Best Tent Camping near Peyton, CO

This campground is set a couple miles down road 550 after all the free recreation area campsites.

The sites are pretty close together but there are well maintained pit toilets as well as a dumpster on site for trash. The surrounding area is filled with hiking and biking trails, including the Colorado Trail. 

The campground is over 7k feet of elevation and a lot of trails intersect so make sure you keep track of where you are and what trail you are hiking on for the day. Not many are loops on their own. 

There are a couple pit toilets places throughout the campground. Clean fire rings and picnic tables at all the sites. 

Keep your eyes out for ticks and mosquitos. We found a couple of ticks on the dogs after they ran through the tall grass and the creek. 

Across the road is a creek that is great for water hangouts and light fishing. We were here in May and the weather was about 70 during the day and 35-40 at night with plenty of shade and wind protection. It has sites for RV’s, tent, or van stay.

We stayed at this campground in order to help out with the Xterra Race that was taking place the next day. We reserved two walk in sites (30 and 34) and it was easy to find them. The walk in sites are between 20-40 feet form the parking lot and on a slight (and rocky) hill. There was plenty of privacy by way of shrubs so it felt secluded even though the sites are right next to each other. 

You can only set up tents on the tent pads in the sites so that was a little challenging being that we needed to sleep 10 and could only fit 1 tent per site. But we were able to make it work. Also, the ground is very compact, so stakes were hard to get into the ground and we had to tie off our guy-lines to the bushes to keep them in place during the night.  

Keep in mind that you are on a military base area so you will hear TAPS periodically throughout the day and night. Campground is open year-round 

It has:

51 Full Hook-Up sites 

10 Basic Tent sites 

Coin operated showers and laundry (Seasonal; These amenities are for active campers only.)

Overall the sites were great. Bear food lockers and water at each site. The firepits were large and well ventilated. The bathrooms were super clean and accommodating. Lots of trails and ranger led events happening to keep you (and your kids and dogs) entertained.

CAMPGROUND REVIEW: COLORADO CAMPGROUND PIKE NATIONAL FOREST

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/colorado-campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70684

Colorado Campground is one of several campgrounds less than 10 miles north of the city of Woodland Park off Route 67 in the Pike National Forest.

Situated at 7800 feet elevation, even summer nights get cool. Nearby 5 acre Manitou Lake is a trail walk away. You can toss your canoe or kayak in, but unless you are simply trout fishing, it’s tiny size doesn’t offer much variation.

Numerous foot trails lead into the National Forest, offering wonderfully quiet hikes and exploration.

There are 81 sites available, but some are adjacent to highway 67, so periodic road noise will be heard. The ponderosa pines assist in muffling highway noise.

Neighboring sites are visible across the entire campground, but they are situated in such a way that you are not directly on top of each other.

The back loop sites are larger and set deeper (Site 19, 20,21, 22, 23) which are my choice. Sites can be secured on www.recreation.gov. There are double sites which garner double fees. At the time of this review, sites are $23.00 nightly (a bit pricey for no showers or modern facilities). When there during the week, not including the host and groundskeeper, only four sites were filled. Most sites were reserved for weekends and upcoming Labor Day holiday.

No RV/Campers over 36 ft permitted. Parking pads are gravel, a few are pull-through. Sites are non-electric with no hookups…no showers Water spigots, metal trash containers and pit latrines are spaced out through the campground. Each site has one stationary picnic table and a fire pit. Most sites appeared fairly level. No specific tent pad locations.

With the towering ponderosa pines, there is ample shade.

Plenty of trails permit mountain biking as well as the paved centennial bike path that runs along highway 67 from Woodland Park 15 miles north…that you can walk, in-line, cycle and even ebike.

You have plenty of local activities to keep you busy, including the Red Rocks a couple miles south…or drive east on Rt 24 to Pikes Peak, or further into Manitou Springs for the Incline, Red Rock Canyon Open Space, Garden of the gods and more!

Just six miles south into Woodland Park offers every food or shopping option.

All in all, a nice, clean campground in a great location.

The campground is well maintained and well managed, with a friendly and efficient campground host. 

The campground is meant for campers (mostly tents, but can accommodate RVs). RVs are not supposed to run generators. 

Site 9 looked to be phenomenal. Our site, 8, was unfortunately too close to a family of four that felt no need to observe quiet hours. In addition, there is a road that runs behind sites on that side of the campground and traffic noise was very loud. 

The pit toilets were well-maintained and clean. There are dumpsters for trash and at this time, potable water. 

Some sites have very little level ground. Even our tent pad was uneven.

We love this campground! We are a family with school aged kids and dogs. We tent camp so there are only a few sites with a good flat spot. No water is a bit of a hassle but manageable. Garbage dumpster is nice but there are bears in the area so be bear aware. The biggest downfall were the biting black flies from the full vault toilet. Final note,.the campground hosts were LOUD: their generator kicked on at 4am every night and they had at least 10 dogs that barked constantly. They were our only neighbor mid-week and they never checked in with us. They swapped out with another host the day we left and the new people were at least friendly. Plenty of shade, plenty of hammock trees, and peaceful mid-week nights. Bring your bug screen and be prepared for rainstorms.

We stayed here because it was close to shelf rd rock climbing areas. Very basic, almost primitive campsites. There are 16 Individual campsites that are $7/night and accommodate 8-10 people. group campsites are $14/night and accommodate up to 20 people. All sites are first-come, first-served. The campsites include picnic tables, fire rings and tent pads. Fire ban is currently in effect.

There is an exhilarating drive on on lane dirt road through the canyons just past the campsite. so amazing, but be careful! one wrong move could send you and your car over the cliff!

climbers trail to "the gallery" climbing area starts bw sites 9 and 10