Best Equestrian Camping near Grand Lake, CO

Winding River Resort is a hidden gem. There are plenty of campsites and a few cabins. All spaces are well laid out with plenty of space between each spot. The facilities are clean and provide everything you need for a great stay.

Be sure to book a horseback ride and get to the cowboy pancake breakfast on the weekends. (Pro tip: Bring a couple eggs for the cooks to throw on the griddle while cooking your pancakes!). If you enjoy trout fishing, be sure to explore the North Fork of the Colorado River that flows through the southend of the property. If you have a disc golfer in the group, bring the discs to play a round or three on the 9-hole course throughout the campground.

Moose have a tendency to wander through the campground toward the evening and the local elk herds like to eat with the horses. There are bear in the area, so take the proper precautions with your food and cooler storage.

Winding River is close enough to Grand Lake to get out and explore for the day and you have easy access to nearly all amenities between Grand Lake and Fraser, in case you forgot something. The cabins look great, but we have not stayed in them during our visits.

This was a nice place. People were all super friendly. Pricey, but it’s private owned. Nice hiking trails super close to the campground. You can ride your dirt bikes, atvs from the campground into Rocky Mountain National Park. The town of Grand Lake was nice, typical mountain town. Breath taking views. Adams fall trail is near the town, recommend hiking. It’s pretty easy and not super long, but very cool! We saw our first and only moose while camping up there. It was super cool! They also have horse rides available for purchase and I believe dirt bikes/atvs

Winding River is an awesome campground as a Base camp for the West entrance to RMNP as well as centrally located for visits to Grand Lake and Grandby CO-both of which are cute small towns centered around large reservoirs.  The campground itself is on beautiful property and off the highway-aka-no road noise.  There are two sections of the campground-the "bottom" portion and the "top area".  As a personal preference we preferred the 'bottom area' with our Travel Trailer.  This area has more spaced out spots with a bit more privacy but only W/E hookups.  The top area is great, just a little closer spots, and no trees aka not much privacy but full hookups.  

Make sure to do  a visit to Shadow Mountain Lake and Grand Lake Main street-very cute area.

I’ve tent camped at Winding River Resort twice and both times really enjoyed it. It’s a little more expensive that some, but has lots of amenities that make it totally worth it. If you love real bathrooms and showers, this is your place! There’s a wonderful petting zoo area, playground, basketball courts and much more. They offer all sorts of activities such as horseback riding, ice cream social, chuckwagon breakfast, square dancing, cowboy church. Some do have an additional fee. You may bring your own horses here too! There a several lodging options including camping, full RV hookups and cabins. The location near Grand Lake and Rocky Mountain National Park can’t be beaten! So much to do in the area. There’s a separately owned, but very convenient onsite place where you can rent ATVs, bikes and snowmobiles. There’s even a small store onsite with necessities, T-shirts, souvenirs, etc. The campsites are large and trees and wildflowers abound.

We pitched a tent here for 3 nights. Excellent, very large facility next to RMNP. The tent sites are large and spaced out nicely to provide some privacy. Loved the shower and bathroom facilities, large, clean, and modern with plenty of hot water in the morning. The general store was very handy and staff very friendly. Was a great base for going out and exploring the greater area and less than 10 minutes from the restaurants and stores of Grand Lake. Unfortunately, the area is going to be recovering from last year's fires for quite some time. But will be interesting to see how things recover over time. The only knock, if you want to call it one, is the bathrooms are a little ways away from camp sites, so if you need to go in the middle of the night, it's a bit of a walk. But would highly recommend this resort and hope to be back in the future.

This was our second site. The first one we apparently misunderstood and weren't supposed to be camping there. Moving was the best thing we could have done. The views from our site are absolutely breathtaking. It's quiet, and wildlife comes through our camp often. Moose, deer, fox, and some sort of cat have been seen. There are no hookups for anything. You are literally on your own out here. Our site is right by a small creek, so we just use that water after boiling it, of course. There are two towns within 10-15 minutes, Granby and Grand Lake. Granby had a Dollar General, which is amazing for stuff that you may have forgotten. They're decently priced, like most Dollar Generals. There is a thrift store in Granby that we were able to get a few blankets from. Very good prices there. Grand Lake, we went to the Mountain Market for all of our gluten-free needs. They have a great selection and decently priced as well. Gas prices are a tad high, but you have to consider where you're at. If you're a Marijuana user, buy that stuff elsewhere. One sativa cartridge in Granby is $60. It's way cheaper in the surrounding major cities like Denver.

This is a beautiful campground with lots of family-friendly activities to do.  They have direct access to the headwaters of the Colorado River.  We visited a little late in the season (August) to catch many fish, but we still had fun.  We found some tailwaters below the big lakes and caught some trout on the fly rods.  

This site is minutes away from an entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.  We got up early and hiked a trail in RMNP and had a few moose walk right past us.  It is also close by to the major lakes of the area.  

They rent ATVs and lots of people bring their own horses to this campground to enjoy the many back-country trails that begin at the back of the property and go high up into the mountains.  

Facilities were well kept and clean.