Best Tent Camping near Gould, CO

This Rocky Mountain National Park campground is fantastic. I tent camped with my husband for 3 nights in Loop B. We saw tents and all sizes of campers many with families. Our tent site included a nice tent pad, picnic table, fire ring, and a shared bear box. The fire ban had been lifted and we could buy fire wood each evening-and ice cream! Clean bathrooms with flush toilets. This campground is very close to a number of trails. We hiked the Sprague Lake Trail. It’s 2 miles round trip and pretty easy. Breathtaking views. If you don’t hike, you can drive all the way to the Trail Ridge gift shop and cafe at the top. This park fills up quickly-amost 3 million visitors a year-so plan to get started early. We love RMNP. We will be back this fall!

We came here in early July to hike up South and North Arapahoe Peaks (and Diamond Lake for warm-up). The sites are nice right next to a creek, with very few mosquitos. Make sure to stay close to the designated areas (fwiw, Rangers monitor the site). No campfires were allowed and they are no fire rings, so I assume that the fire ban is typical rather than the exception. Bear-proof food storage is provided at each site.

We made it up the dirt road in our little Honda Fit but that was touch and go at times, and required some careful driving. 99% of the cars at the campground and trailhead were 4x4s. 

The location is great with plenty of trailheads right next to the campground. But that also means that site is very busy. The trailhead parking fills up as early as 5am. It wasn't much of an issue in terms of loudness, but it does mean that the only two restrooms are also used by hundreds of hikers each day …

There are no trash bins (i.e., pack out whatever trash you produce), there is no drinking water (except for the creek if you have filters), all sites are walk-in though parking is just a few meters away (one is ADA accessible with parking right next to the site). With Google Fi (Spring) we had no cell reception (we lost signal even prior to the start of the dirt road, so many miles before the campground). Sites are in the shade below trees, and there are picnic tables.

Overall, I'd visit this place again, just because of the convenient access to amazing trails and scrambles. Trails to Diamond Lake (10km out-and-back) and Arapahoe pass were quite busy, but not unpleasantly so. The trail up to the Arapahoe Peaks (13km out-and-back to South Peak) was *much* less busy though we still saw about 8-10ish groups throughout the day (took us 2:10h up to South Arapahoe Peak, about 30-40 minutes to traverse to North Arapahoe).

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

Status: Open year round 

Reserve mid spring through September 877-444-6777 or recreation.gov 

weekend reservations recommended 

70 sites including 10 walk-in tent 30 sites year round $24.00 tent sites $32.00 electric $64.00 double sites 

Vault toilets, water during season ,tent sites have bear boxes, picnic table, fire ring/grill, trash no sewer or water hookups The campground has beautiful Ponderosa Pines but the Pine beetle is beginning to take its toil. 

The back loop closes early fall. all sites have electric except the tent sites. There are 5 double sites. The campground can accept various size rigs. The day use area with a boat ramp and pit toilet with a nice size parking lot. There were a lot of people fishing from the shore. The lake is beautiful with small islands and rock formations. The road to and in the campground is gravel and rather dusty. Potholes 

Directions: Drive 21 miles north of Fort Collins on US Highway 287. Turn left (west) onto the Red Feather Lakes Road (County 74E) and travel approximately 22 miles. Turn right (north) and travel another mile to signed campground entrance on the right.

LNT

Better than when you found it 

Stay safe Happy travels

What an awesome site! Bear boxes and concrete picnic tables. There are only 5 campsites here and one is handicapped only. That and the next site, where I stayed, are right off the dirt road. There are 3 more sites past the barrier which are more secluded but require schlepping your stuff farther.

Fourth of July trailhead is busy and parking fills up fast in the morning. The hike is breathtaking in beauty; the wildflower covered mountain meadows are glorious! It’s possible to backpack in and stay in the rough. I met several groups who’d done just that. Buckingham campground, however, makes a great base camp if you prefer, like I do, car camping.

No fires allowed, of course, but a Ranger once told me as long as it has an off switch it’s okay. I brought my gas ring and was pleasant warm drinking tea and listening to a light rain hitting the awning as twilight turned to night.

The one consistent drawback was airplane noise every few minutes. There’s a flight path right above. While I saw plenty of people in the trail the campsite was secluded and quiet, especially at night. Dogs on leash are welcome and there’s a vault toilet 😀

We found State Forest State Park on a whim this past July 2018. We were on a road trip from California to Colorado for a wedding in Granby, CO. We were camping in Utah at Dinosaur National Monument, but due to the smoke from a nearby wildfire and the high heat of the summer, we decided to cut our stay one day short, and head over to the Rockies a day early. We wanted to be fairly close to our final destinations, Granby then RMNP, but wanted to go somewhere we hadn’t been before. My boyfriend and I are both animal lovers, and our dream was to finally see a moose on this trip out to Colorado. In researching moosey areas on the internet, we found the Moose Visitor Center at State Forest State Park. We figured that a place with a Moose Visitors Center was as moosey as it comes, so we reserved a site online and headed out to Colorado.

It was late afternoon when we arrived, but since we had already eaten, we didn’t have much to do besides set up our tent and sleeping pads for the night. Getting to the campground and visitors center is easy as they are both right off the highways 41 and 14, but it is quite a drive to get to, in general. The scenery is so pretty, that we did not mind the drive to or from SFSP. North Michigan Campground is right by a lake, it is pretty.

The sites are primitive - each site had picnic benches and a firepit, but at the time we visited there was a Stage 2 fire ban in place, so we couldn’t have a campfire. The fire ban included the burning of wood and charcoal - using a propane stove was OK.

There were pit toilets, and they were well maintained. The sites appeared to have once had more in the way of trees and shade, but it looks as though SFSP was hit by the pine beetles, like so much of Colorado. It’s sad to see the destruction the beetles left in their wake, and fewer trees mean less privacy and less shade for tent campers. We would have had a hard time setting up extra tarps in case it had rained that evening. Bringing an easy-up or canopy would be smart in the summer to protect against sun and heat, or a passing thunderstorm.

WARNING: You ARE in bear country and there were no bear bins in the campground - be bear safe and bear smart, lock all of your food and toiletries inside your car at night. I was once told by a ranger in Yosemite NP that bears can recognize coolers when peering into car windows, so we always put a towel and gear over our coolers when keeping them in the car overnight.

We packed up early and arrived at the Moose Visitors Center when they opened. The visitors center was educational and interesting, and the staff was friendly and knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. After studying some maps of the area with the rangers, we decided to try our luck driving along Highway 14 towards Fort Collins.

We stopped at various spots along the highway, and ended up walking around the Joe Wright Reservoir for a while. Thunderheads were rolling in, and some rain and thunder started, so we decided to start making our way back towards SFSP then head down to Granby, our next stop. We were around Cameron Pass and had given up on seeing any moose when we saw traffic slowing and cars stopped alongside the road - there were two young bull moose snacking by a small river on the side of the road! We pulled over, turned our hazard lights on, grabbed the camera, and jumped out to see our first moose. The moose seemed unconcerned by their growing audience, and continued to chomp away on their lunch - there was a small ravine between the moose and their human audience, so neither moose nor humans felt threatened.

According to the staff at the Moose Visitor Center, there are only about 1,000 moose in the entire state of Colorado - and here we stumbled across two moose at once! We were ecstatic, and so happy we made the impromptu, unplanned trip out to State Forest State Park! We returned to the Moose Visitors Center to share the experience with the rangers (they record the specifics of moose sightings in the area on a board), and the ranger gave us a high five for spotting our first ever moose.

I would like to return to the area someday to hike, I imagine the nearby trails must be goregous!

CAMPSITE SPECS

Fees: $18/night

Plumbed Toilets: NO - pit

Drinking Water: Yes

Showers: NO

Picnic Table: Yes

Firepit: Yes

Cooking Grates: Yes

Shade: Limited!

Cell Service: NO

Animal Bins/Food Lockers: NO

This campground is beautifully designed. The spaces are slightly spread out and staggered to offer more privacy than others in the area. Lots of trees and big rocks to add to the privacy. Very clean facility, with easy access to bathrooms, water and bear boxes. We were very pleased with the quality of the tent space and table. (Technically we tent camped at a site for an RV, but it still has a level tent spot). It was one of the best in the area we have camped at. Also walking distance to a shuttle that will take you to nearby touristy trailheads (like Bear Lake). Only disappointing thing is the full fire ban currently in effect- so no campfire.

Aspenglen is located just inside the Fall River Entrance Station.  Once you have entered the park it is the first left that takes you down to the Aspenglen campground.  There are a few more trees in this area, so you are more likely to find shade.  There are some sites that are specifically for tents and others that accommodate small to medium RV's.  There are no hookups for electricity or water and cellphone service is mostly non-existent.  The sites are spaced more widely apart than at Glacier Basin.  There are bear boxes to store your food, fire rings, and tables.  Three loops, and some walk-in sites compose the layout.  There was a host at the campground.  They did sell firewood near the check-in post.