Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Colorado City, CO

Family has been coming for years. The family has property in Colorado city and we still love to come to local mountain! Great fishing, clean, quiet, & plenty of space

As I start this, the manager Crystal is a very polite and wanting to make your stay is comfortable. The high point of my stay.

If I was told sooner that my service dog was just considered a pet to the owners, I would have canceled my trip to here. It was three days when one of the owners made what I consider as a put down of me as well as my service dog. If I was told sooner than the three days, I would have canceled my trip all together and gladly lose only $20, instead if I canceled on that day I would have lost nearly $450.

Ask any veteran if their service dog is only a pet. For those who do not realize this, but a veteran and their service dog is just one entity. The service dog being considered a pet is like telling someone with an artificial limb if that part of the vet is a"pet". The service dog is a part of the veteran and has specific duties to that veteran and is trained to do those duties to assist the veteran.

My service dog has 8 specific jobs to help me live my life, he is never to be considered just a"pet" as I had been told. This is sent out to my brothers and sisters on just how unwanted we are going here, as well as The Lodge@ San Isabel Lake and Aspen Acres.

Realistically, all I wanted was some sort of acknowledgement that it was an honest mistake in saying that, but when there is silence that screams louder than what words could ever say.

It was a great campsite, have to use fire pits provided. Alcohol is allowed pets are allowed on leash. And most camp sites are within walking distance to the water. Kids loved it! It was cheap to reserve a site ($20+) and entry fee is like $8.

We loved this camp site! It was our first time to tent camp in Colorado and it was great. Several sites to choose from. Some have views of the dunes, some are more secluded. Bathrooms were clean. Very spacious tent site with a fire pit. Our tent sleeps 6 and we had no trouble fitting in the spot.

Absolutely beautiful Sand dunes in the mountains, it actually smells like an ocean beach and makes you feel like your on another world. The Dunes are 30 square miles and you can camp anywhere in them with a free permit available at the visitor center, just have to hike in past the first ridge aka the day use area. It's tent camping only, and no pets are allowed in the back country dunes. You also need to pack everything you need in with you and leave no trace. The winds blow often and hard, moving enough Sand to cover you tracks in minutes. The views of the sky and stars are absolutely mesmerizing, one of the most beautiful Sand fields in the world. The creek that runs through the day use area can fluctuate in size daily, it wasn't high when we were there, but it was still flowing half way through the day use area. A must see destination if your in the San Luis Valley.

Overall: We LOVED this place! Beautiful, CLEAN, quiet and free.

Directions: Follow the signs instead of google maps. There comes a point shortly after turning onto 3A that you'll see a sign that points straight ahead to the campground. Soon after that, google maps wants you to turn slightly left onto a dirt road. Keep going straight!! Either way will get you there, but if you follow the signs you'll get to stay on the paved road much longer. Near the top of the winding hill, you'll see another sign pointing left to a dirt road - this is the one you want (by this point, google maps will have caught on and will recalculate you). Follow the signs in - the road's not bad at all, we were in our Ford F-150 and kept it on 2WD the whole time - and when you get to a fork, bear RIGHT. You'll see the campground sign ahead and will have your choice of turning onto the north (left) or south (right) loops.

Site: We stayed on the south loop at site 4 and it was wonderful! The sites are a little close together, but everyone was quiet and kept to themselves - not a big deal at all. We arrived at 4:30pm on a Friday and there were two spots left. Not sure about the north loop - signs and other reviews indicate that the north loop is tent camping only, but there were a bunch of rigs over there. Secure trash cans throughout and pit toilets (no locks!), though no water. Each site on the south loop has a picnic table, tent pad, and fire ring. Our site was very clean! We were also surprised to get great cell phone AND internet service here.

Hiking: What we really loved about this place was its access to some great hiking trails! Once in the south loop, you'll see a wooden sign that says "trails" near campsite 7. We took the Canyon Rim trail to the Overlook trail and got some gorgeous views of the gorge (out and back hike, a little over 4 miles). Also recommend taking the Canon Vista trail and then turning right on Far out to make it a 2 mile loop (be sure to take the Le View spur for the best views of the gorge)! The Smores trail is a fun little 1 mile loop around the campsite, good for stretching your legs once you arrive. It was late April when we went and the trails weren't crowded at all. This is a popular mountain biking area too.

Pets: We brought our dog, and lots of other campers did too. Everyone was very respectful and kept their dogs leashed. This is not the place to let your dog run off leash, please don't be that person. Aside from the fact that these are the camp rules, there are a lot of cows that wander pretty close to the campsite - there was a cowpie right by our fire ring, although they didn't get THAT close while we were there. They were close enough for our dog to see though - be aware if your dog is the type that will run up to other animals! We had no issues and she had a blast hiking the trails with us.

Cañon City deserves a lot of praise for this fantastic spot that provides a great opportunity to enjoy all the views that the Royal Gorge has to offer.

The campground is accessible via dirt roads via CR-3A. 4WD isn’t necessary to get there, but be prepared for some bumps. The city was working on some improvements to the campground when we stayed here including a new parking lot, new picnic pads for some of the sites, and the creation of some new sites near the bathroom.

There are currently (6) sites on the south loop which can accommodate travel trailers. Some are slightly larger but a few are only big enough for a class C or van. There are no hookups at the sites and no common water available. Each site has a picnic pad with table and a level, mulched area that could be used as a tent pad. The campground and trails are pet friendly, but as with most places in the southern part of the state be on the lookout for cacti.

If you are looking for a great spot to do some dispersed camping, this campground is for you. Only 2 miles from Royal Gorge and 11 miles from Cañon City. Plenty of easy to moderate difficulty trails for hiking and biking. Be sure to take Canyon Vista to the Summit Trail; you won’t be disappointed!

This was first camping trip staying in a Colorado State park and it was great! We had an electric only back-in site next to the bathhouse which was clean and had 4 separate bathrooms with showers. Our site was located next to a water spigot but we filled our water tank in our RV before we got to our site. We had a fire ring and nice picnic table meant for 8 people! It was super close to the trails to walk my dog on and we walked down to kayak at the lake.

I liked it a lot! It was my dogs first ever camping experience and he loved it. There was an insane amount of dogs there at the time which kinda sucked but it was cool! The roads a little rough but nothing super crazy! The falls are gorgeous. I tried to take my dog here who’s kind of old and is just getting into camping since we moved here but he slipped into the creek and had enough of it lol. Some of the people are incredibly rude too seeing as how it’s a one way to the falls and they might as well push you out of the way to see it. Other than that it was great though!

Great camping spot just south of Colorado Springs. The views were amazing of all the tall, gorgeous aspen trees and we were right by the creek which at night was so very peaceful to fall asleep too. Me and my fiance stayed with 3 others and they're also dog friendly which was a plus for my best friend. We camped out in our tents at site #1 which honestly had the best views/privacy and if you don't mind a little hiking, walk past site #22 if you want to see the waterfall which ended up being a pretty good hike up there but nothing too challenging. My friend crossed the creek like a champ with her toddler, so it's definitely worth the hike! Bear 🐻 country here too (come prepared) we luckily didn't cross paths with any.

Would be perfect if sites were further apart. Neighbors complained during the day because our dogs barked a bit. They weren't loud and it wasn't for long. Either than that right next to dunes and very pretty

The Sand Dunes are pretty cool and my dog loved playing in the water. Some of the campsites seem close together, our campsite was an “end unit” and so it had more separation and privacy from the other campsites. Bear bins are provided in each campsite.

Paved & gravelled roads, hiking trails, free camping, sightseeing, off roading, atv, handicap accessible, dogs off leash, picnic tables, firepits, kid friendly. This is also near Royal Gorge Bridge where there is a large facility to zipline, tram ride or walk across the gorge.

Awesome camp ground. Dog friendly. Not many spots so get there early. Dirt road isn’t that bad. Couple of pot holes but Made it fine with my Subaru Outback. The hike from where we camped was maybe a quarter of a mile. LOTS OF BEARS so do pack and camp accordingly. No water, no bathroom.