Best Glamping near La Veta, CO

This campsite run by the National Forest Service is about two hours drive west of Trinidad Colorado and about 45 minutes from the small town of La Veta. The site is accessed off of scenic highway 12. You drive about 5 miles up a step dirt and gravel road with multiple switchback to reach near lake. This is the sister camp to blue lake campground about 1 mile down the mountain road. Bear lake is a beautiful mountain fishing lake at about 11,000 feet altitude. The site is very popular for families in the summer looking for great camping and even better fishing. The lake is full of trout and many campers were hitting their 4 fish limit. The site has better views of the mountain peaks than blue lake. The campsites have some privacy depending on the site. This place is very popular and reservations are a must in the summer months. Each site has a picnic table, fire ring, and ample parking for two cars or a van. They have great trails for hiking and ATVs here and campers frequently run into bears. So you need to prepare and take the necessary precautions. The site is also popular for ATVs. So would will need to prepare for vehicles running through the camp.

I stayed in this campground in mid July for 3 nights.  The campground is pretty rustic but clean. It does have electrical hook ups which made it nice for our dog to enjoy a air conditioned trailer when it got hot during the day. The sites are a little close together and positioned so it you have a trailer where your awning comes out is in direct view of the other campers. Also we brought our kayaks to enjoy the Lake. The only kicker is you are not allowed to park where the ramp is to walk your kayaks down to the lake unless you rent them from them. So you have to use the many flights of stairs that wind back n forth all the way down to the lake. They are lined with rail road ties sometimes stacked 5 high.   So you have to lift your kayaks above the ties as you walk down. If you have a heavy kayak is almost dangerous of injury.  I feel like if they have a ramp you can walk them to if you pay for the campground you should be allowed to park your vehicle there to do so.

This was a delightful experience for us. There are sites for every type of camper: tent, trailer, RV, glamping and cabins. This is a somewhat small but well maintained private campground with lots of simple amenities. All is the wooded back-in sites have full hook-ups (30A) and there are pull-thru sites (Ithink they are still 30A). The center wooded area is perfect for tents. A small dog park gave our girls the chance to run free for a little. There is a shower house with bathrooms that are well maintained. Trash is kept tidy and didn’t smell even on the 97 degree day. Very easy to access but no road noise (at least not at our site).

We have a 26’ trailer and stayed in site 18. It was near the end of the row and relatively quiet. We only wish we had a longer power cable. (Our next purchase!) Our port is at the back and the outlet was way up front. To reach, we had to set up near the front of the site which limited our parking. Just pointing that out for others who might be ill prepared too.

We were too far away to take advantage of WiFi which is fine, we just wandered up near the office to check our texts once daily. It might be more accessible if you are located closer to the office. No cell service for Verizon. Personally, I was happy to be unplugged for a couple of days!

Although we had a fire ban in effect, we were able to rent a propane fire pit from the office. Be super cautious and check fire restrictions for Custer County. (http://oem.custercountygov.com/firecon.htm)

Aspen Acres has a lot more staff than I expected and they patrolled frequently. Very helpful and friendly.

5 minutes from Bishops Castle and 10 minutes from Lake Isabel ($7 day use fee). Easy drive up from I-25 but fairly steep in spots if that is problematic.

We will stay again!