Looking for a rustic and comfortable horse camping experience near Empire? Equestrian camping is the best way to experience nature. These scenic and easy-to-reach Colorado campsites are perfect for your horse camping excursion.
Golden Gate Canyon State Park offers multiple campgrounds, cabins, yurts, RV sites, group sites, and a guest house. From Memorial Day to early October, there are 132 campsites in two campgrounds: Reverend’s Ridge and Aspen Meadow. Reverend’s Ridge offers 38 tent sites and 59 sites with electrical hook-ups. Facilities at Reverend’s Ridge include flush toilets, shower, ice machine, laundry facilities, and a dump station. Aspen Meadow offers 35 tent sites and vault toilets. As of January 1, 2019 both campgrounds will be Reservation Only. Golden Gate also offers 20 backcountry tent sites and four backcountry shelters. Our backcountry sites are available on a first-come, first-serve basis year-round. Please register for backcountry sites at the Visitor Center.
$18 - $90 / night
This recreation area is part of Chatfield Lake
Guanella Pass Campground is located about 7 miles south of Georgetown on the South Fork of Clear Creek on the Guanella Pass Scenic Byway. Located at an elevation of 10,900 feet on the Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest, visitors to the campground can also enjoy hiking and fishing in the area. The Guanella Pass Scenic and Historic Byway follows an old wagon route that linked the mining towns of Georgetown and Grant, Colorado.
Visitors can go trout fishing on the South Fork of Clear Creek. Silver Dollar Lake is nearby, but cannot be reached by car. Instead, the Silver Dollar Lake Trail leads hikers above treeline to the scenic lake.
The Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland sit along the foothills and Rockies of Colorado. The forests and grassland cover 1.5 million acres and extend north to the Wyoming border, south to Mount Evans and west across the Continental Divide. The area includes mountains, lakes and five scenic byways, designated by Congress for their scenery, wildlife or history, including the highest road in North America. Mount Evans Road, also known as Colorado Highway 5, allows visitors to drive from 10,500' to 14,130' above sea level in just 14 miles.
Visitors enjoy touring historic Georgetown, a former mining town of about 1,000 residents. Additional ghost towns dot the region.
For facility specific information, please call (530) 529-0578.
$23 / night
This recreation area is part of Bear Creek Lake
Camping is allowed at numbered designated campsites. No fee is charged. Practice Leave No Trace Principles.
Camping is limited to 14 days in one location. After 14 days, your camp must be moved at least three miles away.
Maximum stay is 28 days within a 60-day period. After 28 days, all property and people must leave the Roosevelt National Forest.
So close, yet feels so far away from the hustle and bustle of Estes Park. This very popular campground is located at an elevation of 8,300 feet at the end of a beautiful road just west of town. There are wonderful views of the snow covered peaks in Rocky Mountain National Park and access to the East Portal Reservoir which has ample opportunities for fishing. This double loop campground offers shady sites suitable for tenters and campers with small RVs and trailers shorter than 22 feet in length. It is especially well-suited for families and outdoor enthusiasts looking to explore nearby nature and trails in Rocky Mountain National Park. Sites at this campground open up to views of Rocky Mountain National Park and starry nighttime skies. A mature blend of ponderosa and lodgepole pines interspersed with groves of aspens makes it a wonderful home away from home. It is an ideal setting for guests seeking recreation and relaxation. The camping season runs from mid-May to late September.
The Estes Park Campground at East Portal has 66 sites suitable for tents and small trailers and RVs. There is a maximum length of 22 feet for RVs. All sites are equipped with picnic tables and campfire rings, some with ADA accessibility. Guests also have access to drinking water, flush toilets, hot showers, water & electric hookups, dump station, firewood and ice sales, and a playground for the kids. Cell phone service is spotty and there is no wi-fi, so please plan accordingly.
$35 - $50 / night
This recreation area is part of Cherry Creek Lake
Kenosha Pass Campground is a small, conveniently-located campground heralded by backpackers on the Colorado Trail and by those looking for a scenic, mountain family getaway. Across the road from the campground entrance is the Kenosha Pass Interpretive Area, with an accessible interpretive trail showcasing wetlands and remnants of the South Park and Pacific Railroad. Kenosha Pass, the campground's namesake, is one of the nation's highest mountain passes, weaving over the spine of the Front Range from Jefferson to Grant. The route provides one of the primary access points to South Park, and boasts tremendous views of Mount Evans and Mount Bierstadt.
Excellent hiking, biking and horseback riding are available on the lengthy Colorado Trail, a 471-mile trail that extends from Denver to Durango. For a scenic drive, take in the views of the Kenosha Mountain Pass, then head to Guanella Pass for even more picture-perfect scenery.
At a 10,000 foot elevation, the region is commonly referred to as the High Country. Campsites are situated among lodgepole pine and aspen trees. Summer temperature are generally mild and cool, but the high elevation may cause very chilly nights.
For facility specific information, please call (303) 647-2366.
Jefferson Lake, known for its great fishing, is 10 miles north.
Cancellations Individual Campsites: Cancellations up to 2 days before a reservation start date incur a $10.00 cancellation fee. A visitor who cancels a reservation the day before or on the day of arrival will pay a $10.00 service fee AND forfeit the first night's use fee including tax and applicable add-on for a campsite. Cancellations for a one-night reservation will forfeit the entire amount paid and will not be subject to an additional service fee. No-Shows A no-show visitor is one who does not arrive at a campground and does not cancel the reservation by check-out time on the day after the scheduled arrival date. Staff will hold a campsite until check-out time on the day following the arrival date. No-shows are assessed $20.00 service fee and forfeit the first night's rate, taxes and applicable add-on for a campsite. Refunds Visitors may submit a refund request through their Recreation.gov profile within 7 days of the end date of their reservation. Refunds will not be issued after the 7 days has ended. Refunds for debit or credit card payments will be issued as a credit to the original bank or credit card used to pay. For check or cash purchases, Recreation.gov will mail a Treasury check for refunds of cash, check, or money order payments to the address associated with the reservation. Treasury check refunds may take up to 6-8 weeks to arrive. In the event of an emergency closure, the Recreation.gov team or facility manager will refund all fees and will attempt to notify you using the contact information within the Recreation.gov visitor profile.
$25 / night
Legend
Very clean, very well maintained. Large spaces near the lake.
ScoutStayed the last night with a rental RV that we needed to return to Denver by 10;30 AM. Campground has an unusual lay out with "loops" being 3 rings of sites. Sites are spread out well. Lots of privacy, Within an hour's drive of the RV rental return location (with a Costco on the way to fill the gas tank). Some sites have elec/water/sewer at the sites. Some have just electrical - this was our site. A communal water/sewer was available with ability to handle two vehicles at the same time.
Scout
Sites weren’t marked like other places I’ve been but I expected it being dispersed. Had a wonderful time the sky was pretty it was secluded and lots of space for dogs to run!
Guide
Lots of room to spread out but some weird regulations. Like only 3.2% alcohol?
Scout
Love all the room in the big sites! Area can be busy but keep going down the road and you’re bound to find a spot! Great area with lots of spots!
Scout
We spent 10 days at the top of the mountain. There were a few people that came in for a night or so, but not even close enough to hear them or see lights. The views are breathtaking! I am from NY. Drove all the way here just too camp. Was not disappointed!!! Can not wait to come back.
Scout
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.
GuideI’m currently here and it’s pretty great. Nice campgrounds. Not close to anyone. Road up is 2wd. Keep heading up the small road to get to all the secluded camp grounds.
TravelerOur spot was in Aspen Meadows. The reservation confirmation gave us directions to Reverend's Ridge campground, which is wrong. It also said our site was on Aspen Loop, and there is no Aspen Loop - only Conifer Loop. It's a very poorly marked campground. It's also directly under a flight path. The toilets smelled like ammonia, horribly...but the campsite itself was clean.
GuideThis area is huge on Stillwater road so keep going for a spot! We are here in July and found a spot completely secluded and some of the large lots have vault toilets! Which is a real treat when you spent two weeks on dispersed areas all over the west with no bathrooms. Mosquitoes are a little heavy so bring spray. No wildlife spotted but this area did suffer a wild fire so a lot of the trees are burnt. A lot of the spots have fire pits made by rocks but bring wood! The first stops have more Mountain View’s and the farther you drive is next to the water!
Ranger
This is a really well run campground. They have tons and tons of activities on site and you could honestly spend your entire trip just at the campsite. They have horseback rides, ATV rentals, an animal farm, social events, pickle ball court, volleyball court, a nice general store, clean showers, bathrooms, laundry rooms, really everything you could ever want. The only downside is that it’s quite pricey, basically double what I would normally expect. But given the amount of amenities they have, it’s not surprising.
A cool fact is that you’ll be right next to the Colorado River. This is not far from where the river begins so its journey starts around here as a fairly unassuming creek.
ScoutReally easy to get to and the services were spot on. The views are also stunning and there is plenty of hiking to do.
GuideRoad leading to spots is dirt but not bad. Once you turn onto where the spots are the road does get Rocky. We stopped at the first site. Quiet. Off roaders showed up in the morning!
Guide
As usual this was a great place to camp. Site 1 is the most private but furthest from the bathrooms, Site 2/3 are closest together, Site 3 has the very best flat pad with the table, ring and still room for a 10x10 tent or shade tent area. Sites 1-4 have shade, sites 5-8 do not.
Hosts are friendly and helpful, bathrooms cleanish, stalls in good shape.
Trail #800 is pretty sketchy these days due to excessive water erosion. 3' deep and 8" wide troughs to walk along with so much overgrowth it's hard to navigate.
The trail heading North out of the parking lot is great, well maintained and also has hidden 7 dwarfs along the trail to try and find. We did it four times just to make sure we found all 7.
Guide
Family friendly campground at the end of a quiet road near RMNP. Quiet, no generators heard as big rigs won’t fit! Tents, vans, car camping and camper trailers fit well. Clean bathrooms, hot showers, friendly hosts, ice and fire wood for sale. Big playground and not crazy expensive.
Traveler
We drove up around 8/9pm from Boulder. Most camps spots were already taken (1-8 sites only..) but we made our own site / shared with campsite #2. Roads are rough. Some loud campers nearby but we had fun.
Beautiful views and campfire spots!
Guide
We have a 38ft travel trailer and we were able to go only about 3 miles up but found a great off the road spot by a creek.
Traveler
You definitely need to know where you’re going with this one, as the location on here isn’t really even close. The trail getting in/out is fairly rough and uneven, so you’ll need something with some sort of clearance. The sites themselves were pretty fantastic, clean, and accessible. There are more rewarding and harder to reach spots the farther you go, but plenty are easily available. You’ll find lots of fine folks walking, riding quads/bikes, etc. It’s not often you find a spot like this that isn’t crowded out.
GuideThe state park is enjoyable. The staff is realy nice and you have all the services that you need
Scout
Beautiful state park. Great for a day or two. Bathrooms were exceptionally clean and well maintained.
LegendOnline reservation was easy as was the check in. The staff were helpful and friendly. Some reviews balked at the price and the tight spaces. Expected in this sort of prime location. Live with it! That being said, we were there at the tail end of the season, with the other campgrounds around us literally closing. The result for us was that we had few neighbors. This made navigating the narrow roads and tight campsite much easier. All in all a very pleasant couple of days.
GuideThe group campsite was spacious. The site was also pretty clean. Bathrooms were coin operated so that wasn’t the best for a shower. Would preferred a way to obtain coins or a heads up on that one. The spot we had was far from the lake so it was a bit of a walk. I’d recommend finding a site closer to the lake so you can get to the water quicker when it’s super hot. We had canopies but the sun beat us down pretty bad during the high part of the day. Very pretty paddle boarding sites.
GuideI drove here December 16th on a sunny day. Take the exit onto Fall River Road from the highway, a short road. You are then soon connected with forest service road of sorts York gultch. This connects a lot of off grid housing to the highway. well maintained crushed dirt.
At the GPS coordinates there are 3-4 drive in campsites and then a road that might lead to more. Idk I hiked around 1 mile and didn’t see other spots, you might have do drive in a couple more mirles
I spent the night here while I partied in Idaho springs for a mini vacation
Ranger
This is a very nice, quiet and quaint camping spot! We loved the wooded areas. The flat parking pads and hook ups! There’s nothing extra special here to make it a 5 star. I’d absolutely visit again!!…. But it’s not a bucket list spot!
The coolest thing is we did see a moose!
Traveler
Spent 3 nights here for memorial Day weekend. Was able to get up there early enough to get a good spot, but the spots went quickly! Designated dispersed with great views. On the west side of the road they are close to the creek but not protected from wind, on the east side the sites have more protection from wind. Lots of wildlife sightings! The road early on isn't too bad but having a car with some clearance would be helpful, especially the farther up the road you go. Great trip
Scout
Amazing views, friendly staff & nice set up. Wish we could have stayed a little longer. But definitely helpful when passing through.
GuideAmazing backdrop, plenty of space, we took one of the first camp spots and it still wowed. Here's a video from our stay:
Horse camping in Colorado offers a unique opportunity to explore the stunning landscapes while enjoying the company of your equine friends. With a variety of campgrounds catering to horse enthusiasts, you can find the perfect spot to set up camp and hit the trails.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Empire, CO?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Empire, CO is Deer Creek Campground — Golden Gate Canyon with a 4.6-star rating from 48 reviews.
What is the best site to find equestrian camping near Empire, CO?
TheDyrt.com has all 33 equestrian camping locations near Empire, CO, with real photos and reviews from campers.
