Best Campgrounds near Cortez, CO

McPhee Campground sits high on a mesa, offering campers stunning views of the surrounding landscapes and McPhee Reservoir, which lies 500 feet below. The reservoir itself is the largest in the San Juan National Forest and the second largest in Colorado, boasting 50 miles of shoreline surrounded by piñon, juniper, and sagebrush.

The campground has overflow parking areas if you bring a boat.

The campground was quiet and spotless when we camped there. 

For more details: https://youtu.be/a9_2npDOtPY

10/10 would recommend. Road is a little rocky once you get off the gravel road but totally worth it. Plenty of camp spots right on the edge with an incredible view. Up there with one of the coolest spots I’ve ever stayed at.

Morefield Campground, located just inside Mesa Verde National Park, offers a convenient and scenic basecamp for exploring the park’s incredible ancient cliff dwellings and stunning landscapes. The campground is spacious and well-organized, with over 250 sites that accommodate tents, RVs, and trailers. The setting is peaceful, with sweeping views of mesas and easy access to trails like the Point Lookout Trail.

Amenities are a highlight here, including flush toilets, showers, a well-stocked camp store, and even a fuel station. It’s an excellent choice for families or those who appreciate a few comforts while camping.

However, campers should be prepared for sudden and severe weather. The high desert location can bring intense storms with strong winds. During our stay, our tent nearly flew away despite being staked down securely, so it’s worth bringing extra gear like sandbags or heavy-duty stakes to keep your setup anchored.

Overall, Morefield Campground is an excellent choice for exploring Mesa Verde, combining convenient amenities with a beautiful natural setting. Just keep an eye on the weather and pack accordingly to ensure a comfortable stay.

While kind of on the pricier side for campgrounds I really enjoyed my 2 nights there in early Oct 24. Easy access to get on the road to the cliff dwellings early in the day, flush bathrooms, tons of sites, trails nearby, a little center with a store, cafe, gas, and most importantly showers. 

They let you pick your site which is nice so I got a site with a flat spot for my rooftop tent, but some sites are definately more geared to tent camping, but there are tons of site options.

Would stay again.

Great location, close to Durango and right across from the hot springs. Convenient gas station and grocery store less than 5 minutes away, but if you're buying a lot of groceries, I’d recommend going somewhere closer to Durango as the store across the highway is a bit pricey. Excellent access to streams for anglers

River views in the morning are so pretty. Roads a bit rocky comin in, we didnt have any problems in our subaru crosstreck but could be tough if the geound gets muddy.

Two nights here. Boondocks go, no water needed, but great location, restrooms nearby. Very peaceful.

Camped at site #11. Beautiful sunset view. We drove a 4WD truck with truck bed camper with no problem. Never took it out of 2WD.

Clean, hot showers and large laundry room.

One of the more beautiful RV sites, sitting along the silverton & Durango tourist train.

However given we don’t even plug in, $78 including tax is too expensive for us.

17 spots all pretty spaced out, filled up around 5pm on Sunday October 12 (but this could be due to the Indigenous Peoples day being tomorrow).

The surrounding landscape is beautiful.

We didn’t find the road too bad in our Ram Promaster, but we have a pretty high clearance.

Beautiful place! It's pretty easy to get into, there are more secluded places up the hill a ways but it gets kinda rough. You can hear the highway, but it's not much. Just ambient background noise. I got a spot with shade all day, so that was awesome. There was one night an inconsiderate person parked his company truck and camper as close to me as was possible with wide open space all over and ran his generator. Luckily he was gone the next day.

Newer RV park, so everything is in great shape, and the wifi is super fast, 76 mb download, and 65 upload. The only downside is that every site does not have a picnic table, but there are two gas grills at the office/club house for everyone's use. Extremely nice small town. We will definitely stay here if in the area.