Best Tent Camping near Palisade, CO

Plenty of areas for tent camping. But as for fifth wheels it’s not good.

We were in a Lakeview walk-in site. This is the first walk-in site I have encountered that provided wheelbarrows. It's by far the easiest walk-in site I have camped in. There's a gravel path of about an 1/8th of a mile back to the campsites. They're relatively secluded by vegetation and hills from other campers. You can hear your neighbors occasionally, but the privacy level is fairly good. On top of the wheelbarrows, the picnic tables are covered by an awning. Overall, the walk-in sites are excellent for tent camping. I don't recommend trying to reserve an RV hookup site for tent camping because these are open sites with a lot of asphalt.

Headed East and used this campground as a stop over. Tent sites at $22 were booked wound up with electric at $36. A bit pricey but hopefully the showers will make up for it.

Wonderful, well kept camp grounds! Plenty of space so you don't feel like you're camping with strangers. Clean bathrooms with showers, full hook-up sites along with tent sites. Multiple camp grounds to choose from.

Nice campground, except some noise from highway. The tent sites are not free unless it is off season you may be able to get away with it. I stealth camped here in a parking spot and paid for a day pass.

Absolutely gorgeous spot. Grabbed a FCFS spot with an amazing view, particularly of the sunrise. No fires, which was sad for my 7 year old, but the stars were out and the weather was perfect. Only drawback was the rocky ground which made tent camping uncomfortable no matter how much air I got in my sleeping pad.

We got site 51. Apparently sometimes I can't read and it was a walk in tent site, we have a lot of stuff, luckily they had wheelbarrows you could use. The site has a clear view over a pond and to the left you can see Colorado National Monument. The sites are so well maintained, the camp hosts were at the sites next to us within 10 minutes to rake the areas. No trash anywhere. Heated bathrooms. Trash cans available. Will gladly reserve here again!

Very nice and well maintained facilities, beautiful scenery and peaceful camping. ADA accessible, and all different sites offered. The reservation process is relatively difficult online, walk-in sites are truly walk in. You have to park and carry your stuff in around 25-50 yards. There are wheelbarrows sitting there that we think are for moving stuff, so that was a nice touch. Toilets are closed in the colder seasons, except for the larger shower houses. Most tent sites are gravel covered. The map is a little vague, the roads pictures on the map are the driving roads. It was 28/night for the walk-in tent sites, which is a little outside of our budget but we decided to swing it because we wanted to shower. Turned out that the showers cost extra, so bring cash. That was a little frustrating to find out, since we felt we had already paid for the facilities.

Large designated area for dispersed camping.  Ground is lumpy, I wouldn't want to tent camp.  Several existing fire rings.  Solid Verizon service.  Lots of pit toilets in the area.  Nearby roads can become extremely difficult to travel after a light rain due to slick peanut butter mud.  I wouldn't come here just to camp, this is more a spot for people looking to do activities in the vicinity.

Pioneer Campground was a great place to camp. We used a walk-in tent site. The trail for the sites was clear, clean, and the sites were the same. Bathroom was clean and did not smell at all, water from the spigot was clean and cool. Most sites were nicely shaded to provide privacy, but the one we stayed in had a beautiful view of the lake. The tent platforms were raised which was helpful. Bug spray is necessary as mosquitos are pretty rampant in June-July.

Not wilderness camping by any means, but a fun stop for a road trip for sure! Big B’s has a full restaurant (the chili cheese fries were amazing), lots of cider varieties on tap and to go. Live music some nights.

You can tent camp amidst the apple trees (literally in the rows nestled under the trees), park your rig in a grassy field with picnic tables and fire pits, or even stay in a cabin. Shower house with flush toilets near the shop. The store sells firewood.

We had fun!

We liked the setting and the campground was nice and clean. However sites were very close together and the tent sites were on top of each other. We were asked to move our site for a new camper at like 9 am even though check out was around 12. Other than that we liked the campground there is a nice playground a wonderful fishing pond and a swimming hole. There are showers however they are $1 for 4 minutes so bring your change.

Driving for a few miles along a fairly compact but slightly washed out dirt road will drop you off right at a vista above the CO river. 2WD is probably fine but low clearance vehicles will likely struggle on the occasional deep rut. There are many, many sites, both along the river and further inland. Each site has a groomed, level tent site, picnic table, and fire pit. Dry toilets nearby are well maintained. Surprised we had the entire campground to ourselves.

This place had great reviews but I’m not quite sure why? Just an big open RV lot with hook ups and a picnic table. No trees or shade in the RV lot. Maybe the tent camping by the river is nicer? Yes there is a winery and an orchard boardering the property and test the rocky outcrops nearby are beautiful- but overall I felt that $72 for a night of hookups in a parking lot was a bit of a rip off.

I will say they had a very well organized self registration board for late night arrivals without reservations and there is Cornhole!

We visited this campground because it was close to home. We had a birthday party there and camped the night. The tent sites we were in were walk in and it seemed good. The site was nice and had a fire pit and what not. Plenty of space for our tent. But as the night went on, we realized that there was a sewer treatment plant near by, the highway was too close and the light from the town was abundant. I woke up several times thinking morning had come only to find it was light pollution. I remember thinking it was eternal dawn with all the light. The smell was too much and the noise just made it that much more unenjoyable. We won't be returning.

We stayed in this area for several nights on our way to/from Moab. It’s beautiful and open BUT there isn’t camping where this GPS pin is FYI. See the Jouflas campground for specifics of where we camped. As you enter the Rabbit Valley area there is a self registration station and board with rules etc. on the right. Road to the left leads to RV/Tent camping. Road straight ahead leads to Jouflas campground and then on to Knowles Overlook Campground. Roads were a bit rough but very drivable with most any car. Kokopelli road needs 4WD/High clearance and does not have camping. There are lots of signs indicating camping in designated sites only. Area is very clean and quiet. Lovely area to stay in.

My bf and I recently stayed at a tent site here, we arrived right at sunset and the view driving in was amazing. The bathrooms were close by and seemed well maintained. There are plenty of trails close by, so waking up early for a cool morning hike was simple and a great way to start the day. There were plenty of outlook points that allow you to overlook Grand Junction. After our hike in the morning we were able to take a short drive North East to Little Book Cliffs where we enjoyed a nice long hike to see some wild mustangs.

Overall, this site is well maintained, with plenty of activities in the area for everyone to have some fun.

Campground Review: I've stayed at Island Acres a few times, three times in the last months. All three times have been different. I wanted to do a secondary review for this particular trip. We arrived mid day on a Friday and there were plenty tent sites remaining. There are only six in the whole campground that are tent only sites. We originally were assigned to number 38, which is a more desirable site, we were excited. It is shaded and back in a corner along the river. But when we arrived to our site, there was a park ranger that asked us to change to site 36 because he had a sprinkler project he wanted to finish. While we had the right to say no, we disappointedly took site 36, which has little to no shade. It has two small trees that provide minimal shade during the heat of the day. This particular weekend hit high 90's. He also informed us at the move that they forgot to give us our card back when we registered.

So we went about our trip and set up camp late in the day and there were still no other tents there. This weekend, however, was a much busier weekend then most of the others we have stayed. Therefor, more people and more chaos. One site came in and set up around 1:30 am, with air mattresses and lights shining. The site on the other side of us left around 1:30 am. So again, a lot of light shining in our tents. Beyond that, there were also people that set up outside of standard sites, which I've never seen before. They were parked in the grass and in no parking zones, which a ranger came and corrected, early in the morning on Saturday. The swimming pond was refreshing for 5-10 minutes this time of year but then you wanted to come out for a half hour or so to warm up again. We purchased a shade tent, which came in handy at the beach and our site. That evening, the crowd returned and there was a lot of really bright lights again. People coming and going super late and camping in non-designated sites. People camping in their cars with huge tarps over them in the parking lot.

We also could hear a lot of highway traffic, which we hadn't noticed in previous visits. It is a very busy highway so traffic was heard all night long. The tent sites are on the farthest side of the campground from the highway so if the noise is loud for us, it is likely loud throughout the campground.

Product Review: As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time - today I am testing The Campfire Cutting Set from Primus. The campfire cutting set is so lightweight and compact. It's easily packed along for any trip. It's made out of a nice oak that is appealing to look at and extremely functional. The knife cuts like butter. The video is cutting a raw potato and it does it with ease. Cleanup was a breeze as well. So, out of the box, it contains a chef knife (extremely sharp!) and an oak cutting board, all wrapped up in a nice prep mat that is great for packing your campfire cutting set. We loved the convenience and practicality of this set!