Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests

The Gunnison KOA is in a beautiful setting with large trees that is about 75 yards from the river. The spaces are generously sized, although the camping sites could use power outlets. They are very kid and pet friendly; and have a dog park. There is a friendly donkey who roams the grounds, so make sure your 4 legged friends are okay around bigger animals. The bathrooms are clean and functional. The same could not be said for the dishwashing station that is outdoors. It is in horrible condition, including a dripping faucet. Also, be aware that you are very close to the river and there is a mosquito and moisture problem. Even with these minor problems, this is still a great place to stay.

This campground is on NPS land, so there is a fee ($16 in season+ water/$8 off season no water) that can be paid at the nearby ranger's station on the honor system. All 13 sites are in a single loop at the end of the road on the North Rim and are all first come first served. Pinyon and juniper offer shade and some visual privacy, however sites are all close so there is little audible privacy. Pets are OK if leashed. There are nice sized BearSaver boxes at each site, plus a fire ring and large picnic table. Vault toilets and potable water are both in the center of the camping loop, where you can also find other tables and lots of shade. Chasm trail begins near the end of the loop and there are great views of the canyon a short distance from all sites. Beware: drought year, so lots of yellow jackets - they swarm vehicles in search of water! Also, water is a limited resource brought in by truck to this canyon, don't be wasteful :)

We did a hike in camp site. We crossed the river and hiked up. They have little wheel barrels that you can take your stuff up with. The site was spacious. Plenty big for having some fun. They don't allow anything on the trees, no hammocks, no hanging trash bags, no pets tied to trees, nothing. They do provide a solid bear cabinet to keep food in. The views are astounding! We ended up biking what we thought was a bike trail, turned out it was not so we tackled stairs on our bikes but the views were well worth it. There was a playground and several fishing ponds in addition to the river. There was a bear when we were there. It crossed the river but we didn't see it we were told by the ranger. Definitely use the bear cabinet. Interestingly, the ranger told us (which we weren't very bear savvy) that even the clothes you cook in should go in the bear cabinet. Don't take any of that in to your tent. They can smell it and may greet you during the night. Great place to be.

Campground Review

This campground is tucked back a little ways. We had to go through a cattle gate, it's not always closed but this trip it was. Rule of thumb, leave it how you found it, but there are two campgrounds back there so it's ok to open the gate and go through. The road is narrow and a bit bumpy, at times a higher clearance vehicle is nice but I think I've seen cars back there too. The campground is right on the river, there is a boat ramp, however the water has always been pretty low when we've been to this area. This is our first time in this campground, we've stayed farther down the way before. Once you get there, there are plenty of campsites. We have never seen more then 2 campers there (us and one other this trip) but there are a good 12 or so campsites. Maybe more. They have fire pits, most have grills. Plenty of space. A couple were a little tighter but I've never seen it full so you usually have pick of the sites. They aren't numbered but if you head down the first turn to the right and make the loop, we stayed right after the loop on the other side. It was a huge site, had a small trail that went down to the river where my kids and dogs played. They found frogs and snakes and enjoyed cooling off. While there are poisonous snakes possibly around, this was a small rat snake. Looked to be some good fishing spots, a couple eddies and big rocks that fish could be hanging out behind, but we didn't have poles along.

The mosquitos can be quite bad. During the super heat of the day they were there but not overwhelming, but by the time it started to cool slightly, they came out in full force! In fact, they are the reason for the dropped star and for our early turn in for the night.

There is currently a stage one fire restriction, it still allows campfires in established rings and for the grill usage. Just make sure your fire is fully out before you leave it.

There is plenty of shade to be had and hammock use would be possible. You just have to battle the mosquitos. Which leads in to my product review…

Product Review

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time - today I am testing Green Goo's Bug Be Gone. I am always skeptical of "natural" bug sprays, very few of them work. I was pleasantly surprised that this stuff worked. My husband had nothing on and I had the green goo on and the mosquitos eventually drove him to spray while they did not land on me. Also, being all natural it is safe for people as well as pets. So we sprayed down both our dogs. Our younger, slightly more apprehensive dog wasn't too sure about the sound or the smell but our older dog didn't have a problem with it. It seemed to keep the bugs at bay for the dogs and they weren't itching as the night went on. Definitely would recommend this product.

AVOID THE BOULDERS IN THE ROAD, will scratch car, do a diagonal dance up the path and you’ll be fine.

I drive up in a sedan and almost made all the way to the lake. Ended up parking half a milf from the lake and hiked the rest of the way. Good think I have a backpack and just couple luxury items.

The campsites were way too close together. I don’t know why ??? It’s not necessary. Everyone came out and just hung out at the lake anyways . I would have ratheres a more private site where I can play music and let me cat roam more

The lake was beautiful and the sunset hits it so hard it glows. Also that crazy mountain village that collapsed and is now rubble is trippy unique

We just got home from a 3 night stay. The resort was clean and Linda was very nice in checking us in. Friday night however I assume it was Allen that was very rude, disrespectful and unprofessional. We were sitting by the fire pit with friends. After having to find the firewood and build the fire ourselves. (The owners are supposed to do it nightly). Our friends had their dog leashed and laying under their chair. Apparently dogs aren't ok in the fire pit area. You can see from the attached photo this is not clear at all. Either way we were the only ones there and the dog was not hurting anything. Suddenly this man comes in, brings a sign with him that says no dogs on the grass, holds it up in front of us and loudly says "Can't you read?!". We promptly apologized for the misunderstanding and our friend took the dog to the camper. I can only assume this was Allen because he did not introduce himself or tell us who he was in any way. Just rudely insulted us and then proceeded to tell us he wanted us to leave right now. Well it was late, dark and we paid for our space and had no intention of leaving. The next night the fire pit had plywood covering it saying it was closed. So we could not enjoy a fire on our last night there. If this was Allen, he was rude, unprofessional and insulting. Nobody deserves to be treated that way, much less paying customers who were doing nothing wrong other than possibly misunderstanding the misleading signage. We will not be back and would not recommend! As a business owner myself I know how to treat customers and this isn't it!

Ccampground is small, but hot spring are awesome. Hotsprings are included in price. Dogs aloud at campground but not in the pool area.

Our family camped at Black Canyon last July and LOVED IT. I wish we would have stayed more than just a few days. We had deer around our campsite (we had to have our dog on a leash because at that time of year the deer have babies and get fiesty. The deer at our campsite didn’t mind our dog and just seemed curious.) The views on our hikes were breathtaking and we even saw a little bear! There are hikes for all ages, many as you drive around the top are short walks to the edge to look at the views. I also recommend going to the visitors center while you are there.

Pretty campground with grass at the sites, a river a short walk away (there's a good portion of the campground with riverside sites, but limited for larger rigs). We were up by the highway, so the traffic was loud and the neighbors were fairly close. Not too terrible, and nothing a fan couldn't drown out at night. Could not park our tow vehicle at our site, but got a spot nearby across the road. We had some long term neighbors that let their dogs poop around our hookups, so the day we left was a nightmare. But that's not the campground's fault. They just need to enforce dog cleanup a little more maybe.

Great campground very close to downtown telluride but has lots of trees so you don’t know it’s there. Clean bathrooms, clean grounds and large sites. Very dog friendly.

absolutely stunning views. large dispersed free spots with fire pits. dog friendly. max stay 14nights. rv accessible for most spots. gets buggy at night, bring deet! spots are limited

Nice campground with minimal tree cover, clean bathrooms with running water. Dump station and access to the lake by foot or by boat. One electric loop that is generally fairly full, the rest are non-electric and sparsely populated.

We stayed 10 days here, 7 in electric sites, 3 in non-electric sites. The views are incredible. A lot of wind as you're sort of in a valley between mountains and everything pushes through.

The main issue here is this place has a serious rodent issue. There are, with no exaggeration, thousands of chipmunks and field mice in this area moving in and around campsites. Even when completely closed up and self-contained, they tend to crawl into the underbelly of the vehicles/RVs or slip into tents. They'll crawl in and around tents. If you have dogs (and thus dog food), or near by someone who does, that also seems to be an issue.

In 10 days there we had two chipmunks and a mouse get into our RV, and heard several other tent campers and RV campers complain about the same problem. Clearly a lot of these guys are being fed or just picking up scraps as none of them have any fear of dogs or humans.

Would rate this campground higher if not for the serious rodent problem. 5/5 for access, scenery, power accessibility, clean bathrooms. 1/5 for serious rodent issue.