Looking for the best campgrounds near Hot Sulphur Springs, CO? Camping, hiking, biking: however you want to spend your days near Hot Sulphur Springs, you'll find great campgrounds with The Dyrt. Find the best campgrounds near Hot Sulphur Springs, plus reviews and photos from other campers like you.
"there are a number if dispersed campsites on this road. they’re all lovely and pretty spaced out but if you’ve got a rowdy bunch in the spot next to yours you’ll definitely hear them. but the views here"
"We found a great camping spot close to a hiking/biking trail. The flowers are absolutely gorgeous and the Columbine flower is scattered amount the wildflowers."
"Leave no trace."
"No more rocks blocking paths. Many people camping/ fishing down here. I’m bike camping and met other bike tourers on route here. The trans America trail goes through route 40 here."
"So the Gordon Gulch dispersed camping area has around 15 numbered sites that are ok... but if you keep driving further down 233.1 you will find many more unnumbered campsites."
"Prior campers have left some trash, bullet casings and obviously neglected to dig cat holes. After a quick clean up, the site was fine for my purposes."
"Our spot was near the creek, the sound was beautiful. The only downside was absolutely no cell service."
"Fire ban was in effect when we went, but lots of fire circles available otherwise. Bring bug spray, the flies are bold."
"Good for tent camping and very small trailers. Accessible via a maintained dirt road, but the road in the campground is a little rough. A few hundred yards from multiple trailheads."
"Its a short walk to lower cataract lake with a good loop.
The next morning we hiked the upper loop with Eaglesmere lakes, Tipperary lake, and Surprise lake."
"I first camped in Colorado last year with a friend and we chose this dispersed due to it being close to travel too- yet still dispersed. I’ve come back 4 other times to camp here!"
"Was mostly quiet and there’s a nice little trail around the lake. Plenty of spots for tent camping too."
"Went up for a day to try out my new Roof Top Tent. Took a while to find a spot as it was Saturday afternoon but after driving up and up and up I found a beautiful private spot."
"There were plenty of spots available, despite getting there around 2:00 on a Saturday, and the creek next to the site was a nice touch."
"Pull off areas right next to the dirt road mainly. Not a ton of trash which is awesome!!"
"Since I travel in SUV converted into mini camper - I parked next to a river ( love the sound of flowing water) Toward the end of the road there are multiple fireplaces and tent areas which got occupied"
"Plenty of shade and waterfalls for a truly serene experience. Permits required after June 15th"
ScoutI biked in from Hot Sulphur Springs. Online it advertises First Come First Serve sites. I did not see any of these. Ended up befriending a couple who let me set up my tent on the back end of their site for the night. The mosquitos were outrageous. From talking to the locals in Steamboat Springs the next day it sounds like this season is unusually rainy, so the mosquito issue could just be weather/ time of the year dependent.
TL; DR Bring bug spray
TravelerThis 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!
LegendWe stayed at the Gore Creek Campground last summer 2017 on a drive from Southern California to Denver, CO. We took highway 15 through Nevada and Utah, and connected to Highway 70 in Utah to Colorado. To budget this trip, we tried to camp most of the way out and back to California - we saved our Airbnb rentals for Denver, where I️ was competing in Pole Theatre USA, an international pole dancing competition. We wanted to find a spot to camp for the night that was close to highway 70 and not toooooo far outside of Denver - Gore Creek Campground was the spot. It’s about 10-15 minutes outside of Vail, and about and hour and a half outside of Denver.
Campsites at Gore Creek are reservable ahead of time on recreation.org - we planned this trip about 6 months in advanced so had no problem reserving a site for one night on a weeknight. This campground is fairly small, however, with fewer than 30 sites, so I️ imagine it fills up quickly during the peak summer months. There are mostly drive-in sites in this campground, but there were some neat walk-in sites in a loop beyond the drive-in sites.
Gore Creek is a beautiful wooded campground that sits next to Gore Creek. There are a few ‘riverside sites’ in the campground, that were 60 yards or so from the creek. We had our pick of the sites that many months in advanced, so we chose site 9 as it appeared to be well secluded and close to the river - both were true! The area is densely wooded, so the sites have a lot of privacy, and the sound of the river is relaxing and peaceful at night, and drowned out most of the noise pollution from the nearby highway.
Each site has a fire ring and picnic table. The camp hosts were extremely kind and welcoming, and kept the grounds and the vault toilets very clean. There is NO WATER available at Gore Creek, so make sure to bring in plenty of water for cooking, washing, and drinking.
WARNING: You ARE in bear country - be bear smart and safe and use your bear box! We had our own bear box in our campsite - I believe each site has its own food locker. Try to lock all of your food and toiletries inside the food locker - they are large, and we have always been able to fit our big cooler into locker. If you do have to leave a cooler in the car, I was once told by a ranger in Yosemite NP that bears can recognize coolers when peering into car windows - he suggested putting put a towel and gear over your coolers when keeping them in the car overnight in bear territory.
There is a lot of beautiful hiking trails in the Vail - Gore Creek area. We did not have much time to explore as I️ had an appointment in Denver in the afternoon, but the area is absolutely gorgeous.
CAMPSITE SPECS
Fees: $25/night
Plumbed Toilets: NO - vault
Water: NO
Showers: NO
Picnic Table: Yes
Firepit: Yes
Cooking Grate: Yes
Shade: Yes
Cell Service: Yes
Trash: Yes
Animal Bins/Food Lockers: YES
GuideWe 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).
LegendSites: 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
GuideI love this place. The campground is full every weekend between Memorial Day and Labor Day due to reservations made at recreation.gov up to 6 months and more than 48 hours in advance, and being so close to metro Denver.
The campground has 16 sites; 4 Walk-In, 1 host and 11 are reservable. Check in after 2:00 and check out by 1:00. If someone has a reservation, like a hotel, their site is held until 1:00 the next day because of the Forest Service rule that the campsite must be occupied the first night and they could have had delays.
The campground is at 9600’ and the last mile of the dirt road is a bit rough, but I have seen low profile cars and 42’ Class A motor home with a towed vehicle. Well water normally supplies the campground to faucets, but has not been productive the entire 2019 season and there are vault toilets. Each site has its own bear box and fire ring. The creek is less than 100 meters from the campground and fishing this year was poor... water level was low. Lots of great hiking and climbing in the area. About a 40 degree difference between day and night. During the fire ban, dispersed camping is limited to just a few areas so the campground is a great place to stay and you might still be able to have a fire in the fire ring. Privately owned cabins can be seen as you walk through the woods. Hell’s Hole Trail is a few hundred yards from the campground. I’m looking forward to going back there as host next year.
LegendThis campground is in the middle of Rocky Mountain NP. Our site was in loop D. The sites are a little packed but give you enough space to spread out. Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring with a shared bear box. The tent pads are level as d have plenty of shade. The bath rooms have no showers and are a little dated but adequate for a national park. It is centrally locates to bear lake and Estes Park. We will be back.
ScoutMy husband went to this campsite with a group of Scouts and took me and our 1 year old a few weeks later. I had never been backpacking up until this point because I was always intimidated by the experience. This was an excellent "beginner" foray into backpacking!
This semi-primitive campsite requires a permit from the Open Space Office of Jefferson County, CO. The permit is free, however you must pick up the permit in person at their offices. Be prepared with a valid ID. This is a popular campsite for Scout Troops, so calling ahead for availability is a great idea.
There is an exact address available on the website and at the Open Space Office that you can put into your GPS and drive straight to the parking lot of the trailhead.
My husband and I came in through the West Trailhead. It is a 1 mile, easy hike. The first 1/3 of a mile is dirt, the remainder is gravel. It is fairly hilly, but easy enough that we actually opted to push our Jogging Stroller with our kid the entire way (which is very doable) whilst wearing our backpacking gear.
The campsites are well maintained and quite spread out from one another. So although there was a group of scouts, a group of friends, and a bigger youth group who all hiked in, it did not feel crowded or noisy.
We brought our dog, as pets are allowed on a leash. We set up our tent on the graveled pad at each site and boiled up some soup on the provided picnic tables. The website as of 2018 will tell you that fires are permitted in the designated fire rings, however a permanent fire ban has recently been put into place (which is too bad!) and all the fire rings and wood piles have been removed from the area - so really, NO FIRES ALLOWED. The pit toilets are very accessible and clean. It is technically Bear Country, so bear boxes and trash cans are provided for the overall campground.
My favorite thing about our particular campsite (site 15) was the view. At night you can see all the city lights of sprawling Denver, but then have a perfect view of the sunrise in the morning. Witnessing the sunrise from this spot will always be one of my favorite memories. Seriously so amazing!
We hiked out the next morning, simple as that, but realized we had misplaced our car keys...after 2.5 hours of searching and walking back and forth between the campsite and our car, we found our keys in the bottom of our tent. So really, if I could offer one piece of advice, always know where your keys are! Despite this incident, the location was great and the experience worthwhile! And I feel like it gave me a good taste of what to expect when backpacking in the future, which is exactly what I was looking for.
GuideQuiet campground- especially early in the season.
$22/night; Firewood bundles on-site for $9.
Each site has a picnic table and a bear box for food storage.
Bathrooms were clean. Sites are smaller and very close together. Little privacy if visiting during a busier time.
Sites 7, 9, and 11 have trails that connect back to Chicago creek just a short distance away. Hiking trails are close by to nearby forests land. No cell service.
Tent camping near Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado, offers a fantastic opportunity to immerse yourself in nature while enjoying the stunning mountain scenery. With a variety of options available, campers can find the perfect spot to set up their tents and explore the great outdoors.
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