Best Dog-Friendly Camping near La Veta, CO

Beautiful place in Southern Colorado.     It is a busy (small), very pretty campground Southern CO (not all spots are shaded).     Great Hosts with clean vault toilets.     Lots of hiking trails and the lake (which is very pretty).

No phone reception (YEAH)... and a bit off beaten path.   Close to La Veta and Cuchara.

Definitely a go back Campground.

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.

Clean camp, nice amenities. Dog park is a little small, but is nice to have a place for dogs. Pool was very nice. Was disappointed in our tent site as it was all gravel with brush behind us. Pics online showed nice grassy tent sites with big trees. We had dogs with us, and it sucked to only have gravel for them to sit/lie on at our site. Otherwise, friendly place!

There’s 2 KOA’s in Pueblo, so heads up. I drove past this one thinking I was staying at the one on the north end of town. We stayed one night and it has a cool little playground for the kids, a little dog park for your dogs and full hookups, which is nice. The people at check-in are great, and they have someone drive out to your site with you, which is very nice. The sites are right on top of each other, so if you have a neighbor you can’t open your awning, and you’re close to the highway.

Would give five stars, but right on the main road through the San Luis Valley so it's a little loud, and bright at night. That said, it's still peaceful, and the people are nice. Has shower and laundry for guests, and full hookups for RVs. It's $30 per night or $199 a week, we stayed two days, and would stay again. They allow pets, but have a strict "no pit bulls" dog policy. So unless your "pit bull" is a service dog, they can't stay. Unfortunately dog breeds and temperaments are still misunderstood, but that aside, good people, and nice little place to stay.

We should have arrived and checked in by 3:30pm. But had a lack of gas issue. Passed up $5.90 stop. Has the range to go the 19 mile to next station for $4.78. But did not figure in the Frigging HEAD WIND, Went from 11 mpg to 3 and 4 mpg. Was 1.5 miles short. OnStar dispatch with in 5 minutes of our stop. 2.5 hr later back on Road. During down time call Cool Sunshine RV park to tell them we were still coming. Said sorry for our delay but gave us our spot no# C15, gate code to open gate. Had our welcome packet taped to office door with all others info about park. They said they were going to run my card for rest of our stay. Green Grass between and around park. Flat gravel roads and deep camp sites there are pull through down center of park. No pool. But two horse shoes puts, corn holes boards, some game called GA-GA pit. Like Dodge ball, but all in circle. Small finced dog park. Nice gate coded bathroom and showers. And Laundry room!

This was our last night camping in Colorado and it was beautiful!

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!

I just really enjoy the layout of this campground, the nice big bear boxes, and the park ranger who has a cat in his truck sometimes when he cruises around.

We stayed here for two weeks and every day there were new breathtaking views all around. You feel as if you are walking the top of the world when exploring the area, the entire San Luis Valley gives this feeling. The lake is beautiful and has a beautiful view of the Great Sand Dunes National Park to the north and Mt. Blanca to the east. Camping is by permit, so stop anywhere you can get a Colorado hunting or fishing license and get a State wildlife area permit, they're $43 per person, but if you're age 18-64 you're required to have an SWA permit to camp in Colorado State wildlife areas. The permit is good from April 1st through March 31st of each year, and yes they are yearly permits, so try to get them in April. The campground has electric hookups, but no water. So pack in your water, vault toilets on loops B and C, RV dump station, and dumpster at exit of campground areas. You can stay 14 days every 45 days. Zapata falls nearby is a MUST visit and there is a pay to camp campground there. Cell service is spotty for Verizon, not sure about other carriers.

Loved everything about this remote spot! The sites were super clean and easy to access. There wasn’t much traffic. You’re down the road from the dunes and about 30 minutes outside Alamosa and other stores. I used the dump station at the sand dunes canoe ground. It was only $8 to fill up water and dump. My cats absolutely loved the area! It was a giant play box for them. Starlink works great. I use Xfinity for phone service and it works ok. Will definitely be back mid Summer. I have a 20ft camper and people were easily driving 5th wheels around here.

Its as small Campground outside Colorado City. There electric hook ups at your site; however the water is across the path and you need to port it to your rig. There is a laundry room and dump station. Not sure if the dump is included as the sign says $10 if your staying here or $15 if your a guest. Most of the other campers here look like they are parked long term, some of them had large dogs on run chains, but over all it was super quiet. I would stay here again if I was in the area.

My relatives live in nearby Trinidad, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs. This site is convenient to all three. We wanted to stay at the state park in Trinidad and in the summer, we definitely would do that. But it’s December and it’s cold and this park has full hookups unlike the state park (electric only). And we are staying for a week. We picked a spot near the building with bathrooms but on arrival we were told that building was closed so we ended up being at one of the furthest spots from the office (which also has bathrooms and showers). Their website says that they “are open and fully functional” and we would have chosen a spot closer to the office building if the closed bathrooms were indicated. I told the check in lady this at check in and she didn’t have anything to say, didn’t offer us a closer spot, and the website still doesn’t mention the closed facilities five days later.

The site 6E has a sewer hookup that is fairly far from the electric and we needed our 20 foot sewer hose to reach it. It’s on a slight uphill slant so some creative engineering was required to dump. The water was frozen at our site because the provided heat tape wasn’t functioning. I had to re-tape it with some heat tape I brought and it thawed out and has worked fine all the other nights. The neighboring site (empty) was not frozen. Bad luck. The only dumpster is near the office and it’s a long walk and was very full one day.

That aside, the park is good for our needs. The office bathrooms have a code and are clean with hot showers and very few people using them. That’s one of the best parts of this park. I’ve included a couple photos for your reference. WiFi works fine. Can’t get the cable to work but that’s probably me. There’s also a nice playground and some interesting looking cabins in various styles. Since it’s December, it has snowed and it is beautiful. The sites aren’t very busy in December so we’ve had quiet neighbors. Some people look to be full time but the sites are clean and uncluttered. The park feels safe and while it isn’t very close to any shopping except a couple of gas stations, and is surrounded by fields on this side and the highway in front, the isolation keeps it quiet and pleasant compared to some other parks we saw in neighboring cities. Very dog friendly and most dog owners keep their dogs on leash and the off leash ones were supervised well. Easy access to Trinidad (check out Purgatoire River Trading Co for some cool shopping, also the town has great artwork), Pueblo (about 30 minutes away), and Colorado Springs.

Loved the quiet spaces sites and the dogs are to die for! Do yourself a favor and wake up early to watch the sunrise!!

A lot of RVs like to peep on tent campers and make snide comments. They ruin tent camping for everyone with their dog nose up your butt.

It’s bear season here so you have to keep your eyes peeled. Large dog walking area, excellent service and there hasn’t been a theft here in 22 plus years!