Best Glamping near Oak Creek, CO

The Piney Lake area of Vail is by far the most scenic spot anyone can drive to. The ranch at the lake is ever growing and offers a restaurant, canoe rentals, SUP, fly fishing lessons as well as cabin and yurts to rent for the night. If you are looking to spend your night closer to nature the campground is just located about a mile away from the lake.

This may get confusing as there are camp spots along the road that are forest service controlled and have fire rings and right next to that you will find many spots that are in the National Forest but are primitive. The "Camp Spots" that have fire rings are located on the final stretch to the lake. There are maybe 6 or 8 of them. Really the only difference in these spots compared to the primitive ones right next door are the fire rings and the fact that they are fenced in with a small wooden fence.

The upside to grabbing one of these spots is all of summer 2018 in the valley we were in a stage 1 fire ban, meaning you could only have a fire in a permanent fire ring, leaving these few spots the only legal camping in the area. The spots themselves are fairly large, we have put 4 cars and 5+ tents comfortably in one of them. There are no toilets or anywhere to get water unless you drive to the ranch (the ranch is privately owned and closes and opens at a certain time, the lake is public and can be accessed anytime) There is also no fee which is always a plus.

This is by far our favorite campground in the Colorado State Park system. It’s great for families because you of the swim beach and marina. The views are spectacular. Don’t miss the homemade fudge.

This is one of our favorite campgrounds in Colorado. We make a habit of visiting the week after Labor Day. The crowds are gone and the campground is peaceful. Amenities as small boat rentals remain open. The local deer migrate into the campground. A site on lake’s edge is usually available. Fall’s morning fog greet you in the morning. Outstanding mountain and lake views suttound your campsite.

Colorado does a great job with their parks and this is no exception. Stayed here spur of the moment booking two nights prior to the stay. It’s a large facility and when we booked, for a midweek stay, there were 11 sites available, one with power. We had a large site with great views of the mountains and if we stood on our tippy toes we could see the lake.

We’ll be back aiming to snag one of the sites with lakeside views.

This became a favorite car camping spot of mine while living in Vail, Colorado. The lake is situated in White River National Forest and is accessible only for a few months during the summer via Red Sandstone Road. I have seen 2wd sedans drive up this road, however I would definitely recommend something with high clearance and 4wd if possible as the roads up there are not well maintained. There are plenty of first come, first serve USFS campsites near the lake, additionally there are quite a few service roads off of Red Sandstone Road that provide access to miles of additional dispersed campsites. It is hard to find a spot to camp without a breathtaking view of the Gore Range from Piney. In addition to camping, there are hiking trails near the lake and the privately owned Piney River Ranch offers horseback riding, boat rentals, fishing, a restaurant, and other lodging options. This area is also known for the moose that frequent the area, be sure to keep your distance if you are lucky enough to spot one! If you are interested in camping at Piney in the early summer or fall, you may first want to call the Minturn Ranger’s Station at 970-827-5715 to check on the closure status of Red Sandstone Road.

We stayed in these spots entirely due to the fact that bear lake was still frozen and the road up there was impassable. They were not the worst spots but they are nothing special. There is a vault toilet further down the road but we were nowhere near that. Our spot was off the road, away from anyone else and backed right up to the forest. Some of the other spots available are much more exposed and you will be on top of your neighbors. To reserve on of these spots you must stop at the Forest Service sign towards the beginning of the road to grab a reservation slip, then find a spot and drive back to drop it off.

If you head to this area on a crowded weekend, these are OK, if you have the choice, camp further up past the reservoir, there are a few other campgrounds: Bear Lake & Cold Springs.

This area offers multiple lakes and creeks for great fishing as well as some amazing hikes like The Devils Causeway (not for people afraid of heights)

Beautiful!! Please make sure you are leaving no trace! There are a lot of people around this area, please do your part to keep the land as natural as possible. The poop fairy does NOT live here- pack it out!

However what I found was designated site only camping mostly on the side of the road and they were not free. $10/night

Rudest management and worst customer service I've ever experienced. Would give 0 stars but that's not an option. In January we booked a cabin for our family for 5 nights at the end of July. We were then contacted this week(2 months later) saying they've decided to do a construction project and can no longer offer the cabin we booked. They asked if they could move me to a tent site since they had no other cabins available. I advised we don't have a tent, that's why we booked a cabin. They then told me that they had a cabin but it was only available for 2 of the 5 nights we had booked and asked if I wanted that. The other"great" option was they could just cancel all together(with full refund, as if that was them doing me a favor) and we could find somewhere else. Well, at this point I've lost 2 months and the majority of places are fully booked due to a large baseball tournament happening this same week. So, I agreed to take the 2 night so that I could at least have something while I looked for another place. I was then informed that the cabin they were moving us to was$100 more per night and they could not adjust the price(even though this was completely their doing). When I asked to speak with a manager I then had the great pleasure of speaking with General Manager Bob Junker. Bob began to get very rude when I asked if there was anything they could do due to the incredible inconvenience they caused us. He acted as if this was a bigger inconvenience to him than us and initially threatened to cancel even the 2 nights in the more expensive cabin they moved us to. He proceeded to tell me that they can get full price for the"premium cabin" they were moving me to and had no reason to give it to me for our original cabin's price. At this point in the conversation I asked to speak with his boss to which he said"No" and stated he can make whatever decisions he wants and ended the conversation. You'd think that would be the end but the story gets better! After attempting to contact the owners of the campground to lodge a complaint I received a call the next day from good ole Bob saying they were just going to cancel my reservation all together and hung up. I guess my call to the owning companies office made its way back to him‍ Thanks Bob for the incredibly horrendous customer service! Really well done! I hope you're proud of yourself for ruining our trip and making that extra couple hundred bucks! Here's to hoping you're not actually the owner and they eventually decide to get rid of you for causing their sales to decline by losing customers.

We stayed at the Steamboat KOA for 2-1/2 weeks on a business trip and greatly appreciated the solid Wi-Fi. The setting is idyllic with mature trees and the beautiful Yampa River running through it. The first half of our stay we were in the original Campground with a center, gravel, pull thru, #71. Then, moved to #31 a back-in site against the fence and away from the road. Although it was smaller, we personally liked #31 better. It had more privacy then the larger open center one. The park opened a new section for Memorial Weekend doubling the size. The new area added 27 paved RV lots as well as 10 deluxe cabins and 14 improved tent sites. They had a large friendly staff, working nonstop who took care of everything!! Every arrival received a person golf cart escort to their site. The general store is well stocked, there’s movie nights and a playground for the kiddos. All the facilities were clean and well maintained. By the end of our stay we felt like family thanks to Lance, Ruth and Beth.

It’s a large park convenient to steamboat springs. WiFi is good restrooms are clean. Sites in the new section are paved and level. There are only bathrooms in the new section, no showers, so there is a significant walk to get a shower.

From the moment we came the staff were very friendly. The kids enjoyed the playground and I enjoyed the mini golf. Water and power worked well, cable tv seemed to have issues but I may have had a bad cable. There's enough room between sites on the river side.

Loved the location and views. Loved how close it was to coming up back way to park city resorts and avoiding all the traffic and resort riff raff in the mornings

Awesome camp site, great staff, beautiful right on the river, fresh water. Showers are located in center of KOA so be ready to walk or drive over. Very dog friendly and well maintained tent sites!

We've stayed at the Steamboat Springs KOA multiple times over the past couple years for many reasons. It's close enough to downtown Steamboat, right on the Yampa, and has plenty of things to do for the whole family. There is a small pool, updated miniature golf course, trike rentals and the Yampa running through the campground.

I love the ability to ride into town to the mountain bike trails on Emerald Mountain. On your way back from the amazing singletrack, be sure to stop at Taco Cabo to grab to-go grub and head down the road to Storm Peak Brewing for a cold barley pop with your amazing takeout.

Some of the RV spots are close to each other, but the park is quiet overall. Across the bridge over the Yampa River, there are plenty of tent spots. The facilities are clean and there are plenty of showers to keep all campers clean.