Best Tent Camping near Rifle, CO

One of my favorite tent camping spots, most sites are private and right along the creek. The park also provides bins to carry supplies to the tent sites which makes it much easier since you can’t park at your site.

Rifle Falls is a very small, year-round campground (13 electric sites and 7 walk-in tent sites) but it is very popular for day use. In fact, we waited until after 6 pm on the day we arrived to walk the 1.5-mile path to see the waterfalls and caves because it was so crowded on a Sunday afternoon that it required a ranger to direct traffic. We took an additional walk there on Monday morning and it was quiet until around 11 am, when the crowds started to pick up again. 

There are two vault toilets and they were not very clean, likely due to so many non-campers using them. Seven of the RV electric sites are back-in (1-3 and 10-13) and the remainder are pull-through. Not a lot of physical separation between the sites but the sites are large enough and spaced far enough apart. The tent sites are spaced a very decent amount apart with lots of trees between them and carts are provided to bring your stuff to your site. 

In addition to your camping fees, an annual or day-use pass is required to enter the park (applies to all Colorado state parks). 

The main draws to this park are the waterfalls and caves and both were definitely worth a stay in this park to see them.

A small but beautiful campground with awesome waterfalls, caves, and hiking.  There are 13 RV/tent sites and 7 walk-in tent sites.  The campground gets crowded during the weekends with hikers and fishermen so parking can be an issue.  The bathhouse has pit toilets only and no sinks.  There are dumpsters and a potable water point.  Great place to get away and unwind for the weekend.

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.

I was a little worried after we booked this campground, but it wasn't horrible. It's super close to the hot springs, downtown area and gondola for the adventure park shopping etc. There is noise from the freeway, but it didn't bother us and I liked the view of the Colorado River. The roads leading in are a little rough. My family of 6 needs were met and that's all that mattered to us. Also having a extra clean shower on hand was really helpful. We had a great experience. I do wish our site (10)had more shade. For 62 bucks a night we definitely come back. The location was close to everything. Also only 30 minutes from Rifle state park.

We had amazing weather and the most amazing view. The only thing that would have beat the view would have been to have a site directly on the water, but having the lakeside view made for a beautiful backdrop. The only negative was that there was no awning in our camp site. Note: if you camp in site 23 lakeside loop - you may want to select another location with an awning. Our camper has an awning and we always travel with our 10X10 tent, it came in handy this weekend!

There is absolutely zero cell phone coverage at Rifle Gap or Harvey Gap (only 4 miles from Rifle Gap), and if you are there, you can understand why you would want to unplug from the world. 

The weather was perfect and the sun was out almost the entire time. It was high 80's for the first week of June. If you are a boater and don't mind the reservoir being busy, there's plenty of room to have some fun. The fishing looked to be pretty good from what we saw being brought back in.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ashley here from The Dyrt! We’re excited to have this new partner online. All RV sites have a fire ring and a picnic table. In addition to RV sites and tiny homes they also have 6 tent sites. Check them out and post some pictures here!

Stayed in Mechau loop in a tent. Sites were nicely separated for privacy. Hosts Don and John were super friendly and had great recommendations for activities nearby! Pit toilets were probably the cleanest I’ve ever used at a campground. Towns of Carbondale, redstone, and marble are fun to explore (get the pizza in redstone). Cool off in the river just a short walk from camp!

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.