of light shining in our tents. Beyond that, there were also people that set up outside of standard sites, which I've never seen before. They were parked in the grass and in no parking zones, which a ranger came and corrected, early in the morning on Saturday. The swimming pond was refreshing for 5-10 minutes this time of year but then you wanted to come out for a half hour or so to warm up again. We purchased a shade tent, which came in handy at the beach and our site. That evening, the crowd returned and there was a lot of really bright lights again. People coming and going super late and camping in non-designated sites. People camping in their cars with huge tarps over them in the parking lot.

We also could hear a lot of highway traffic, which we hadn't noticed in previous visits. It is a very busy highway so traffic was heard all night long. The tent sites are on the farthest side of the campground from the highway so if the noise is loud for us, it is likely loud throughout the campground.

Product Review: As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time - today I am testing The Campfire Cutting Set from Primus. The campfire cutting set is so lightweight and compact. It's easily packed along for any trip. It's made out of a nice oak that is appealing to look at and extremely functional. The knife cuts like butter. The video is cutting a raw potato and it does it with ease. Cleanup was a breeze as well. So, out of the box, it contains a chef knife (extremely sharp!) and an oak cutting board, all wrapped up in a nice prep mat that is great for packing your campfire cutting set. We loved the convenience and practicality of this set!

We stayed at the Grand Junction KOA when driving cross country from CA to NY a few years back. We drove to Grand Junction CO after a long day of hiking and tubing in Zion National Park - we arrived very late, and without a reservation. Even though it was after hours, we were able to choose a tent site then pay for the night at an iron ranger at the front office.

Our site had a patch of green grass to set our tent up on, as well as a picnic table and fire pit (that we never utilized, we just set up our tent and fell into our sleeping bags). The sites had little log fences separating the spaces.

The GJ KOA had very nice, clean facilities - having a hot shower in a clean locker room was a great way to start the morning. Wifi was available, which is always a plus.

The campground (kampground, haha) is pretty far outside of Grand Junction, and is in an industrial area, so we were initially a little sketched out and hesitant about stopping, since we were two women in their early 20s traveling alone. But once we got inside the campground and saw the layout of the grounds, we felt very safe and secure.

We were glad we decided to stop at the Grand Junction KOA, as it was a nice, clean, and safe place to stop for the night. KOAs are not my go-to type of campground for camping, but they are an easy, safe, and cheap spot to stop for the night if you don’t want to spend money on a hotel.

CAMPSITE SPECS

Fees: $26/night

Plumbed Toilets: Yes

Drinking Water: Yes

Showers: Yes (no coins needed)

Picnic Table: Yes

Firepit: Yes

Cooking Grates: ?

Shade: Yes

Cell Service: Yes + Wifi

Animal Bins/Food Lockers: NO

Trash: Yes

So we chose this campground this time around because it has a lake that you can swim in. The temps were 100 degrees during the day and exhausting. With two small children and a week worth of camping planned, we decided the higher price of a state park was worth it for the convenience of the lake. Plus, we were working on a geocaching event and needed to add to our collection, and there are 13 in the park. Granted one you have to have a boat for so we weren't able to find that one but there are boats that you can rent so if you are really interested in grabbing that one, you can without too much trouble.

When we arrived there were 4 sites available. There would have been more (we came in on a Monday) but their irrigation had flooded many of their sites. The camp host said "15 is high and dry" so we took site 15. We camp in a tent so dry is a must. On the upside, 15 has a water spicket in the site. That was nice, cold water available when ever with out walking to another location. The lake was also really near by. Just a short walk across the parking lot, a nice grassy area that had a playground and then the beach is right there. The lake didn't have a ton of boat traffic early in the week. We stayed two nights so we left Wednesday morning. The first night there were looming storms all around but nothing ever hit the park. We did the majority of our geocaching that day. While out walking in the desert (there are parts of the park that seem pretty remote, even though you are still in the park) we came across what we believe to be mountain lion scat. We learned while camping in Wisconsin all about predator scat and that it typically will contain bones and hair, this particular specimen had lots of hair and clearly looked to be feline. It was mentioned that it could also be bobcat. Either way, a larger cat of prey was in the park at some point, granted a good half mile from the campground.

So obviously there is the lake to enjoy but there are also many mountain bike trails. We walked a lot of those while geocaching. Some took us way up to some amazing 360 views. I certainly could not imagine biking up but the trail did indeed go up. There are also a couple different lakes in the park. High Line Lake is the main one but there is also Mack Lake (I think was the name of it). That lake did have people fishing but it is not a swimming lake and I'm not sure boats were allowed. The campground had some perks that we appreciated. There were flush toilets and they were relatively clean. There were also showers, granted you had to pay $1 for four minutes and every quarter after was another minute. They also were pretty clean. I don't think they get used a lot. The park claims that the fee is to help conserve water. There was a change machine on the wall outside the building so that you could change out those dollar bills for usable quarters.

The last night there we saw more looming storms around and while we were eating dinner the wind kicked up real bad, we packed up just in case and then before we knew it it was pouring and thunder and lightening. So that was interesting but it cleared up and we enjoyed a slightly cooler evening.

We also did not plan for a campfire as there have been fire bans all over the state for most of the summer. So when we arrived to find out fires were allowed, we were disappointed that our meals were all freeze dried. But, Mountain House does a good job with their freeze dried meals and we enjoyed spaghetti and chicken and potatoes over the course of the two nights. The Chicken and Mashed Potatoes had some mixed reviews but we prepared it just as the package instructed and it turned out just fine. I was apprehensive but it looked like chicken and it tasted like chicken and the texture was right. There were a few spots that may not have fully rehydrated with the water level in the package but that was user error. It could have used a little seasoning, as we do like our flavors but as is, it was not bad. It was nice to have a full chicken breast instead of just little chunks of meat here and there. The Spaghetti was spot on, it rehydrated amazingly and the textures and flavors were really good. We really enjoyed this one. I will definitely be taking more of this when we know we either need to save space, don't have refrigeration or can't have a fire. It was well worth the purchase. Over the course of the week we ate this one several times. We also had the Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast. This one has been a little hit or miss and because we only had one pouch for three of us we also cooked up some mashed potatoes and paired together were actually quite amazing. It stretched out the biscuits and gravy and added very little cost as small packets of instant potatoes run about 98 cents at walmart. One thing we really appreciated about Mountain House is that their cook times usually run 8-10 minutes. We tried another brand and the cook time on it was 15 to 20 minutes for every 5000 feet of elevation. So the meal we cooked up later in the week was supposed to take 30-40 minutes due to being at nearly 10,000 feet. So Mountain House has the cook times down and they are much more convenient.

Overall, our campsite was spacious, our neighbors were friendly and the lake was refreshing. Definitely will return in the dog days of summer.

Add $9 daily for Colorado State parks. Full hookups (near I70/some road noise), and Electric only, and, Tent

Pit long-drop toilets (fly haven)

Lovely park on banks of Colorado river. Friendly hosts & park rangers. Close to town and various wineries. Nice mountain drives. Definitely repeatable

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