Best Cabin Camping near Poncha Springs, CO

Best of both worlds! We had a great tent spot up on the hill with a great view of the valley behind. So it was a quiet tent spot to ourself, but 30 seconds down the hill foe access to the amazing restroom and showers! Also the laundry facilities were fantastic. The pool and hot tub were fantastic in the hot days. The staff was very nice!

Close to all the sites.

Looking at the website from the link on The Dyrt, there's no mention of RV sites, just Glamping cabins, etc. UPDATE: I'm headed to Canon City area so I'll check out this campground to verify.

The park is beautiful, covered in trees, almost all sites are shaded.  We have 103 RV Sites, 5 cabins and 6 tent sites.  Facilities include a clubhouse/office, pavillion, laundry facilities and a great bathroom/shower facility.  Located just 2 miles north of downtown Gunnison, just before the Gunnison River.

We also have the best internet in the area!!

Great location with full hookups for RVs. The description mentions back-in sites only, and while our electric hookup was conveniently on the same side, we had to run our water and sewage lines underneath the RV since those hookups were on the opposite side—this seems to be the case for all sites. The campground is perfectly situated at the intersection of the Gunnison, Taylor, and East Rivers, making it ideal for fly fishing. They offer cabins, RV sites, and long-term housing options. There's a small store with basic items, beer, and merchandise, plus a fly shop in the same building. There's also a restaurant, though it was closed during our stay, and coin-operated laundry facilities. Overall, a great stay!

In my opinion this place is kind of rundown and dumpy. Maybe it hasn’t been maintained bc of covid closures? Idk either way I wasn’t impressed. We had a tent site. The tent sites were small and along a cliff with the Arkansas below. Our “large” tent site barely fit our big cabin tent, with enough room to park our vehicle. Our tent was literally a foot away from the road you pull in on. We had 2 young kids with us and I would not call it very kid friendly. We were Constantly having to keep an eye on them. Either they fall off a cliff into the river or worry about them getting into the main 2 way camp road that huge rvs and trucks drive by on. It was very hard to “relax” while kids were trying to play. The sound of the river at night was nice that’s about it. The encounters I had with staff weren’t great. A bit rude and unhelpful. I feel the prices are high considering you can’t use any amenities advertised due to covid restrictions. There were a lot of “rules” they had I haven’t encountered in other campgrounds. There are much prettier/nicer campgrounds along the Arkansas River I would stay at.

I am not exactly sure why this area looked so much more dusty than other photos I had seen but when pulling into this campground I was a little shocked and underwhelmed.     I am used to KOA camps having some of the best amenities in the camping world but this one seemed a bit outdated.   While they did have some nice amenities, the campsites themselves seemed to have little to no shade and were more dust and gravel than anything.    

As a tent camper I have slept on some hard surfaces before and learned to pad my site accordingly for comfort, however there were a lot of large rocks in the area where tents would be located which were rather large.   With these present it is hard to imagine other tent campers having a positive experience here or having moved them for comfort.   Perhaps the best bet when staying here would be one of the unique cabins or RV options.   

Tent sites were very high considering they have no hook up connections.   After tax $40 this just was a bit over the top in my opinion.     The no frills style of camping in this area has a picnic table and nothing else to justify the price point. 

A positive to staying in the area was the proximity to many hiking trails and places to explore along the river.    I noticed that within a 5 minute drive I could easily be in several access points for recreation opportunities ranging from fishing to hiking.    The snowcapped mountain passes were only a short distance as was the ghost town of St Elmo.     This is a huge positive for the campsite.

One thing I really did enjoy about this site was the camp cook area which is accessible to everyone staying at the park.  In addition, there are a lot of small prairie dogs which make for a fun view throughout camp, especially near the road way.

On a negative note however, the bathrooms were outdated and in need of some TLC and the outdoor recreation space was in need of some soft space as opposed to the rocky landscape.

I want to say a bit about this campground. It’s the best we’ve stayed at in a long while. A new family just took over and this is their first summer. It has everything. Full hookups to tent camping. Full hookup sites are a bit tight but fine. It’s at over 8000 feet and the views are amazing. We can see snow. They have a nice camp store, WiFi that works, golf cart rental, a playground, kids games, a community area (even host occasional concerts) fishing, and a river running through. On site laundry and very clean bathhouse. It’s near a highway but we never found the road noise a problem. Didn’t even notice except an occasional truck using Jake brakes. It all but stopped at night.

Owners are super nice and helpful. And we even saw a moose. The stars are amazing here BTW.

The kids didn’t want to go anywhere they were happy just to hang out here at the campground.

Stayed here while thru hiking the colorado trail, what a wonderful time! Salida is a quick drive away and the trail is only a mile up the road. Staff was incredible and store well stocked. Taking covid seriously too! Thanks Monarch!

Riverside RV Park is on the outskirts of Salida, Colorado just off of US-50. The Arkansas River flows through the campground at a sedate flow. Our campsite (#8) was right next to and parallel to the river which provided some soothing sounds at night. It took a couple of tries to back our 20 foot travel trailer into the spot. The gravel site was level side to side but sloped slightly back to front. The bathrooms and showers are clean but a bit worn, and they are across the river bridge from the campsites and up some fairly steep steps. My wife is handicapped, so we had to drive around to the bathhouse. 

The campground is next door to a Sonic Drive-In and across the highway from a Wal-mart. It is within a half hour drive to rafting, horseback riding, hot springs, trailheads to the outback and high mountains.

We enjoyed our stay and would definitely return.

This campground is located on hillside just off of Hwy  50 approximately 6 miles west of Salida, Colorado. A beautiful location. We stayed here two nights in June, knowing this is a relatively new KOA that used to be a private campground. We would have left at the end of the first day except that we met friends there and wanted to continue our visit with them. Water pressure was almost non-existent (we had to use our own water pump in the RV) and Wi-Fi was almost non-existent during peak times.

This campground is definitely not up to the standards of a KOA. We have stayed in at least 16 0thers. I am aware there are other nice campgrounds in this area competitively priced.

Management at the campground have registered our complaint, but no ne on their team was present to do anything. Staff was new and expressed their regrets for our complaint.