Best Dispersed Camping near Gypsum, CO

Stunningly beautiful dispersed camping at its best. To find the most precious spot you need to get to Forest service Road 130 S as in South. There is a forest service ranger station on the south side of Leadville where you can get a motor vehicle use map MVUM. But even without a map the roads are marked. 130 starts near Highway 24 on the west side across from massive lakes, near a large bank of mailboxes. You'll see a sign asking you to respect the private property owners rights. Just keep going up the hill and you will find the forest service signage indicating the public lands. Many people don't go much further. But the truly spectacular sites are a couple miles further. The roads are narrow and steep but manageable. Keep going down 130 until you reach an intersection with 130A and 130 B, A goes north and B goes south. But keep going till you reach a T intersection. 160 goes north and 130 S goes south. Go left, south till you reach a slightly challenging switch back. Just on the other side of the switchback is a wide open space with room for many rigs including good size trailers. Very quiet with very little traffic of any kind. The Leadville 100 foot race goes right by every August.

Lake Constantine sits about 4 miles off of Tigiwon Rd outside of the town of Minturn. These camp spots are only accessible by hiking in. The lake can get fairly busy on weekends in the summer but the weekdays are usually quiet. We spent a night up there in early July and saw 1 other person on a Monday night. The hike to the lake was fairly easy, takes about 2 hours each way and climbs roughly 1300 ft. Upon leaving the parking lot you MUST fill out the overnight camping sheet and attach a tag to yourself. This is your permit for the night and it is free.

Spots are laid out along the edge of the lake on either side and are not numbered or marked. This is a first come, first served area. The spot we found was to the left side of the lake right off of the trail and had enough room for a couple tents. Coincidentally, this is the same spot where many of our friends have camped as well. I would say this is one of the better areas. There was a pre made rock fire ring that sat against a rock to reflect heat back (we went during Colorado's 2018 summer long fire ban), so we could not take advantage of this and had no fire this weekend.

The lake itself is very large and offers some amazing high alpine fishing. We caught many trout while fly fishing throughout the day and night.Dry flies worked very well at dusk. Because of the lake and the creek, the mosquitoes in this area are bad. BRING BUG SPRAY!

Remember, this area is only accessible by backpacking in and there are no camping amenities. Lake Constantine sits in US Forest Service land so you must obey all forest service rules and closures when in place. Overall, amazing spot. Great for a night getaway or for someones first backpacking trip.

Camground Review: Not a whole lot of campsites here, but each is a decent size. So for busy weekends I'd recommend booking in advance. There's a bathroom. No water so bring in your own, or filter from the running stream/lake surrounding camp. Campsites are large enough for a few tents and cars, and about half of the 8-or-so sites had enough bush cover between plots to have some privacy. It's also great to see pantries on each site with locks for food. Then, there's bear-proof waste bins near the camp entrance. The whole Aspen area recommends bear canisters over hanging packs, so those that didn't know this ahead of time (like me) we're not reprimanded. It's a great location for accessing Aspen and in our case, Maroon Bells in the fall color time (end September). I could see the waterfall on location (I know, awesome) also being great for the summertime for swimming. We had plenty of room for 4 tents, a nice size fire, and a game of frisbee. Access: There's a marked turn off from HWY 82 to take you to the campground. You'll descend about 500 ft off the hwy along a dirt road for a quarter mile. It has some built-in dirt speed bumps. Although not required (we saw a Prius down at the campsite) in not perfect terrain due to weather I could see anything less than a AWD vehicle being a risky choice.

Gear Review: This camp lantern definitely has a lot of car camping staying power. The same can be said for it's battery life (see what I did there?). I also love the option of making the light fully illuminated or unidirectional. There are wire arms that wrap around or fold out and extend below the lantern to add lift on a table or a lashing point to hang above.

Before I took this 1.1lb guy camping I wanted to make sure it's battery life was as advertised. In a couple full drains and power cycles, broadcasting at full power (turbo), I was getting better-than advertised life. The turbo run time for both sides lit was closer to 3 hrs (vs 2.5) and for one side lit was 6 hrs (vs. 5). I could recharge the device from flat in abotu 7 hours (as advertised). I have to give this 3.5 out of 5 stars though, because I couldn't even get the lantern to do one full charge of my phone for me before dying, when it claims it will provide about 2.5 phone charges from full power before giving out. That just makes for the realization that if I use the lantern at camp for about 30 minutes on full power, I'm only going to be able to get about a 50% charge to my phone. That time will vary for others I'm sure. I am very pleased to see a hand crank, because in an emergency situation this would be a great way to help out. I just think though that due this lantern's weight, you're better off not backpacking with it and so belongs in the car camp category. The likelihood of using the crank then goes down a lot, but it's good piece of mind for the other campers in your group I guess :-). Overall the lantern is solid. It took a bit of a beating over the weekend and it kept on shining. The light isn't hard on your eyes too when at full power, so if you wanted to walk around with it holding it from it's top handle, it wouldn't blind you. I also like the red emergency light button, which when depressed and held gives a battery life indication as well as creates a red strobe effect (althgough faint) from the top of the lantern. More info from Goal Zero: http://www.goalzero.com/p/180/lighthouse-250-lantern-usb-power-hub

Pulling 15' teardrop trailer with AWD SUV. Access road is up the groomed gravel road to McCullough Gulch Trailhead. Road has gate, but it is not closed at night. No parking along road. Campsites are clearly marked 1-6, but there may be others. 

Campsite 1: We stayed here. Campsite road is a rough rock road about 100m long. A 2WD car might manage it, but 4WD is better. A large RV or trailer might be able to just pull in to an area straight down road, but it would be facing the wrong direction and backing out would be challenging. The main camping area is a 90 degree turn to the right. Very nice wooded area that even 2 smaller trailers could camp in. Lots of nice places for tents. Might be a good group camping area. My photos only show part of the camping area. 

Campsite 2: Great pull-in for a 2WD/AWD car with a tent. Parking area on a hill, so not so good for a trailer or RV. Cleared tent area looked nice. 

Campsite 3: Long, very rough road with several places to camp along it. Almost impossible for an RV or trailer to turn around on. 

Campsite 4: Road looked to steep for my AWD SUV to attempt. 

Campsite 5: I can't remember the site, but I do know that this site was our second choice of the six we looked at. 

Campsite 6: Nice site, but I can't remember it much. 

Hiking the McCullough Gulch Trail. If you hike, this trail is a little challenging, but amazing. Beautiful waterfall and mountain lake are worth it. Leave car at campsite, since parking is not allowed at trailhead. Start walking toward trailhead, and the shuttle bus will pick you up along the road and take you back afterward.

Fires: Check Summit County website before lighting a fire.  When dry, fires are restricted and carry a hefty fine.

We stayed here last August on the way to the Aspen area. We had hoped to find dispersed camping near the entrance. However, these spaces were all taken up by long stay buses and vans. We opted for the Lakeview campsite instead. It‘a large campsite with multiple sections and loops located below the access road. The lakes are actually two large dam reservoirs. Our site was somewhat below par compared to other Colorado campsites. We had rainy weather and the lake was not visible during our stay. The camp host was a fellow Texan and assisted with the self checkin process. Most of the campers were either visiting Leadville or traveling over the Union Pass which is incredible and a somewhat scary drive even in the summer. This would not make my list of recommendations based on the overall condition and layout of the campsite and lack of activities.